What is the difference between tithes and offerings?

In Deuteronomy 12 everything is arranged so as to strengthen and to realize the practical unity of the people. God knew the richness of the inheritance that He wanted to give to His people. And He expected and desired that His people with thankful heart should return some of this wealth to the Giver. That is why there are named here so many free-will offerings. Only the tithes and the offering of the first fruits were obligatory sacrifices. God wants everything that is consecrated to Him through voluntary, thankful and obedient hearts to be brought to that place where He Himself is. He wants, so to speak, to receive it personally from their hands and collectively enjoy it with them. A part of the sacrifices was to be His "food" (or "bread" as it can also be translated) (Leviticus 3: 11 and 16) and the remainder was for His people, with their sons, and daughters, man-servants and maid-servants and the Levites, as they gathered with a glad heart before His face (Deut 12: 7, 12, 18). Was a more wonderful service thinkable, for an earthly people, than that presented to us here? Yet it was only for hearts in which abided the love of God and therefore valued communion with Him. The elder son in Luke 15 attached no value to happiness in communion with his father. He wanted to be gay with his friends without the presence of his father. That was practically idolatry. What a contrast to Isaiah 26: 8 where it is said that "the desire of our soul is to Thy name, and to the remembrance of Thee" and to Deuteronomy 18:6 where a Levite is spoken of who shall "come with all the desire of his mind unto the place with the LORD shall choose."

The tithe was one tenth. A little arithmetic will provide a short lesson in spiritual economics. Suppose an assembly with 20 married couples with an average yearly wage of $35,000 or about $675 per week. Something like $1,350 in the collection would result each week if tithing were the rule nowadays.[1] It is not, but as under grace we have received much more than those under law ever did we ought to be far more generous in our giving.

Does the Lord’s work in the area where you presently are suffer from poor support? Would there not be much more that could be done if more support was forthcoming? Further note that the tithe was only the ordinary thing. On top of it were the offerings, sacrifices, the first and the best!

There was a pitiful contrast in Malachi's day. The remnant returned from Babylon, to whom God had shown much favour, became so cold and indifferent in their religious exercises that even the prescribed tithes and offerings were not brought in (Mal. 3:8-10). Voluntary offerings — the "extras" which manifest the love of the heart, were absolutely non-existent.

Those best able to judge in the matter calculate that the godly Israelite would thus give one third or more of his total produce for the year, as a matter of course as his ordinary duty, before he even began to give for voluntary offerings, free-will offerings, thanksgiving offerings, vows, etc. etc. Nevertheless, there were occasions, such as at the building of the tabernacle, and the provision for the temple, when the people offered most abundantly, with a willing heart, free-will offerings to the Lord. (Ex. 36:5; 1 Chron. 29:14, 17.)

The principle they lay down shows how far they are even from the perception of living christianity. For they distinguish as Jews from voluntary offerings the tithes as due to God in right to dispose of as He thinks good. Now the gospel overturns all this through the surpassing grace of Christ and His fully revealed truth. For we are bought with a price, not our possessions only but ourselves, and are called to glorify God with our body, not merely with tithe and a freewill offering to boot. The Christian slave even is Christ's freedman; the Christian master is His bondman. Christ is all and as He elevates the lowest into liberty of the truest and most enduring kind, so he makes the highest that know Him to be His willing slaves. And as to what self would call its possessions, the Lord has ruled (Luke 16) that we are but stewards now in what men view as ours. We do well to follow what was commended in the Unjust Steward. If faithful now in what is Another's, He will in the day of glory give us what He is pleased to call our own, even the true riches which have no wings and where is no thief. Hence the wisdom from above is to make to ourselves friends out of the mammon of unrighteousness, that, when it shall fail, we may be received into the everlasting tabernacles.

The priests had all the offerings and sacrifices of which man might partake; the Levites had the tithes from all Israel: the one fed from within, the other from without; but both received from Jehovah, for He was their inheritance. Otherwise they were miserable: what else had they?

There were distinct provisions made for the sustenance of the Priests and the Levites: they who served in the holy place were sustained with what belonged to it; they who served outside had natural sustenance ministered unto them. The priests fed on that which was offered in sacrifice (Num. 18:9); the Levites fed on the tithes of all the fulness of the land.

The Levites did not share in the offerings, but God provided for them in His requiring tithes (one tenth of income) from all Israel. This was a fair return for the work they were given. It was their work alone: others of the children of Israel were not to come near to take any part in the service God had given the Levites, no more than they were to infringe on the service of the priests (v.22). In their measure the Levites also were to "bear their iniquity," that is, to take the responsibility for the iniquity of the children of Israel as identified with the priests, who of course alone could offer the sacrifices for that iniquity (v.23).

Now it is commonly thought that because of the mention of tithes, therefore the Israelite had to give a tenth only; but this is a mistake, he had to give far more. Every step of his pathway as a farmer and agriculturist (which is what most Israelites were), had to be marked by giving.

The following may give some idea of what they had to give, though it does not pretend to be a complete list by any means: — (1) A tithe or tenth, both of grain and fruit, was the Lord's (Lev. 27:30), i.e. it was to be given to the Levites, who again gave to the priests. (Num. 18:21, etc.) The tenth of the herd was also to be similarly given. (Lev. 27:32.) (2) Another tenth (which must on no account be confounded with the above) had to be reserved to be eaten in the place which the Lord chose to set his name there. (Deut. 12:17-19; see Deut. 14:24-27 for the provision when the distance to the place was great.) It may be asked whether a tenth of the increase was not a great quantity for these occasions, but it should be remembered that the Israelite was three times a year to go to the place the Lord chose, viz, at the passover, the feast of weeks, and that of tabernacles. The stay on each occasion would not be much less than ten days (the passover with the feast of unleavened bread lasted eight days, and so did the feast of tabernacles, but as to the feast of weeks no mention of a period is made), so that from twenty days to a month each year would be thus spent, and not only were they not to appear before the Lord empty, but also it was to be a time of rejoicing and of giving to the stranger, the fatherless, the widow, and above all to the Levite (Deut. 16:11, 14, 17); so that the tenth would not be at all too much for this purpose. (3) Then besides these, there was a third tithing which took place every third year. (Deut. 14:28-29.) In this case the amount was to be laid up within the gates for the purpose of supplying the Levite, the stranger (who is never to be forgotten), and the fatherless and the widow, within the gates.

These three sets of tithes would alone amount to between a fourth and a fifth of all the produce, but this is far from all, for we have also the following: — (4) The fields were not to be fully reaped nor gleaned; nor was all the fruit to be plucked from the trees. These were to be left to the poor and the stranger. (Lev. 19:9-10.) Also all were at liberty to pluck corn and fruit in the fields or vineyards. (Deut. 23:24-25.) (5) The fruit of trees was not to be taken for the owner in anywise till the fifth year. (Lev. 19:23, 25.) (6) The firstlings of all clean beasts were to be sacrificed to the Lord. (Num. 18:17.) (7) The firstborn of men and of asses to be redeemed. (Num. 18:16; Ex. 13:13.) (8) Every seventh year they were not to sow, nor to eat what grew of itself. (Lev. 25:4.) (9) On the seventh year every debt was to be released, and the Hebrew slave was to be set free and liberally furnished with all good things. (10) Besides the above there were the offerings for sin, for trespass, and for uncleanness, even when it was involuntary.

1869 242 The heave-offering (t'rumah) and wave-offering (t'nuphah) formed part of the provision made by the Lord for the priests and their families. By a grant, everlasting in its duration, God thus endowed the house of Aaron: "And this is thine, the heave-offering of their gifts, with all the wave-offerings of the children of Israel. I have given them unto thee, and to thy sons, and to thy daughters with thee, by a statute for ever: every one that is clean in thy house shall eat of it." (Num. 18:11.) To this law there was annexed one exception: "If the priest's daughter be married to a stranger, she may not eat of an offering (t'rumah) of the holy things. But if the priest's daughter be a widow, or divorced, and have no child, and is returned unto her father's house, as in her youth, she shall eat of her father's meat: but there shall no stranger eat thereof." (Lev. 22:12-13.) Whilst the people were in their land, before the captivity as well as after it, the priests received these offerings (Neh. 10:37–39; Neh. 12:44; Neh. 13:5); and when faithfully surrendered by the people, they were found to be a plentiful provision. (2 Chron. 31:10.) When the nation shall be restored, never more to be exiled from the land of their fathers, this grant made in the wilderness shall be again acknowledged; and in God's holy mountain, the mountain of the height of Israel, there will He require their offerings (t'rumah), and the people shall bring them, "that the priest may cause the blessing to rest in their house." (Ezek. 20:40; Ezek. 44:30.) The need of bringing the offerings Malachi 3:8 makes plain. The returned remnant had robbed God of tithes and offerings: so the announcement of the prophet follows, "Ye are cursed with a curse, for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it." The tithes and offerings were God's; though the portion of the priests. Defrauding the priests of their just due, they robbed God and lost the blessing. When finally restored to their country, the law being written on their hearts, they will bring all the appointed offerings, and the priests provided for will cause the blessing to rest in their house.

The terms in which this grant was made distinguish between the heave-offering and the wave-offering. The heave-offering was a portion of their gifts — "heave-offering of all their gifts;" the wave-offering might be the whole of the thing offered. The idea conveyed by a heave-offering was the taking up a part to offer it to God; whereas the idea of the wave-offering is more general, implying consecration to God, for it was waved before the Lord. A gift might therefore be termed both a heave-offering and a wave-offering; but every wave-offering could not be also called a heave-offering. To heave, required a residue from which it was lifted up; to wave, the gift itself only was requisite.