Tithes to Levites

Num 18:16-24         11/28/2017

In speaking to Aaron the High Priest, God assigned the tithe to the Levites because they were not to inherit land. Instead, the tithe was theirs as compensation for their work at the tent of meeting.

Interdependence is the heart of a successful community. When every individual is strong, when every person is creating value, when everyone is fully engaged; the community is strong. Naturally robust and resilient; everyone is mutually invested in the success of the other.

The tithe is at the heart of Israel as an interdependent community.

God made this promise to the Levites: He would provide for them. He intended to provide for them through the tithe that the rest of the Israelites brought in from their fields and their enterprises.

It’s almost as though the people who were tithing were the means by which God would fulfill His promise to the priests and Levites. If the people were unfaithful, then the priests and the Levites would starve. This moment of interdependence is absolute.

Interdependence done in truth is interpersonal faithfulness. It is the commitment that each person makes to see others in the community as persons – to be just and perhaps even more than just; to cherish.

For the Israelites, to pay the tithe is to cherish the person of God, and to invest in those to whom He has made promises.

There is but one Authentic Community.

This has not changed.

“You shall not muzzle the ox when it is threshing” 1 Tim 5:18