Abram’s encounter with Melchizedek gives us a picture of several long-standing institutions yet to come. In my previous posting we covered the priesthood, illustrating the contrast between the priesthood set up by God (an eternal priesthood according to the Order of Melchizedek) with Christ as the high priest, and the Aaronic priesthood under the Mosaic law.
One verse that gets easily glossed over is Genesis 14:18: “And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine;” This appears to prefigure communion in the church today. Christ offered bread and wine to his disciples during the last supper. (Matthew 26:20-29; Mark 14:17-25; Luke 22:14-23) Melchizedek offers Abram bread and wine, presumably to celebrate Abram’s victory. Abram here acknowledges Melchizedek as being worthy (he gives Melchizedek a tenth of all, indicating he is greater than Abram). Just so, we acknowledge Christ as being worthy, and greater than ourselves.
“…and he gave him a tenth of all.” Gen. 14:20
Plaut tells us in his modern Torah commentary: “Abram was thought to prefigure his people, who in the centuries to come would pay their tithes to the Temple on the very spot where Abram made his first covenant.” The tithe is more formally instituted in the levitical laws (see Exodus 22:29-30; Leviticus 27:30).
The New Testament mentions tithing as well. Jesus tells a parable in Luke 18:10 in which a Pharisee boasts about his religious rituals in that he fasts and tithes from all he gets. In Matthew 23:23 Jesus rebukes some scribes and Pharisees for holding tithing in importance over mercy and justice, and tells them that these “weightier matters of the law” should have been at the forefront “without neglecting the others” (That is the other elements of the law, which I presume includes tithing.)
And so the institution of tithing was first recorded in the scriptures between Abram and Melchizedek, which was later practiced formally under the Levitical law, and in a less formal way today is still practiced in Judaism and by followers of Christ.
Pondering Scripture 
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December 2, 2009 at 12:31 am
Tithing Us » Genesis 14:17-20 – An Encounter with Melchizedek, Part II …
[…] Genesis 14:17-20 – An Encounter with Melchizedek, Part II … Categories: Tithing Tags: commandment, his-religious, jesus, matthew, pharisee, rebukes-some, […]
December 2, 2009 at 7:48 am
Russell Earl Kelly
You: Melchizedek offers Abram bread and wine, presumably to celebrate Abram’s victory.
Kelly: This could have also been the most common courtesy shown to any guest.
You: Abram here acknowledges Melchizedek as being worthy (he gives Melchizedek a tenth of all, indicating he is greater than Abram).
Kelly: The Bible does not say that. It could just as easily have been required by Canaanite custom, a required spoils of war levy or a passage tax.
You: Just so, we acknowledge Christ as being worthy, and greater than ourselves.
“…and he gave him a tenth of all.” Gen. 14:20
Kelly: There is no NT post Calvary command for the Church or Gentiles to tithe.
You: The tithe is more formally instituted in the levitical laws (see Exodus 22:29-30; Leviticus 27:30).
Kelly: The Levitcal tithe of the law was only food from inside God’s holy land of Israel. Although money was common in Genesis, money is never a tithe-able commodity. There is no connection between Abram’s (non-holy) tithe from pagan goods and that of the Law.
You: The New Testament mentions tithing as well. Luke 18:10. Matthew 23:23 “weightier matters of the law”
Kelly: The New Testament actually begins at Calvary. Jesus was rebuking legalists concerning “matters of the law.” He could hot and did not command his Gentile disciples to tithe because it was illegal.
You: And so the institution of tithing was first recorded in the scriptures between Abram and Melchizedek, which was later practiced formally under the Levitical law,
Kelly: Wrong. That which Abram tithed to Melchizedek did not qualify as a tithe under the Law. Nothing Abram did concerning tithing is followed by any church today.
You: … and in a less formal way today is still practiced in Judaism and by followers of Christ.
Kelly: The tithing statute of Numbers 18 requires that (1) tithes are only food from inside Israel, (2) tithes go to the servants of the priests, (3) priests only get one per cent, (4) only priests can enter the sancatuay, (5) priests should kill anybody attempting to worship God directly and (6) TITHE RECIPIENTS CANNOT OWN OR INHERIT PROPERTY. None of this is obeyed today.
December 2, 2009 at 6:50 pm
jhonse
Mr. Kelly, it seems like you either don’t tithe, or are against the concept of pastors being paid, or both (I may add that I am not a pastor and am not paid to write this blog.) The tithe supports the functions of the church today just as it supported the functions of the temple years ago. Church itself is a ministry and is worthy of the support of those who attend, or else there would be no “church” to attend. I can personally attest that God will bless those who tithe – either from their income, or whatever they wish to tithe. I did not state it was a command to the church, but nothing stops you from doing it, and any sacrificial giving, money or otherwise, is pleasing to God. I fully believe the entire Old Testament is very relevant to the New Testament, though I am not saying this means “the law” is to be followed. I also believe that truths can be gained by looking at the intentions of those we read about in scripture, in addition to what is on the page. I believe in many respects you are merely looking for an argument, as you took some of what I said out of context to make your point. I also do not disagree with all of your points. That said, you are welcome to read, or not read, my blog. I do not believe anything I have written will in any way lead someone astray. The only bias I have is that I believe Jesus Christ is Lord.
December 5, 2009 at 6:51 pm
Tony Isaac
Jhose, can I say something if I may? Bro Kelly has not said or inferred that he is against pastors getting paid, you are the one that has made that assumption. Church can be run and pastors can be paid by the freewill donations of the congregation and that was the custom of the early church. There is no single NT verse of scripture that requires tithes as a means of running today’s church.
Abuse of the word “tithe” itself makes many people automatically assume that when a person is against tithing, the person is against giving. Not so sir. When the NT talks about giving, it never refers to a mandatory 10% (tithe) as an absolute minimum instead we are encouraged to give what we can afford, cheerfully. Lets look at 2 cor 8: 11 – 15 (Emphasis mine)
{11 Now you should finish what you started. Let the eagerness you showed in the beginning be matched now by your giving. Give in proportion to what you have. 12 Whatever you give is acceptable if you give it eagerly. And give according to what you have, not what you don’t have. 13 Of course, I don’t mean your giving should make life easy for others and hard for yourselves. I only mean that there should be some equality. 14 Right now you have plenty and can help those who are in need. Later, they will have plenty and can share with you when you need it. In this way, things will be equal. 15 As the Scriptures say,
“Those who gathered a lot had nothing left over,
and those who gathered only a little had enough.”}
God bless.
December 8, 2009 at 7:37 pm
jhonse
I may have made the assumption that Mr Kelly was against pastors being paid as there is a bit of a movement going on right now to that effect, so I apologize if that is not the case, is it is written “the worker is worthy of his wages.” I guess in my experience, I’ve considered tithing and giving as somewhat synonomous, with the first 10% of what you choose to give being referred to as a tithe, and anything beyond that classified as an offering. I do believe there is an insurmountable amount of parallels between the Old and New Testaments, and between the Israelites and the church, that I feel even though there may be no New Testament mandate by Christ to specifically tithe from their income, I believe it is a principle God established with His people that is worth continuing and keeping under the new covenant. I see God bless those who tithe regularly.
As they say however, “It isn’t giving until it hurts”. I think CS Lewis said something to this effect, and it is true. Through practicing tithing, you are also forcing yourself to live off of 90% of your income, which is a wise thing to be sure. Also, it helps us to realize that all money belongs to God, and we are just kindly offering 10% back to him. So if one has enough disposable income that giving 10% does not materially begin to affect him in some way, than he is like the man from the lesson of the widow’s mite in Mark 12:41-44, who gave “out of his surplus”. And so I take some issue with the translation of scripture you used concerning giving, as it seems to imply you should only give a convenient amount that you can afford – if we only give this much, we may miss the opportunity for God to show up with his blessings. To wit: I am NOT a prosperity doctrine adherent.
December 10, 2009 at 4:43 am
Tony Isaac
I do understand your point. However, there are a lot of practices and beliefs in today’s church which have no biblical backing but are done because they seem noble. This doctrine of the tithe is one of them. Unfortunately, there is no scripture that says the first 10% of what you give is a tithe and anything above that is an offering. That is simply weird and unbiblical. Giving and tithing are not synonymous in anyway either.
Of course, they are insurmountable parallels between the OT and the NT and that is simply because the OT was a shadow of the NT. But why should tithing be the only OT practice worth continuing? What about circumcision or animal sacrifice? We bluntly refuse to put tithing where it belongs in the OT and the way we practice it in today’s church bears no semblance to the way it was even practiced in scripture. According to scripture, tithes were only to be paid on crops and livestock from the land of the Israel. One could never tithe money. One popular argument is that money was not available at the time and that is untrue. Money was available.
22Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.
23And thou shalt eat before the LORD thy God, in the place which he shall choose to place his name there, the tithe of thy corn, of thy wine, and of thine oil, and the firstlings of thy herds and of thy flocks; that thou mayest learn to fear the LORD thy God always.
24And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee:
25Then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose:
If you were not a farmer, you were not obligated to tithe. You said you see God bless those who tithe, because a thing works does not make it right. God told Moses to speak to the rock but he struck it instead, water came out but God was not pleased.
It does not matter if C. S. Lewis says to give till it hurts. He ain’t God. Saying that is promoting works. One would be guilty trying to gain God’s favour through acts of piety and/or self-denial. But If you personally believe that living of 90% is a wise thing to do that is up to you but to say that the bible encourages us to live that way is false.
You have an issue with the translation I have used concerning giving? Is it because it does not seem to support your view? Ok here is verse 11 and 12 from several other translations and please tell me how they differ from the NLT I used earlier.
KJV: 11Now therefore perform the doing of it; that as there was a readiness to will, so there may be a performance also out of that which ye have.
12For if there be first a willing mind, it is accepted according to that a man hath, and not according to that he hath not.
Amplified: 11So now finish doing it, that your [enthusiastic] readiness in desiring it may be equalled by your completion of it according to your ability and means.
12For if the [eager] readiness to give is there, then it is acceptable and welcomed in proportion to what a person has, not according to what he does not have
Message Bible: The best thing you can do right now is to finish what you started last year and not let those good intentions grow stale. Your heart’s been in the right place all along. You’ve got what it takes to finish it up, so go to it. Once the commitment is clear, you do what you can, not what you can’t.
Young’s Literal Translation: 11and now also finish doing [it], that even as [there is] the readiness of the will, so also the finishing, out of that which ye have,
12for if the willing mind is present, according to that which any one may have it is well-accepted, not according to that which he hath not;
In my opinion, it does not appear that you have given this topic much study but seem to rely on opinion of preachers (I apologise if this offends you). And I will also like to clear the air that I am not at all opposed to giving but scripture never mandates a 10 percent as an absolute minimum but allows every believer to give what they are happy with, be it 5%, 10% or 100%. This is the freedom in Christianity.
December 11, 2009 at 5:16 am
jhonse
After much thought before responding, what I have to say is this. When I wrote about Melchizedek and the tenth Abram gave him, I was only doing what I have been doing on this blog since it’s inception – writing a commentary on the book of Genesis. I do not believe that in the posting I had any sort of pro-tithing agenda; I was merely stating what was in scripture and how it correlates to what is practiced today in the church. Not only that but if you were to go back and read it you would see I was extremely careful in my choice of words. Just because Mr. Kelly and yourself do not agree that people should, in effect, tithe to the church in the typical sense, it does not mean it is not happening today. And so all this arguing about who is right is for naught; I practice tithing and will continue to; and I have done nothing wrong in writing my blog post that was so vehemently taken issue with. I have seen your web site, and Mr. Kelly’s, and it seems to me that you are the ones with an agenda, that the church should not be teaching the principle of tithing. And that is fine to have that opinion yourselves; but I am very confused by the fact that either of you would come onto my site and basically start an argument by way of disagreeing with a simple posting on Genesis 14 – for I have not, and would never have done that on your site. Therefore I question your motives – if you read other posts in my blog I have a feeling you would not be disagreeing much with me at all, and you would see I have no emphasis on any one such topic. Have you only both come here to leave a comment with your site URL in it in an attempt to get more traffic? What is in truly in your heart on this matter? To help Christians by teaching them not to tithe? To provide a convenient excuse for people to disagree with the church in general? In today’s day and age such divisiveness is not needed. It is one thing to question the teachings and motives of your own church; it is quite another thing to effectively protest tithing, which is what you are doing, even if you say you are not opposed to giving.
December 11, 2009 at 5:59 am
Tony Isaac
Jhose, Please feel free to delete my comments if you so wish. I am not at all interested in generating any traffic from your site to mine. I only commented because of your bias towards bro Kelly’s comment and it unfortunately snowballed into this.
What is the purpose of a blog? You write your thoughts and people leave comments about what you have written. But if you would not welcome comments, then prevent people from leaving them. Do not cry foul when you feel boxed in a corner and start attacking people and questioning their motives. And what if I am protesting against tithing?
Like I said earlier, it does not appear that you have adequately studied “giving and tithing” and thus you keep equating one with the other. Hence you cannot fathom the concept of being against the tithe and yet still be a giver. No wonder you took an exception to 2 Corinthians 8: 10 – 12 and feel that being against the tithe is going against the church.
Anyways, let me leave you in peace and you can delete my comments if you so wish.
December 14, 2009 at 6:46 pm
Aimee
I think that it is interesting that an example of tithing is so early in the bible before the law! Who would have thought? And even a type of communion too. I like that you pointed out that tithing was under the law but is less formally practiced today by many Jews and followers of Christ. I appreciated that you made note of the verse where Jesus, matt 23:23, rebuked those who were all about tithing but weren’t showing justice and mercy. I think sometimes churches get hung up on preaching tithing every Sunday, though important, is not the goal of faith!