Giving & Funding (13)

After [Abram’s] return from the defeat of Chedorlaomer and the kings who were with him, the king of Sodom went out to meet him at the Valley of Shaveh (that is, the King's Valley). And Melchizedek king of Salem brought out bread and wine. (He was priest of God Most High.) And he blessed him and said, ‘Blessed be Abram by God Most High, Possessor of heaven and earth; and blessed be God Most High, who has delivered your enemies into your hand!’ And Abram gave him a tenth of everything.

Then Jacob made a vow, saying, ‘If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father's house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone, which I have set up for a pillar, shall be God's house. And of all that you give me I will give a full tenth to you’,

Genesis 14: 17-20 & 20: 19-22

Two examples of tithing clearly pre-date the Law that was to govern the Israelites. When Abram (later to be called Abraham) rescued his nephew Lot and the other people taken away as captives when five kings raided Sodom, he was met by one of the most mysterious people to be described in the Bible – Melchizedek. He was king of Salem, which was the original name of Jerusalem, and as God’s priest was therefore God’s representative. As we read in the above passage, Abram gave Melchizedek ‘a tenth of everything’ as a gift to God.

But just what did Abram tithe? Did he give a tenth of everything he seized when he rescued Lot and the other captives? It seems from the rest of the account in Genesis 14 that he returned everything to the King of Sodom, except what his army had needed to live on. Or did Abraham return only 90%?

In Hebrews 7, the writer refers to what happened and writes that Abraham gave 'a tenth of the spoils' (verse 4). This may, however, be English translators inadvertently interpreting the text based on commonly held tradition. The original Greek word literally means the 'top of the heap', and is usually translated spoils or plunder, but it could refer to crops or any accumulation of things.

While I would not be dogmatic and remain open to other interpretations, I think that Abraham tithed his own accumulated wealth – the extent to which he had prospered since leaving Ur many years before. If this is right, then he modelled what his grandson, Jacob, promised to do, which was to tithe the assets he would accumulate in a foreign country, his net increase rather than his on-going income.

The crucial question for us, however, is whether the figure of 10% was something that Abram thought of, and his grandson Jacob copied, or a percentage that God set?

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