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Context No. 1532 of 4322 · Numbers

Context · Reflection

Numbers 18:25-32: in context

25The LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 26“Moreover you shall speak to the Levites, and tell them, ‘When you take of the children of Israel the tithe which I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall offer up a wave offering of it for the LORD, a tithe of the tithe. 27Your wave offering shall be credited to you, as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the wine press. 28Thus you also shall offer a wave offering to the LORD of all your tithes, which you receive of the children of Israel; and of it you shall give the LORD’s wave offering to Aaron the priest. 29Out of all your gifts, you shall offer every wave offering to the LORD, of all its best parts, even the holy part of it.’ 30“Therefore you shall tell them, ‘When you heave its best from it, then it shall be credited to the Levites as the increase of the threshing floor, and as the increase of the wine press. 31You may eat it anywhere, you and your households, for it is your reward in return for your service in the Tent of Meeting. 32You shall bear no sin by reason of it, when you have heaved from it its best. You shall not profane the holy things of the children of Israel, that you not die.’”

The Levites received no land of their own; instead they were supported by the tithes the people brought. But God gives them a further instruction: from the tithe they receive, they themselves are to give a tithe to the LORD, a tithe of the tithe, and it is to be the best of it. Even those who lived by the offerings of others were to make their own offering back to God, giving him the finest portion of what they had received.

The striking thing here is that even the recipients give. The Levites were supported by the people's tithes; they lived off what others offered. And yet they too were required to offer, to give a tithe of the tithe back to God, and specifically the best of it. No one, in Israel's economy of worship, was exempt from giving to God, not even those who depended on the gifts of others; the ones who received still offered. There is a lesson in that against the assumption that giving is only for those with plenty, or that those who receive support are somehow excused from generosity. The Levite who lived off the tithe still tithed; the one supported by others still gave. And notice that God required the best of it, not the leftover or the second-rate, but the finest portion, the holy part. Even out of what they had themselves received, the Levites were to return to God the best, not the remainder. This searches our own giving. We are tempted to think that generosity is for the wealthy, or to give God what is left after everything else, the remainder rather than the first and finest. But God asks the best from everyone, including those who have received much from others, and including those who feel they have little. No one is exempt from offering back to God, and what we offer is to be the best of what we have, not the leftover. The Levites, living on gifts, still gave, and gave their finest; so are we called to give, and to give the best.

Do I assume that giving is only for those with plenty, or that I am somehow exempt, and when I do give to God, do I give him the best of what I have or only the leftover, when even the Levites, living on others' gifts, offered back to God the finest portion?

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