EXCERPTS FROM CHAPTER THREE: The Messianic Period

WHAT WILL YOU DO WITH THAT TITHE IN YOUR HAND?

Imagine yourself on a Sunday morning going to church. While on the road you noticed a child lying down helpless.

As you approached, it was discovered the child had been hit by a speeding vehicle. People gathered and decided to take the child to the nearest hospital to save his life.

So, you decided it will be nice to be a Good Samaritan on a Sunday morning. And you joined the sympathizers.

On getting to the hospital it became apparent some money had to be deposited before the dying child will be treated.

No one had money to deposit. But here you are in the midst of them with only your tithe.

A decision had to be made quickly to save the child life. Also, you have to obey the law of tithing to your church denomination without delay.

Inevitably, you are left with the two options to either deposit the money for the dying child to be treated or to obey the law of ‘tithing to the church’ without delay.

Sincerely which option will you chose prior to your reading this book?

I guess you will choose to go pay the tithe to the church first and hope God understands or even pray that by so doing God will supernaturally heal the child.

Hypocrisy! That was exactly what Jesus was communicating to the people of his days through the parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:25-37).

If you choose not to deposit the money for the child to be treated, you have passed by the weightier matters of the law, because of the law of ‘tithing to the church’.

You ought to have dipped your hand into your pocket, bring out the money and pay the hospital bill—this is the love of God which the Pharisees ought to have done. And giving your tithe to your neighbor –the dying child, is the ‘others’ Jesus said the Pharisees shouldn’t neglect (Matthew 23:23).

By so doing, you have fulfilled the law--the law of love. You are justified. You have paid your tithe.

All the laws and prophet hang on the law of love, Jesus told us loud and clear.

Believe it many people have died under our very nose due to lack of love. And a lot of people have sinned against God by passing by their fellow man just in the name of serving God with their tithes.

Tithes belong to the strangers, fatherless, widows, poor and needy around you.

It is noteworthy to say also that Jesus never ever gave instruction to the disciples on tithing. But he spoke a lot about giving to the poor and needy (Matthew 26:9).

He did that a lot to the extent that the disciples thought he had instructed Judas to go give to the poor when he told him to do quickly what he was about to do--to betray him (John 13:19-30).

Giving to the poor and needy was not a once in a while (as it is convenient thing) for Jesus and the disciples. It was a regular affair. They gave consistently to the poor and needy.

There is no one who will obey Jesus on giving their tithes to the needy and will not give consistently.

To conclude this chapter, let us consider the change in a nutshell.

Tithes in the Old Testament belong to the priests exclusively at first. Later the strangers, fatherless and widows were added to the list.

And finally Jesus added to the list; the naked, the hungry, prisoner, thirsty and the sick. All these put together mean the needy and poor.