“For this Melchizedek, king of Salem, priest of the Most High God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings and blessed him, to whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all, first being translated “king of righteousness,” and then also king of Salem, meaning “king of peace,” without father, without mother, without genealogy, having neither beginning of days nor end of life, but made like the Son of God, remains a priest continually. Now consider how great this man was, to whom even the patriarch Abraham gave a tenth of the spoils.” Hebrews 7:1-4 (NKJV); Genesis 14:14-20(NKJV)
LAW – Pay the tithe, then be blessed:
““Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have neglected the weightier matters of the law: justice and mercy and faith. These you ought to have done, without leaving the others undone.” Matthew 23:23 (NKJV)
“Bring all the tithes into the storehouse, That there may be food in My house, And try Me now in this,” Says the Lord of hosts, “If I will not open for you the windows of heaven And pour out for you such blessing That there will not be room enough to receive it.” Malachi 3:10 (NKJV)
Jesus came to fulfil the Law so during His time the dispensation of law was at work, so He was talking about tithing; but He also emphasised on the spiritual side of tithing too, which is equally important like justice, mercy and faith. So according to the old covenant people got to do all the commandments of the law to receive blessings and if they fail in one then they are under curse. God demanded right behaviour and obedience from the people to bless.
GRACE – Blessed already, so pay the tithe:
“This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, both sure and steadfast, and which enters the Presence behind the veil, where the forerunner has entered for us, even Jesus, having become High Priest forever according to the order of Melchizedek.” Hebrews 6:19-20 (NKJV); NKJV Hebrews 7:21-22(NKJV)
“Now beyond all contradiction the lesser is blessed by the better. Here mortal men receive tithes, but there he receives them, of whom it is witnessed that he lives.” Hebrews 7:7-8 (NKJV)
We are now under the dispensation of grace, where God is willing to bless us in the first place through our Lord Jesus Christ and not demanding anything from us except faith in Him and expect us to show mercy and justice to others in the spiritual side. So in the new covenant, God is supplying abundance of all good things freely in Christ Jesus, so we give tithe to the Lord God in response to the blessings we already have. Just to remember Jesus’ death on the Cross we observe the Holy Communion, we pay tithe to remember that Jesus lives forever and seated on the right hand of God receiving them.
“And He(Jesus) looked up and saw the rich putting their gifts into the treasury, and He saw also a certain poor widow putting in two mites. So He said, “Truly I say to you that this poor widow has put in more than all; for all these out of their abundance have put in offerings for God, but she out of her poverty put in all the livelihood that she had.”” Luke 21:1-4 (NKJV)
My testimony:
God led me to tithe only during the time when I was blessed with abundant supply of all good things and I started tithing to bless the Lord out of joy. God opened doors for more blessings in 4 months of tithing, we left India and moved to Middle East. And I continue to tithe by God’s grace as He went on supplying out of the way blessings. I am making sure to show the spiritual side also that My JESUS who rose from the dead lives forever.