The tithe of Abraham to Melchizedek is very often used as the foundational argument for tithing in the church; the view is that since he is the father of faith, if he gave tithes, we should also tithe. It is important we take a look at what Abraham did when he gave Melchizedek a tenth. First and foremost, the Scripture nowhere indicates that God asked Abraham to do this, to make this deduction, we would have to add to the Word of God. The bible also does not tell us why Abraham gave Melchizedek a tenth and I am not going to speculate on why he did.
“And blessed be God Most High, Who has delivered your enemies into your
hand.” And he gave him a tithe of all” (Genesis 14:20). If Abraham’s tithe to
Melchizedek is a requirement for the church, it appears the only things we
should tithe are the spoils of war. There is no Scripture that shows us that
Abraham gave a tithe of any of his possessions; the only record of a tithe by
Abraham is a tithe of spoils of a war. Let us compare the tithe of Abraham to
the instruction God gave the children of Israel concerning the spoils of a
particular war recorded in Numbers 31:25-31:
Numbers 31:25-31 – “Now the Lord spoke to Moses, saying: “Count up the
plunder that was taken—of man and beast—you and Eleazar the priest and the
chief fathers of the congregation; and divide the plunder into two parts,
between those who took part in the war, who went out to battle, and all the congregation.
And levy a tribute (tax) for the Lord
on the men of war who went out to battle: one of every five hundred of the
persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep; take it from their half, and
give it to Eleazar the priest as a heave offering to the Lord. And from the
children of Israel’s half you shall take one of every fifty, drawn from the
persons, the cattle, the donkeys, and the sheep, from all the livestock, and
give them to the Levites who keep charge of the tabernacle of the Lord.” So
Moses and Eleazar the priest did as the Lord commanded Moses.”
Obviously missing from this passage is God asking for a tithe of the
spoils; He actually called what He asked of the soldiers a levy (tax)! The
instructions given by God about the spoils bring the levy of the soldiers to
about 0.2% of what the soldiers got, and only about 2% of the rest of the
congregation. The total percentage of the persons, donkeys, and the cattle that
were given to The Lord adds up to about 1.1%, not 10%. Something important to
note in the passage above is that God did not include gold, which they also
plundered, in the levy He asked of them. Verses 50-54 of Numbers 31 talks about
how the soldiers gave a freewill offering of the ornaments of gold as gratitude
to The Lord for none of the soldiers dying in battle. God did not request a
levy of the gold ornaments! If the action of Abraham was an everlasting
ordinance from God, like some have suggested, the requirements/actions in both
cases should be the same.
Another point to keep in mind in regards to the tithe
of Abraham to Melchizedek is that the bible never tells us that Abraham ever
gave another tenth of anything, either spoils or not, to Melchizedek or any
other person. Hebrews 7:4 even shows us that this was a singular act, not
something done repeatedly by Abraham. Hebrews 7:4 – “Just think how great he
was: Even the patriarch Abraham gave him a tenth of the plunder!” (NIV). This
verse points to the fact that Abraham only gave a tenth of the plunder we read
about in Genesis 14; he did not give a tithe of anything else, not even once
does the bible indicate that he ever gave any other tithe to anyone else.
Genesis
14: 22 – 23 – “But Abram said to the king of Sodom, “I have raised my hand to
the Lord,
God Most High, the Possessor of heaven and earth, that I will take
nothing, from a thread to a sandal strap, and that I will not take anything
that is yours, lest you should say, ‘I have made Abram rich’”
If Abraham’s actions in Genesis 14 is indeed the Christian’s guide to
tithing, then we need to follow it all the way through. Abraham did not keep
any part of the spoil of war, he gave his portion to the king of Sodom! He had
a right to keep it since he fought the battle against the kings and won, but as
we see in the above passage, he did not keep any of it for himself. He gave it
all away. To teach the encounter with Melchizedek as the foundation for the
church, we would need to follow the second part where he gave the remaining
part (his portion) to the king of Sodom. For the church to follow Abraham’s
example in Genesis 14, we need to give 10% to the church (as it is preached
today), and then give the 90% back to our employers, clients, customers and
coworkers. Sounds ridiculous? That is actually what Abraham did in this
encounter with Melchizedek and the King of Sodom. As our salaries are our
rights for working for an employer, so was the plunder to Abraham for going to
war and winning. Using Abraham’s tithe to Melchizedek as the reason Christians
are to tithe is not right; it was not an eternal ordinance from God to Abraham,
neither is it a command of God to the church today.
