Worthy of Tithes

King James

If you take your Bibles and turned Hebrews chapter 7 we're going to pick up in a new chapter this morning but first I wanna tell you about an altercation that happened between John Selden a biblical scholar and the King, King James.

Despite having a translation of the Bible named after him king James wasn't exactly a very noble king. And when I tell you with the disagreement that John Selden had with King James you may be confused as to why there's an issue, until you understand the King's motivation for the problem

See, in 1618 Selden wrote a book entitled History of Tithes. It was the contents of this book that brought him before the king in the over arching thesis that people should give tithes to the church.

Now you'll probably hear that, and wonder why it is that the king would be upset that Selden states that the church should receive tides from its numbers but you have to remember that at the time the church was funded differently than it is today. The churches of most countries were funded by the government that's why the Anglican church is called the Church of England, it is quite literally The country of England’s Church.

The thing that King James objected to was that if a church was funded by its members that the church would be beholden to the will of the church members. If a church is funded by the government it's beholden to the will of the state.

The main passage that Selden used in defense of his argument is what we are going to be reading today and Hebrews chapter 7 verses 1-10

Hebrews 7:1–10 KJV 1900

1 For this Melchisedec, king of Salem, priest of the most high God, who met Abraham returning from the slaughter of the kings, and blessed him; 2 To whom also Abraham gave a tenth part of all; first being by interpretation King of righteousness, and after that also King of Salem, which is, King of peace; 3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually. 4 Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils. 5 And verily they that are of the sons of Levi, who receive the office of the priesthood, have a commandment to take tithes of the people according to the law, that is, of their brethren, though they come out of the loins of Abraham: 6 But he whose descent is not counted from them received tithes of Abraham, and blessed him that had the promises. 7 And without all contradiction the less is blessed of the better. 8 And here men that die receive tithes; but there he receiveth them, of whom it is witnessed that he liveth. 9 And as I may so say, Levi also, who receiveth tithes, payed tithes in Abraham. 10 For he was yet in the loins of his father, when Melchisedec met him.

Our message this morning is entitled Worthy of Tithes

Let’s Pray

Is He Worthy?

There is a question of worthiness to be had here, and the author of Hebrews expounds the worthiness of Christ by Christ’s priesthood.

I have read chunks of Selden’s work and I think he makes some very good points. But this passage in Hebrews isn't really about tithes. It's about what that tithe represented. Honor.

The book of Hebrews is essentially a treatise on the priesthood of Christ and a good chunk of it, as you may have already observed focuses on Christs priesthood being like that of Melchizedek’s.

Some have concluded, reading this passage (and the old testament passage that this pulls from) that Melchizedek is a Christophany. Now what does that mean? A Christophany is a pre-Jesus of Nazareth appearance of the Son of God.

And while I do believe that there are some places in the old testament where Christ, the second person of the Godhead shows up; more and more I am convinced that Melchizedek probably isn't one of those instances. I'm not ruling it out, but I don't believe that it is overwhelmingly plausible either.

What we do know comes from two places in the Old Testament, and the book of Hebrews.

I think we greatly underestimate (and pardon my slang here) how bad of a dude Abraham was.

follow along with me in Genesis 14 and you will see what I mean

We are going to read it all but verses 1- 11 tells us about a battle between two alliances of kings and nations. On one side do you have the nations of Shinar, Ellasar, Elam and Goiim and they made war with the Kings of Sodom and Gomorrah and Admah and Zeboiim and Bela.

I don't have to remember all of this but what you should remember is that the second group of kingdoms were living under the rule of one of Kings in the first group Chedorlaomer King of Elam, and that second group of kingdoms rebelled.

So that first group of kingdoms essentially came through having war with the second group of kingdoms, defeating them pretty soundly. And we get to what we read down in v11-12

Genesis 14:11–12 KJV 1900

11 And they took all the goods of Sodom and Gomorrah, and all their victuals, and went their way. 12 And they took Lot, Abram’s brother’s son, who dwelt in Sodom, and his goods, and departed.

We got back to Abraham and this is why I say we underestimate how bad of a dude Abraham was.

Let’s pick back up in v14

Genesis 14:14–16 KJV 1900

14 And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan. 15 And he divided himself against them, he and his servants, by night, and smote them, and pursued them unto Hobah, which is on the left hand of Damascus. 16 And he brought back all the goods, and also brought again his brother Lot, and his goods, and the women also, and the people.

So kingdoms. Not just a guy not just one kingdom but kingdoms ran through Sodom and Gomorrah took all of their stuff and ran off with his brother Lot and Abraham wasn’t having it. Abraham grabbed 318 of his servants hunted these guys down, struck them down, took back all of the stuff they had taken and rescued his brother.

You have to appreciate Abraham before you can appreciate what we read in v18-20

Genesis 14:18–20 KJV 1900

18 And Melchizedek king of Salem brought forth bread and wine: and he was the priest of the most high God. 19 And he blessed him, and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

Hebrews

The point being made in Hebrews 7 is that even though Abraham was this bad of a dude, even though Abraham is the man who God gave the promises to Abraham who ultimately would be the father of the Levites who would become the priests that God instructed Israel to give tithes to. This Abraham gave honor, by way of the Tithe, meaning a tenth of the war spoils, to Melchizedek.

He Is!

Is Christ worthy? He Is!

Hebrews is going to get there by first looking at the worthiness of Melchizedek.

Let me read to you what Josephus says about Melchizedek

Where Melchizedek, king of the city Salem, received him. That name signifies the righteous king; and such he was without dispute, insomuch that, on this account, he was made the priest of God: however, they afterward called Salem Jerusalem.

Melchizedek is not only a Priest of God, but a King, and not only a King but a King over Salem, and most scholars believe what Josephus is saying he believes. That Salem is the original name for Jerusalem.

We don’t know much about this priest/king. Hebrews 7:3 elludes to that

Hebrews 7:3 KJV 1900

3 Without father, without mother, without descent, having neither beginning of days, nor end of life; but made like unto the Son of God; abideth a priest continually.

Book of Hebrews is being written to a people that are very caught up in genealogy. They are very caught up in genealogy especially where it came to the Levitical priesthood. These are people that even through captivity or able to keep records of who their parents were and who their parents parents were all the way back, and they took great pride in that. Here is Melchizedek and we have nothing on him. You can't trace his lineage to the Levitical priesthood what the Bible is saying is that through Abraham the father even the Levites who were born into the priesthood were born into a lower class of priesthood, which is evident in that the first in their lineage gave honor to another.

Blessed by Better

But I want you to notice the last 3 words we read in Hebrews 7:1

Hebrews 7:1 (KJV 1900)

..... and blessed him;

We read this blessing early from Genesis 14:19-20

Genesis 14:19–20 (KJV 1900)

..... Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of heaven and earth: 20 And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand ....

Honor

I started this message out telling you that this isn't a conversation about tithes. It's a conversation about honor. But these topics are linked because tithes are the vehicle for which honor is given.

Let's face it, the one thing that people tend to cling to more than anything else is there wealth and throughout history and even cross culturally we see that giving 10% of that wealth is a sign of honor to a deity. This cross cultural norm is one of the defenses that was used in Selden’s book History of Tithes. There are records of people giving 10% of what they had in honor of Hercules and the same seems true for those who worshiped Jupiter and Venus.

We find the tithe instituted for Israel before the Law, before there was an Israel, with Abram.

There are many who would argue that the tithe was equal to Israels national tax, but look what we read in 1 Samuel 8:13-18 as a warning for them who wanted a King

1 Samuel 8:13–18 KJV 1900

13 And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers. 14 And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants. 15 And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants. 16 And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work. 17 He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants. 18 And ye shall cry out in that day because of your king which ye shall have chosen you; and the Lord will not hear you in that day.

This is after the codification of the tithe in the books of Moses.

What chastisement does Jesus have to say to the religious leaders in Matthew 23:23?

Matthew 23:23 KJV 1900

23 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye pay tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and faith: these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the other undone.

They were tithing to the temple per the religious norm. In Rome. All the while rendering to Caesar what is Caesars. I mean it was the Jews trying to trap Jesus over the subject of the Jews dislike for the Roman tax that brought about that quote from Jesus in Matthew 22.

And the reason that they gave the tithe, voluntarily is because God was greater than them. They wanted to be honor God, and they wanted blessing. Like what Abraham Received from Melchizedek.

Give Honor Where it is Due

The whole point of this passage and Hebrews is to demonstrate the honor that is due to Christ. And there's a reason that it's a 10th. Let me illustrate:

Put 10 fingers up

in most cultures we have a 10 based numbering system. That's because we have 10 fingers.

1/10

Put 1 finger down

was considered the smallest fraction. I mean look at my hands, asking to take one finger away is literally the least that could be asked.

Put all 10 fingers up

If you believe that the things you have are a blessing from God, then I want you to look at my hands for just a minute here. my hands represent the blessing that you've received from God. God's asking this much back.

Put 1 finger down

Visualize that. Look how much God wants you to keep. To support the church, to spread the gospel, to give Him honor.

Now I get it, the government tax is taking you down to about this.

Lower all but 6 fingers

Our nations taxes are massive, but that’s not God’s fault. Let me ask you, and it doesn’t really seem like there is much left to live on. But which do you think is more?

This on your own

Show 7 fingers

— or this, giving honor to God.

Show 6 fingers

Let’s Pray