Contemplative Bible Reading

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 (New Living Translation)

²² “You must set aside a tithe of your crops—one-tenth of all the crops you harvest each year. ²³ Bring this tithe to the designated place of worship—the place the Lord your God chooses for his name to be honored—and eat it there in his presence. This applies to your tithes of grain, new wine, olive oil, and the firstborn males of your flocks and herds. Doing this will teach you always to fear the Lord your God.

The title of the post is correct. This passage is from the old law. God tells the people to set aside a tithe (a tenth) of their crops. Bring that produce to Jerusalem, sit down, and eat it all.

What? God wanted the people to eat what they set aside for God. That is an awfully generous God. Oooops, we may have stumbled on something here – that was an awfully generous God. What happened to that mean, ugly, no-fun God? Perhaps we had the wrong impression about the old law and God.

Fast forward a few thousand years. Some of us go to a church building on Sunday and give money. What happens to the money? We consume it ourselves. We pay for our building; we pay people to encourage and teach us, and we pay for all sorts of things that benefit us. Even the money that goes to pay a missionary ten thousand miles away blesses us.

Still, an awfully generous. What happened to that mean, ugly, no-fun God? Perhaps we still have the wrong impression about God.