Restoration of Tithes from the book of Nehemiah

Because of the constant disobedience of God’s people, and their refusal to obey His commands or heed His warnings they were taken into bondage. Their failure to pay tithes was a part of the reason for this. which is why we read about the restoration of tithes from the book of Nehemiah.

They were slaves in the land that God had promised to their ancestors. They were being ruled over by foreign kings who were enjoying the abundance of the land promised to them as a result of their disobedience. (Nehemiah 9:1-38)

 

So because of this, 85 Priests, Levites and leaders (including Nehemiah), put their seal on a written agreement which outlined the oath that they and everyone that had separated themselves unto God would take. (Nehemiah 10:1)

 

The oath was to obey all the laws given by God through Moses. They also imposed on themselves a yearly amount of money (approx. an eighth of an ounce of silver each) to pay to the house of God for all its services including offerings, festivals and holy things. (Nehemiah 10:32-34)

 

Neh 10:32 Also we made ordinances for ourselves, to exact from ourselves yearly one-third of a shekel for the service of the house of our God: 

 

In verse 35 of chapter 10, we read about the tithe now being brought back into the picture. It is also interesting to note from verse 32, they charged themselves money. Meaning they decided how much they would pay, but still understood that under the Law they had to also bring their tithes.

 

Neh 10:35 And we made ordinances to bring the firstfruits of our ground and the firstfruits of all fruit of all trees, year by year, to the house of the LORD; 

 

They committed themselves to bring the tithe year by year – they would bring the firstborn of herds and flocks, a loaf from the first batch of dough, first fruits of grain, fruit, new wine and oil.

 

Here it is specified that this tithe was for the Levites, so this was the “first tithe”, and also a Priest (a descendant of Aaron) would have to be present when the tithe was received. A tenth of the entire tithe was to be placed in the storeroom of the house of God so that the house of God would not be neglected.

Written by

Pastor Donovan Benjamin

PS This is the third blog form the series on tithing, to read previous blogs on the subject click here