It is common knowledge that the issue most often preached of in our churches and ministries is the subject of offerings. At every religious gathering, it is a requirement that people should give offerings of all kinds to the Lord. I have tried to dig into the Bible to find out how and where the offerings started. It would seem that they started at the dawn of time either at the instigation of the Lord or as freewill gestures by mankind to our God.
sundayword BY PROSPER TINGINI
In our Bible, the first mention on offering was with regards to Adam and Eve. Genesis 4:1-5 reads: “Now Abel was a keeper of sheep and Cain a tiller of the ground. In the course of time Cain brought to the Lord an offering of the fruit of the ground and Abel brought of the firstlings of his flock and of their fat portion. And the Lord had regard for Abel and his offering, but for Can and his offering he had no regard.”
With time, it is obvious that God decided to make this a religious requirement aimed at a particular cause or purpose. In line with Abel’s offerings dating back thousands of years before, our scriptures give God’s directive to mankind through Moses (Deuteronomy 15:19-20) saying; “All the firstlings males that are born of your herd and flock you shall consecrate to the Lord your God; you shall do no work with the firstling of your herd, nor shear the firstling of your flock. You shall eat it, you and your household, before the Lord your God year by year at the place which the Lord will choose”. God thus gave directives on how the offerings were to be executed. He does not direct people to give all the offerings to the church or ministries as the case these days.
Again in the same manner as Cain had offered the Lord a portion his fruits of the land, God also commanded mankind through Moses at Mount Sinai (Exodus 23:19): “The first of the fruits of your ground you shall bring into the house of the Lord your God”. As for the yields of the orchard trees the Lord directed; “When you come into the land and plant all kinds of trees for food then you shall count them as forbidden. Three years it shall be forbidden to you, it must not be eaten. And in the fourth year all their fruit shall be holy, an offering of praise to the Lord. But in the fifth year you may eat of their fruit that they may yield more richly for you. I am the Lord your God”.
The first mention of burnt offerings or sacrifices to the Lord in the scriptures is mentioned thousands of years before God pronounced them. This was after Noah, his family and all other species of creatures survived the floods. Genesis 8:20-22 reads: Then Noah built an altar to the Lord, and took of every clean animal and of every clean bird, and offered burnt offerings on the altar. And when the Lord smelled the pleasing odour the Lord said in his heart, “I will never again curse the ground because of man, for the imagination of man’s heart is evil from his youth; either will ever again destroy every living creature as I have done. While the earth remains, seedtime and harvest, cold and heat, summer and winter, day and night shall not cease”.
Years later Leviticus, carries guidelines from the Lord on the types of burnt offerings and sacrifices to be made, their purpose and on how they were to be executed. During Abraham’s time, God made a test-related request that an ordinary person could have rejected. Genesis 22: 2 reads: God said to Abraham, “Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering upon one of the mountains of which I shall tell you”. This would have horrified any man, but not Abraham. He had too much faith in the Lord. It was just a test from God to measure Abraham’s faith. The Lord strictly prohibits such kind of offering. In Deuteronomy 18:10 God says; “There shall not be found among you anyone who burns his son or his daughter as an offering”.
Exodus 22: 30 quotes the words of God to the people of Israel, through Moses; saying: “The first born of your sons you shall give to me. You shall do likewise with your oxen and with your sheep; seven days it shall be with its female parent; on the eighth day you shall give it to me.” In this instance, He explains why He gave that kind of proclamation. Numbers 7:17-18 says: “For all the first born among the people of Israel are mine, both man and of beast; on the day I slew all the first-born in the land of Egypt, I consecrated them for myself, and I have taken the Levites instead of all the first-borns among the people of Israel”. To consecrate is to sanctify by devoting things to the Lord, and not to sacrifice them as burnt offerings.
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The tithe is the most commonly abused offering and the quickest means of some self-enrichments within a big number of our Pentecostal churches and ministries. I have traced its origin in the scriptures to Jacob, the grandchild of Abraham. After Jacob had deceived his brother, Esau, of both his birthright and taken away his destined father’s blessings from him too, he had to flee from his fatherland to save his life. Along the way to seek refuge, Jacob had a visitation from God in his sleep where he was promised protection by the Lord. In the morning, he also made a promise to the Lord with a vow saying (Genesis 28:20-22): “If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and clothing to wear, so that I come again to my father’s house in peace, then the Lord shall be my God, and this stone (which he had put under his head as a pillow during the night’s sleep), which I have set up as a pillar, shall be God’s house; and of all that you will give to me (in blessings and wealth) I will give the tenth of it to you the Lord”. Indeed Jacob was blessed by God and became exceedingly rich and must have fulfilled his promise to pay a tithe of everything he accrued. This was the beginning of tithes, thousands of years before God pronounced it as a requirement for mankind.
This is how the Lord our God guided us on the execution of the tithe. In Deuteronomy 14: 22-29, the Lord directed; “You shall tithe all the yield of your seed, which comes forth from the field year by year; And before the Lord your God, in the place which he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine and of your oil, and the firstlings of your herd and flock; that you may learn to fear the Lord your God always. And if the way is too long for you, so that you are not able to bring the tithe, when the Lord your God blesses you, because the place is too far from your, which the Lord your God chooses, to set his name dwell there, then you shall turn it into money, and bind up the money in your hand, and go to the place which God chooses, and spend the money for whatever you desire, cattle or sheep, or wine or strong drink, whatever your appetite craves, and you shall eat there before the Lord your God and rejoice, you and your household. And you shall not forget the priest who is in your area, for he has no portion of inheritance with you?”
Who then changed things and now says all the tithes should at all times be surrendered to our churches and ministries? Of what tithe is to be surrendered wholly, God said (verse 28-29) “At the end of every three years, you shall bring forth all the tithes of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns; and the priest, because he has no portion of inheritance with you, and the poor people in your land, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord my bless you in all you do?” According to the Lord, only the third year tithes should be wholly surrendered.
Prosper Tingini is the assembly president of the newly-established and registered Children of God Missionary Assembly. WhatsApp 0771 260 195. Email address: [email protected])
