Jacob and His Tithe Vow

The next mention of a tithe in the Bible comes at Genesis 28:13-22:

13 And, behold, the Lord stood above it, and said, I am the Lord God of Abraham thy father, and the God of Isaac: the land whereon thou liest, to thee will I give it, and to thy seed; 14 And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed. 15 And, behold, I am with thee, and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest, and will bring thee again into this land; for I will not leave thee, until I have done that which I have spoken to thee of. 16 And Jacob awaked out of his sleep, and he said, Surely the Lord is in this place; and I knew it not. 17 And he was afraid, and said, How dreadful is this place! this is none other but the house of God, and this is the gate of heaven. 18 And Jacob rose up early in the morning, and took the stone that he had put for his pillows, and set it up for a pillar, and poured oil upon the top of it. 19 And he called the name of that place Bethel: but the name of that city was called Luz at the first. 20 And Jacob vowed a vow, saying, If God will be with me, and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat, and raiment to put on, 21 So that I come again to my father's house in peace; then shall the Lord be my God: 22 And this stone, which I have set for a pillar, shall be God's house: and of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.

The first thing I take away from this comes in the last three verses, 20-22, and how Jacob did not trust God to fulfill the promises that He made to him in verses 13-15. God, in verses 13-15 of Genesis chapter 28 made six very clear promises to Jacob. He promised Jacob that He would:

1). Give to Jacob the land upon which he had lain,
2). That his seed would be great in number,
3). That all the families on the earth would be blessed through his seed,
4). That He would remain with Jacob,
5). That in all his journeys God would keep Jacob safe, and
6). That Jacob would return to this land where he had lain.

Great promises from a great God. How did Jacob respond? What was his reply? Well in verses 17-19 we see that he responded in fear and erected a pillar and called the name of that place Bethel.

Jacob then goes and makes a conditional vow with God in verses 20-21. the "ifs" in these passages help us to see and understand that Jacob did not believe the promises of God and that his vow to tithe upon the fulfillment of these conditions was not a pre-existent form of the tithe given under the Mosaic law.

Let's look at Jacobs four "ifs":

1). IF God will stay with Jacob,
2). IF God will keep him safe on his current journey,
3). IF God will provide him with food and clothes, and
4). IF Jacobs returns to his fathers house in peace.

Notice, in verses 13-15 how God had promised and how Jacob responded. God says what He is going to do, and Jacob, in his fear and lack of trust responds with conditional "ifs."

After the "ifs" Jacob included a "then" part to his vow. IF God did the four things we saw above, THEN:

1). The Lord shall be his God,
2). the pillar would be God's house, and
3). Jacob will give a tenth back to God of all that shall give him.

In other words, and contrary to what we here about tithing today, Jacob was not going to tithe UNTIL God FIRST had met his conditions, the very promises that God made to Jacob in a dream.

Looking at all the above, I have concluded that Jacobs vow to tithe referred to a one time gift to God from Jacob based upon God first meeting conditions to provide for Jacob and is not a promise of perpetual action.

I do have some questions from this passage.

1). Did Jacob vow to tithe on everything he had gathered in his lifetime, or just from the land that God had promised him and his descendants?

2). Where do see that Jacob honored his vow?

3) Did Jacob ever receive this promised land?

4). If he did tithe, to whom did Jacob give these tithes?

5). Should we follow Jacob's example and only tithe after God has met our conditions?

Abram and the First Mention of a Tithe

The first mention of tithing is found in Genesis 14:20.

And blessed be the most high God, which hath delivered thine enemies into thy hand. And he gave him tithes of all.

The context of this passage is Genesis 14:13-24 and the above verse is a part of the interaction between Abram (later to be renamed Abraham) and Melchizedek king of Salem. What though, is the 'tithes of all' mentioned in verse 20 referring to? We get our answer in verses 14-16.

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.

Our passage lets us know that Abram gave a tenth of all the spoils of war. Hebrews 7:4 references this and helps us see that it was 10% of the spoils of war that Abram gave to Melchizedek.

Now consider how great this man was, unto whom even the patriarch Abraham gave the tenth of the spoils.

I know this part of the story is often referenced in Churches that promote tithing. On the surface I suppose it looks good, yet there is more to this story that I have not heard mentioned in connection with tithing. Let's read about Abram and the king of Sodom in verses 21-24.

21 And the king of Sodom said unto Abram, Give me the persons, and take the goods to thyself. 22 And Abram said to the king of Sodom, I have lift up mine hand unto the LORD, the most high God, the possessor of heaven and earth, 23 That I will not take from a thread even to a shoelatchet, and that I will not take any thing that is thine, lest thou shouldest say, I have made Abram rich: 24 Save only that which the young men have eaten, and the portion of the men which went with me, Aner, Eshcol, and Mamre; let them take their portion.

Here we see what Abram did with the remaining spoils of war. The important thing here as I see it, is that he kept nothing for himself. It all went to two kings and some young men. we also see that Abram did NOT give ten percent of his income. He gave ten percent of the war spoils that he, himself, said did not belong to him. He gave nothing of his own. This passage in Genesis and the one in Hebrews are the only passages in the Bible that mention this tithe from Abram. It appears me to me, that from verse 22, Abram had made a prior vow that he personally was not going to accept anything, or keep any of the spoils at all from the king of Sodom. So, we see that Abrams tithe was connected to a vow, was a one time event (as far as what the Bible tells us), was given freely to Melchizedek, was not of any possessions or personal increase he had gained, and was 10%. This leads me to some questions that I have not got any answers to and keep praying that one day I will. 1. Since Abram/Abraham is not recorded as tithing in his personal increase but is shown tithing on the spoils of war, why is this passage used to defend income tithing? 2. If this passage is to be used to support income tithing, why then is not also used to teach to give the rest away? 3. Where do we see any evidence in the Bible that Abram/Abraham tithed as taught today? Sadly, from this passage, I have no questions for non-tithers, except..... 1. Are you giving at all?