Principle of the Second Tithe

As we saw in the last installment of this series, the second tithe, the tithe associated with festival observance, is fined tuned to provide enough food to celebrate the festivals of Leviticus 23. There would be a little extra for most people living in ancient Israel, which would make the festival celebratory, which is another principle we will talk about before this series ends. 

We cannot really directly port over the second tithe to our modern situation. There have been attempts to do this but they fail. The main reason these attempts fail is that the tithe in Ancient Israel was only agricultural. There was no tithe on pottery making for example. So if one wishes to adjust the tithe to our modern situation, I have no objection, but making the tithe apply to income is already an adjustment, so why not make other adjustments to make it fit our situation better?

Spending 10% of one’s budget on festival observance sounds about right when one is attending three pilgrimage festivals. They are expensive.  It should also be considered that many of those celebrating these festivals do not observe Christmas. I do not. The average Christmas spending in America is $500 per person. The average spending for a family vacation is $1,600.  (These figures were from a quick google search.) Combining these two items into festival observance certainly means less of a burden than one would think when looking at festival observance for the first time. 

(Note that the most logical date for the birth of Jesus is the Feast of Tabernacles. Many take note of his birth during that festival. The festival site I attended sang some “Christmas songs” during services.) 

Those that do observe the festivals of pilgrimage usually limit their pilgrimage to one time a year—at the Feast of Tabernacles. So in that situation saving a full 10% of one’s budget seems excessive. I had one person admit to me years ago that they wasted money in their festival observance because they had extra, since they saved a full 10% of their income for the fall festival. I did not say anything as I was young and new to festival observance, but it did not seem right to me then, nor does it now. 

What I am advocating is that one set one’s feast expenditures based on a combination of income and the number of pilgrimage feasts one attends. For some this might mean saving 10%, for others a lesser amount. But the point of the tithe is not so much an exact percentage, but that one should plan to make sure that one can attend the festivals. Do the Best You Can. 

If you wish to follow the biblical pattern of 10% rigorously I have no objection. But if you do, the question may come up of what to do with the excess money. Rather than spend the money frivolously, I suggest a different approach and one that I will be talking about in my next installment on the festivals next week—The Principle of Community.