Last Post from Lev. "Tithes from the Produce (Lev. 27:30-34)

11/23/2008 8:17 AM

SPIRITUAL DIARY

My Worship Time                              Focus:  The tithes of the produce

Bible Reading & Meditation               Reference:  Leviticus 27:30-34

            Message of the verses:  “30 ‘A tenth of the produce of the land, whether grain or fruit, belongs to the LORD and must be set apart to him as holy.  31 If you want to redeem the LORD’s tenth of the fruit or grain, you must pay its value, plus 20 percent.  32 The LORD also owns every tenth animal counted off from your herds and flocks. They are set apart to him as holy.  33 The tenth animal must not be selected on the basis of whether it is good or bad, and no substitutions will be allowed. If any exchange is in fact made, then both the original animal and the substituted one will be considered holy and cannot be redeemed.’”

            Dr. Wiersbe points out that there were three tithes that the Jews had to pay: “a tithe to the Levites, who in turn tithed it to the priests (Numbers 18:21-32); a tithe that was brought to the sanctuary and eaten ‘before the Lord’ (Deu. 14:22-27); and a tithe every three years for the poor (28-29).”  The farmers were not allowed to pay money instead of giving the tithe to the Lord, the tithe of crops or animals had to be given to the Lord.

            Dr. Wiersbe goes on to say that the main point of this chapter is that God expects us to keep our commitments to Him and also to be honest in every dealing we have with Him. 

            Spiritual meaning for my life today:  I cannot out give God for God gave His only Son to redeem me from the penalty of death, a debt that I could not ever pay and I am living on His earth, that He created so all that I think that I have is really His, for I am only a steward of what the Lord owns.  Samuel told King Saul, “Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to hearken than the fat of rams.”  “22  Then Samuel said, Do you think all GOD wants are sacrifices—empty rituals just for show? He wants you to listen to him! Plain listening is the thing, not staging a lavish religious production.  (Message)”

My Steps of Faith for Today:

1. Romans 12:1-2.
2. To remember that my old self has been crucified with Christ and is dead and I am to recon it to be dead.
3. Trust that the Lord will teach me contentment.

Memory verses for the week:                                  Romans 6:1-7

1. What shall we say then?  Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase?
2. May it never be!  How shall we who died to sin still live in it?
3. Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death?
4. Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we to might walk in newness of life.
5. For if we have become untied with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be in the likeness of His resurrection,
6. knowing this, that our old self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin;
7. for he who has died has been freed from sin.

11/23/2008 8:48 AM