What about the 10 %?

The tithe is a tenth or ten percent. But if we want to focus on biblical giving, we should forget about the 10 percent because giving in the Bible was much more extensive.

In the Old Testament, Jews paid the Levites who were the priests about 10 percent of their income. Tithes were not just money, but included food, crops, livestock, and anything else the people possessed.

In addition, they contributed another 10 percent to fund national feasts, festivals, holy days, and other religious convocations.

Moreover, every third year, they gave another 10 percent to the poor, needy, orphans, and widows.

The total giving would have been around 23.33 percent.

Additionally, there was a profit sharing plan for the poor in which businessmen or traders were not allowed to harvest the corners of their fields or pick up anything that fell off their carts. Therefore, you could round up the total donation to around 25 percent.

Today’s churches don’t mention the 25 percent, but this is what God stipulated as a basic taxation payment in His word.

The principle in Malachi chapter 3 is the following: having established the Old Testament governmental structure, not giving God what He required of the people was considered an act of robbery.

What was the purpose of tithes in the Old Testament?

In the Old Testament times God established a theocratic kingdom for Israel. Which was a government run by priests and Levites.

The Levites served as government officials and were vocationally responsible for seeking guidance from God. As government agents, they needed to be supported by tithes because they had no other means of income.

As a result, the tithe served as a form of tax that subsidized the religious structure and supported the levy tribe.