Sunday Message: Why a tenth?

Try as you might, Google it any way you want,  two things you will not find an answer to, and they come from here:


Gen 14:14  And when Abram heard that his brother was captured, even then he led out his trained men, born of his household, three hundred and eighteen. And they pursued as far as Dan. 
Gen 14:15  And he divided against them by night, he and his slaves, and he struck them, and pursued them as far as Hobah, which is on the left of Damascus. 
Gen 14:16  And he brought back all the goods, and also brought back his brother, and also the women and the people. 
Gen 14:17  And the king of Sodom went out to meet him, after he returned from smiting Chedorlaomer and the kings which were with him, to the valley of Shaveh, it being the valley of the king. 
Gen 14:18  And Melchizedek, king of Salem, brought out bread and wine; and he was the priest of the most high God. 
Gen 14:19  And he blessed him and said, Blessed be Abram of the most high God, possessor of Heaven and earth; 
Gen 14:20  and blessed be the most high God, who has delivered your enemies into your hand. And he gave him a tithe of all. 

And those two things are:  Who is Melchizedek, and why a tenth was given.  And in this week, when virtually all the pastors I listen to are doing the "why to tithe mamba", it's been on my mind.  I have a theory, which I shall trot out here shortly, but first, a little background.

Virtually all that is said of Melchizedek is here and in Hebrews 7.  Here, he is not explained.  He comes out of nowhere, into the midst of the story where the King of Sodom comes to Abram saying, "Thanks for doing my job, how much do you want for it?"  His name makes him, by translation, 'King of Right"; his kingdom (Salem) makes him "King of Peace".  Is this pre-incarnate Jesus?  We don't know for sure.  In Hebrews, well, there's not a lot more detail; he described as 

Heb 7:3  without father, without mother, without genealogy, nor beginning of days, nor having end of life, but having been made like the Son of God, he remains a priest in perpetuity. 

And the only thing that tells us is that there is a POINT for God to stick him in there with no info in just that way.  The author of Hebrews goes on to explain him as "a type of Jesus", a theme throughout the Old Testament, but goes no farther.

And the tenth?  My first question is, why do you give an apparently arbitrary hunk of anything to a guy who apparently just came out and passed out sandwiches and a blessing.  If you trace the path of tithing on down the line, it seems to morph from a choice to a guideline, to a hardened, heart-less rule by Jesus' time on earth.  And thus it is that Paul teaches that you should give willingly, from the heart, whatever your heart tells you to give:

2Co 9:6  The point is this: whoever sows sparingly will also reap sparingly, and whoever sows bountifully will also reap bountifully. 

2Co 9:7  Each one must give as he has decided in his heart, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver. 

So why a tenth now?  I can only tell you three things about that:

Personal experience:  My mind and heart was opened to a whole new level of faith and understanding when I did this obedience and continued in it.

Benefit:  One of the curious things I found in trying to trace down the words translated as 'tenth' and 'tithe' is that they seem to flow back into root words meaning 'to get rich', to 'accumulate by tenths'- and since God is already rich, it must be richness for us (keeping in mind that there are different manners of richness, and not all of them are about money).

The point:  And this is what started me on this journey- Allistair Beg musing, "Why a tenth?  I don't know.  Perhaps because man has ten fingers, it was easier to keep track of."  Which pushed me into what I called "my theory" earlier:

A tenth, so that the very fingers on our hands remind us that our hands were made to GIVE.