VI. Regulations Concerning Vows and Tithes (Leviticus 27:1-34)
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VI. Regulations Concerning Vows and Tithes (27:1-34)
27:1-8 It makes sense that a book which began with the sacrifices the Israelites were obliged to make would conclude with offerings and vows that they were under no obligation to make, but which God took just as seriously (see Eccl 5:4-5). The first category of vows included dedicating a person to the Lord in some special way (27:2-8). These ways are not spelled out, but we have an example later in Scripture of what one might involve. We find it in the story of Hannah, who dedicated her yet-to-be-conceived son Samuel to the Lord: “I will give him to the Lord all the days of his life,” she promised (1 Sam 1:11). Had she wished to keep the child upon his birth, she would have been required to pay a price to the tabernacle that was equivalent to the boy’s value. The price to release a man in the prime of his productive years from a vow was fifty silver shekels (27:3), a high price that represented that many months’ wages. There were allowances made for the poor, but even they had to pay something to fulfill their promise to God.
27:9-13 Animals could also be used as payment for a vow, but they also had to be redeemed if the person wanted to withdraw them from being used in sacrifice. The exception was a clean animal that was acceptable as an offering to the Lord (27:9). Such animals were holy to God and could not be bought back at any price. The redemption price for even an unclean animal was the animal’s value as determined by the priest, plus twenty percent (27:11-13).
27:14-29 Property could also be used to make a vow, but here the various rules and calculations were more complicated (27:14-25). According to 27:26-27, no firstborn animals could be redeemed, because a firstborn already belongs to the Lord. This principle was established during the first Passover when God spared the firstborn of Israel’s sons and livestock while striking down all of Egypt’s firstborn, human and animal. From that night onward, every firstborn was the Lord’s (see Exod 13:1-2, 11-13).
27:30-34 Leviticus ends with instructions for the giving of the tithe (27:30-33). Vows were voluntary, but tithes were required. Every tenth of the land’s produce . . . belongs to the Lord; it is holy (27:30). God expected his people to return to him a portion of what he already owned and had graciously lent to them. (When we approach giving with the mindset that everything belongs to God, we realize what a blessing it is that he allows us to give these resources back to him to be used for his glorious purposes.) The Israelites could also redeem their tithes, but at the twenty percent markup, so to speak (27:31).
One reason for requiring the tithe was very practical. This was how the priests, the tabernacle, and Israel’s entire sacrificial system was funded. But the tithe was also a reminder to the Israelites, and to us today, that even though we might earn our salaries by the sweat of our brows, we are not the originators of our blessings. We must never think that God’s blessings are rewards for our labors in the sense that we are entitled to them. “You may say to yourself, ‘My power and my own ability have gained this wealth for me,’ but remember that the Lord your God gives you the power to gain wealth” (Deut 8:17-18).