First

¹ Then the Lord said to Moses,  ² “Dedicate to me every firstborn among the Israelites. The first offspring to be born, of both humans and animals, belongs to me.” (Exodus 13:1-2)

¹³ Every firstborn of a donkey you shall redeem with a lamb, or if you will not redeem it you shall break its neck. Every firstborn of man among your sons you shall redeem. (Exodus 13:13 (ESV))

⁶ “For I the Lord do not change; therefore you, O children of Jacob, are not consumed.  ⁷ From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the Lord of hosts. But you say, ‘How shall we return?’  ⁸ Will man rob God? Yet you are robbing me. But you say, ‘How have we robbed you?’ In your tithes and contributions.  ⁹ You are cursed with a curse, for you are robbing me, the whole nation of you.  ¹⁰ Bring the full tithe into the storehouse, that there may be food in my house. And thereby put me to the test, says the Lord of hosts, if I will not open the windows of heaven for you and pour down for you a blessing until there is no more need.  ¹¹ I will rebuke the devourer for you, so that it will not destroy the fruits of your soil, and your vine in the field shall not fail to bear, says the Lord of hosts.  ¹² Then all nations will call you blessed, for you will be a land of delight, says the Lord of hosts. (Malachi 3:6-12 (ESV))

A tithe: the first of all my increase.

The tithe is a .

Tithing is to Jesus.

God created tithing for our .

⁹ Honor the Lord with your wealth and with the firstfruits of all your produce;  ¹⁰ then your barns will be filled with plenty, and your vats will be bursting with wine. (Proverbs 3:9-10 (ESV))

²³ What sorrow awaits you teachers of religious law and you Pharisees. Hypocrites! For you are careful to tithe even the tiniest income from your herb gardens, but you ignore the more important aspects of the law — justice, mercy, and faith. You should tithe, yes, but do not neglect the more important things. (Matthew 23:23)

¹⁴ “And in the future, your children will ask you, ‘What does all this mean?’ Then you will tell them, ‘With the power of his mighty hand, the Lord brought us out of Egypt, the place of our slavery. ¹⁵ Pharaoh stubbornly refused to let us go, so the Lord killed all the firstborn males throughout the land of Egypt, both people and animals. That is why I now sacrifice all the firstborn males to the Lord. (Exodus 13:14-15)

Additional Notes