There was a small boy who sold tea on the roadside. One rich man just to encourage him would drink tea and pay him, with some extra coins. Every day, the boy used to share bible stories and mention that he was a child of a rich God. After many days, the rich man asked: “Every day you tell me good stories. You work hard for more than twelve hours a day. It is your responsibility to take care of your widowed mother and siblings. Why is your rich God not giving to make you rich?” The boy thought for a minute and said: “Sir, God gave, but my elder brothers have kept for themselves.” The blessed, richer but the privileged Christians did not help the poor, marginalized, and underprivileged brothers and sisters.
Share and care: The Christian fellowship is based on share and care. Strangely, many Christians are like the priest and the Levite and not like the Good Samaritan who shared and cared. Lord commanded his disciples to go and do as the Good Samaritan did. (Luke 10:29-37)
Tithes: For Levites, tithes were the pay from God, not gifts. The Levites in that sense, had the right to receive the pay, which applies to the gospel workers. (I Corinthians 9:7-15)
Analysis: There were 603550 fighting men in Israel among the twelve tribes. The Levites were 22000 men. The tithes of 603550 families supported 22000 families. It means 27 Israelite families supported one Levite. If Rs. 10000 were the annual income per family, the tithe would have been Rs. 603550000. Of that one-tenth went to the priests and one-third to the poor. An average Levite would receive Rs. 16460. (Numbers 18:25-32; Deuteronomy 14:28-29) This was true only when all of Israel paid tithe. Indeed, many did not give, and Malachi rebuked them. (Malachi 3:8-10)
Poor: After giving one-third to the poor, the Levites would have more than an average Israelite. Today, in many churches one-third is not given to the poor. In contrast, some gospel workers live in poverty others in inappropriate luxury.
Do I share and care for the poor?