Day and night. High tide and low tide. Winter, spring, summer, fall. God designed the world with rhythms that are both beautiful and healthy for all of creation. Similarly, as He was outlining the life and community of His people, He did so with rhythms and cycles. One of these is the 7-year economic cycle of Israel. 

A Quick Overview

Israel’s economic cycle looked something like this:

Year 1: Levitical Tithe, Festival Tithe
Year 2: Levitical Tithe, Festival Tithe
Year 3: Levitical Tithe, Festival Tithe, Charity Tithe
Year 4: Levitical Tithe, Festival Tithe
Year 5: Levitical Tithe, Festival Tithe
Year 6: Levitical Tithe, Festival Tithe, Charity Tithe
Year 7: The Sabbath Year, The Year for Canceling Debts and Freeing Servants, Levitical Tithe, Festival Tithe

The Levitical Tithe– 10%

This was a tenth of one’s harvest and livestock– their economic provision– brought to the temple as an offering to the Lord in order to provide for the Lord’s priests who had no land inheritance by which they could provide “for themselves.” 

The Festival Tithe– 10%

This was a tenth of one’s economic provision brought to the temple in order to celebrate God’s generous provision via the Feast of Tabernacles. The intention was for the whole community of Israel to bring their offerings and eat and drink joyfully for seven days. 

The Charity Tithe– 10%

This was a tenth of one’s economic provision that was not to be taken to the temple. Rather it was to remain in one’s own town in order to provide for the immigrants, orphans, and widows who live there so that they may be satisfied. This was in years 3 and 6 of the cycle– though there are other daily, lifestyle commands that would help provide for the poor at all times, such as leaving the edges of your fields for them to glean.

The Year of Sabbath and Freedom

In the cosmic rhythm God established, even creation gets a year of rest. Every seven years, the Israelites were to let the ground lay fallow. They were not to till and plant and prune. Rather, they were to allow the ground to recover itself and grow whatever came naturally. At the same time, they were to cancel any debts their fellow Israelites owed them– never to be repaid– and not only release any indentured servants but send them on their way liberally supplied from their flock, harvest, and winepress. Why? Because that’s how God supplied the Israelites as He freed them from Egypt.

20/20/30

This means that four of seven years, Israelites were offering 20% of their economic provision. Two out of seven years, they were offering 30% of their economic provision. And in that seventh year, they were at a minimum offering 20%, but I expect were experiencing a lot more financial effect depending on how many loans they forgave and servants they sent out with provisions. This was a system set on constant reminders– not mindless autopay like I use– that God is providing for them, so they can be grateful and generous.

Modern Expressions

Things look a bit different for us these days. But the principles remain the same. 

Through a sort of Levitical Tithe, we need to provide for our pastors, priests, and missionaries who rely on support of churches and individuals instead of working other “fields” to pay the bills. If this isn’t something you’re already doing, hop to it! Start where you can, but consider if there is a lifestyle change you could make to be able to do this at 10%. 

Through a sort of Charity Tithe, we need to provide for the vulnerable to the point of being satisfied, not merely getting by (Deut 14:29). And in our daily provisions, we need to make sure there is extra for them to have their daily bread. So this is a two-part consideration because God is always found among the vulnerable.
First, what in your routine life can create opportunities for relational connection with immigrants, orphans, widows, and other vulnerable populations? It could be as simple as chatting with other parents at the park. By having regular interactions with them, you’ll have opportunities to enter into mutual blessing, providing real needs they have and being surprised by the genuine value you experience.
Second, whether it’s through an organization or long-term relationship, how can you make room in your budget for a Charity Tithe to bless the vulnerable? Are there luxuries that you can trim so someone else’s basic needs can be met? Your lifestyle choices can meet daily needs of the vulnerable. Your Charity Tithe might look like saving up to be able to meet big needs. As the Charity Tithe was years 3 and 6, it might be that you save up for a couple years to then help contribute to a medical bill or car repair.

The two aspects of the 7-year cycle that don’t map so simply into our economic expressions are the Festival Tithe and the entirety of the Sabbath Year. We need an expanded imagination. Stay tuned for the next blog post to explore the Festival Tithe. 

Your Turn

If 20% sounds like a lot, then you’re certainly not alone. Most Americans essentially don’t give. Many statistics find that even in the Church today, the average Christian only gives 2-3% of their annual budget (less than during the Great Depression). This is a sad state of affairs because God partners with His people to bring the Kingdom and a lot of “basic needs" issues can frankly be solved with money. Access to clean water, solving world hunger, and malaria eradication are solvable problems. 

The dilemma is that we’ve built our budgets around a baseline of excess so it seems impossible to find another 17-20% in our budget. To be completely honest, a life where dining out is a celebratory treat, rather than a few times a month norm seems like a hard pill for me to swallow. But if I eliminated that from our expected budget, we’d recover approximately 7%!

This is the kind of lifestyle trimming that proximity with the vulnerable will soften our hearts toward. We will be more willing when it’s for someone we’ve begun to care about. Same goes for the needs of pastors, priests, and missionaries. When you care about the life of your church and understand what they need, when you read the emails missionaries send out monthly or quarterly and start praying for them, your heart will be more willing to make space for them in your finances. And it will be more and more clear that God is providing for you so you can provide for them.