Sometimes I feel very possessive of my time, my money, and my resources. I feel angry when bad politics, bad health, or injustice steal from me — and a righteous anger rises up within me.
I easily forget that I am just a steward. I don’t really own anything, “for all the earth is Mine,” Yah says (Exodus 19:5).
My home, my money, and even my body all belong to my Master, and He has only made me an servant who manages His property and affairs for Him. I’m an employee. I’m His land agent. I’m the officer in charge of this little piece of His kingdom.
It is His will to give to me what He wants. It is His.
Each day, the farmer’s wife goes out and picks fruits and vegetables from her garden. The farmer pays attention to the new livestock being born. The shopkeeper counts how much money he makes for the day.
But does the garden belong to the farmer’s wife? Do the animals belong to the farmer? Does the shop belong to the industrious entrepreneur?
No, nothing that we have belongs to us.
Abram went out to battle to protect his beloved nephew Lot and all his family and goods. After all the dust settled, Melchizedek, the King of Peace, met him and blessed him by saying,
“Blessed be Abram of God Most High,
Possessor of heaven and earth;
And blessed be God Most High,
Who has delivered your enemies into your hand” (Genesis 14:19-20).
Abram and his 318 trained employees skillfully and righteously protected their loved ones and property — but none of it actually belonged to Abram.
It belonged to God Most High. He is the Possessor of heaven and earth — and it is only He who delivered all things into Abram’s hands.
Lot’s household had been ravaged, his things stolen. I’m imagining broken tables and chairs, precious possessions rifled through by soldiers who burst into their home early that awful morning. The women screamed as they were taken hostage. His daughters were carried away captive as Lot was also grabbed and shoved away as a prisoner.
When Abram heard, he immediately gathered his men and and went after the family he loved.
However, Abram was just the land agent and caretaker. His nephew and family and all their possessions didn’t belong to them. They belonged to the Creator!
This is why Abram gave a tenth of all the profit from the battle (Hebrews 7:1-4).
We do not live in the Land of Israel, and although an amazing system of caring for Yah’s Temple, the priests and Levites, and all the poor was set up in the Torah, we don’t have a way to tithe like that. I live in Michigan, there is no Temple, and there is no established Levitical system at this time.
But Yah still possesses heaven and earth.
He still delivers all I own and love into my hand.
It is not my own strength that plants a garden, cares for my precious family and household, or runs a business.
It is on loan from Him.
It is therefore my joy to honor Him with the first of all He gives me. As Abram, I give glory to Him when I trust Him by giving first, before I know how things will turn out.
In our home, this looks like a special bank account that we set up just for giving back to our Creator. We give first, from our gross receipts, before anyone else (including the government) gets paid. We render to Caesar what is Caesar’s, but before that, we render to God what is God’s (Matthew 22:21).
We try to make this very important in our lives by setting alarms and reminder systems so that we don’t forget.
In Deuteronomy 26, we read of a ceremony where a farmer brings a basket filled with the firstfruits of his garden. He sets it down before the priest and recites all the good that Yah has done for him in the past year, as well as the good Yah did for his ancestors.
The man then basically says, “I have been setting aside everything that belongs to Yah.”
(Maybe he didn’t have a fancy bank account, but he certainly had a root cellar, or a storage room, or some other method set up just for storing the tithes and first fruits. He had planned ahead and stuck to his plan.)
“I gave all of it to those who ministered in the Word and in prayer (Acts 6:4, 1 Corinthians 9:1-17, 1 Timothy 5:17-18, Hebrews 13:1-17) and to my fellow Hebrews in need (Romans 15:25-27, Galatians 2:10, James 1:27), just as You commanded me. I didn’t forget you, Father, by neglecting to care for those people while I was building my own kingdom. I didn’t sneak into the storage room to take some for myself — even when hard times came and I didn’t know how things would turn out. I simply obeyed you, Yah, and did all that you have commanded.”
This farmer was in Jerusalem when this ceremony happened, and he had brought his entire family with him to celebrate at the feast time with him. This feast cost him, as they had travel costs and food costs and lodging costs. However, he wasn’t worried about the expense. Just as he had set money and food aside for the Levites and the poor, he had also used some of the tithe to fund his family’s feast costs (Deuteronomy 12).
In the first century, the apostles and other followers of Yeshua were kicked out of the synagogues and restricted from Temple worship — but they still felt it was important to lay aside money to share with local elders, to fund ministry costs, and to care for the poor, the widows, and the orphans.
As we return to Torah keeping almost two thousand years later (Deuteronomy 30), we also need to be faithfully setting aside funds to celebrate the feasts with other believers (Hebrews 10:24-25) — without neglecting the poor and those who minister in the Word.
It takes a realization that none of our American luxuries are ours. They are simply tools supplied to us by our Master, and we are agents who manage His affairs for Him.
He still cares about His feast days. He has provided many shepherds for us. He still loves the widow and the orphan.
We have to trust Him. Do we think these “nests” belong to us? Does fear control us, because we think we have to provide for all our own needs? Do we look at a bad economy and worry that we will not be fed or clothed by our Loving Father?
He expects His agents to continue to remember, to be intentional with our management of His resources. It takes setting up systems and then faithfully managing those systems. First.
Just a few months until Sukkot — and there are so many needs all around me today. I learned a lot from a teaching last Sabbath, and that man has a family to feed. I downloaded an amazing study yesterday, and it helped me.
It’s time to transfer the first of all I have to be used by my Master.
Unless otherwise noted, all Scripture in this blog post taken from the New King James Version®. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson. Used by permission. All rights reserved.
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