by Fr Gabriel-Allan Boyd
On October 9th we celebrate the Old Testament’s Holy and Righteous Abraham and his nephew, Lot. There’s a thrilling story from Genesis 14 about several kings who combined their armies to attack and kidnap Abraham’s nephew, Lot... also stealing away with all of Lot’s people and everything he owned. Apparently, Lot must have held considerable influence under his sway and so much extraordinary wealth, that other kings coveted it all for themselves. As these kings and their soldiers absconded across the countryside with Lot, Lot’s uncle, the great Patriarch Abraham (who had also acquired so much land and herds and people and wealth and influence, that he had become almost king-like, himself), set out with his own armies to rescue his nephew, Lot. When Abraham’s militia caught up with these other felonious kings, he attacked their forces at night for maximum confusion, and came at them from several directions at once, thoroughly crushing them. Abraham was able to save Lot and all his possessions, together with all of Lot’s other people who had also been kidnapped.
The next day, all the defeated nefarious kings collected their dead and wounded, assessed their situation, and then gathered together in the area of Salem (in what’s called the “King’s Valley”) so that terms of surrender and the spoils of war could be negotiated with Abraham. Suddenly, another King came upon the scene, someone named Melchizedek. Melchizedek was the King of “Salem” (which means “Right/Whole Relationship…Peace”). He was Priest of the Most-High God. His name, “Melchizedek,” means, “King of Righteousness.” Of course, Melchizedek had nothing to do with the kidnapping or any part of the military rescue-operation the night before. Yet, while those other wicked kings had gathered to try to negotiate as much after-battle plunder for themselves...by contrast, the King & Priest, Melchizedek, came to offer hospitality, bringing bread and wine…a meal of fellowship…so that there would be food and refreshment for all the soldiers.
The priest, Melchizedek, then gave Abraham a blessing, saying, “By God Most-High, Creator of heaven and earth—blessed be Abraham. And blessed be God Most-High, who delivered your enemies into your hand.” This generous act of blessing and hospitality from the “Priest & King of Peace and Righteousness,” so thoroughly impressed Abraham that, in an act of gratitude and worship to the Most-High God, he refused to take any of the spoils of war, realizing that he didn’t need them, because God was the true source of his blessings…and so then Abraham tithed, offering the priest, Melchizedek, one tenth of everything he owned.
Here we have a picture of God continuing to work out the original promise He made to Abraham just two chapters earlier when He said: “I will make you into a great nation and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).
Of course, here in chapter 14, those who abducted Lot and looted all his possessions, experienced devastation. Simultaneously, Abraham was faithfully living out his God-given ministry of blessing all the peoples of the earth…beginning with those who lost the war. The way wars typically go, the losers should have lost all their earthly goods to Abraham and become his slaves as spoils of the war. Abraham choses instead to participate in the Kingdom of Heaven’s economy…where God is constantly pouring out His blessings upon His beloved creation. Inspired by Melchizedek’s example, Abraham, realized God’s blessing and responded in faith, blessing those around him in generous gratitude to God. He wasn’t grudgingly giving out of obligation to God for some law that God put into place. Abraham found joy in offering back to the Lord from what God had so generously blessed him with.
Abraham’s act of tithing, here, came about 700 years before God’s instructions to Israel to set aside and offer one tenth of everything they owned to the temple for the maintenance its ministries, as an act of worship. But if Abraham did this so joyfully and naturally, why did God need to give instructions to Israel to tithe? It was because Israel had lost this blessed way of joyfully participating in the Lord’s way of offering. In spite of all the times that the Lord cared for and saved them from certain destruction, they’d forgotten how to trust God. So, God then instructed Israel to tithe so that they would learn to revere the Lord (Deuteronomy 14:22-23) and learn to trust that He would take care of all their needs. Tithing was like beginner gymnastic lessons for learning how to trust God—living in the spirit of His abundance for blessing the world. In fact, God gave Israel lots of economic principals to put into place, like the “Sabbath Years” and the “Years of Jubilee” (Leviticus 25) to help them learn to live in the Kingdom of Heaven’s economy...trusting God as the source of everything they needed.
In Matthew 23:23, Jesus scolded the Pharisees for taking this God-given principle of tithing and distorting it to bring attention to themselves. They had totally forgotten that God instructed Israel to tithe, to reflect an inward reality that should have been happening in them. This is the inward realization that as Orthodox (Right-worshipping) followers of Him, we’re not owners of anything. Rather, we’re stewards put in charge of managing what God owns…therefore, we’re blessed more when we hold what we have with an open hand so that God can take out and put in as He sees fit. Thus, it’s not blessed to offer to God out of a sense of legalistic, religious obligation…or because we want others to see how pious we are. Instead, as Abraham demonstrated, in “right-worship” (ortha-doxa) we offer back to God from a spirit of His abundance…so that we too might bless the world.
Of course, just like the Israelites of old, we Orthodox Christians today have largely forgotten how to trust the Lord so resolutely. Most Orthodox Christians don’t even worshipfully offer five percent (much less ten percent) of everything we have back to the Lord, in spite of all the ways He’s cared for and given to us. We need beginner gymnastic lessons again to learn to trust that when we do what He tells us to do, He’ll make sure we don’t fall and become hurt in the process. It reflects our salvation, which is intimately related to the degree to which we trust Him with everything we have. For many Orthodox Christians, this is a challenging concept…bringing up some pragmatic questions in our minds about how each of us would work this out in our lives. One question that sometimes comes up is, “Are we supposed to offer ten percent of our net income…or the gross income?” It’s a fair question for those of us who are new at the concept of tithing, but it reflects a grudging approach to giving, like having to pay our taxes. So, let’s ask this question in a different way. If God owns everything you have, and He’s put you in charge of it as His steward to use it to accomplish His will, do you think you think that the smaller portion, or larger portion will better accomplish His will? Which of these two choices gives God the bigger opportunity to demonstrate His trustworthiness to you? Which of these two participates more in the spirit of God’s generosity towards us? Which of these two choices gives you the bigger opportunity for an outcome of joy? By God’s grace, I trust that you’ll choose to become like Him, a joyful offeror who wants to bless the world.