Numbers 18:23, commentary and pictures

The verse sets the Levites apart to do the service of the tabernacle continually as their appointed work, bearing responsibility for that service and for the sanctuary. Among Israel they were to have no land inheritance like the other tribes, because the Lord Himself was their inheritance and their service was their portion. This appointment was a statute forever throughout their generations, belonging to the ceremonial order that distinguished Levitical service from priestly duty. In place of land God gave them Israel's tithe as their inheritance for their service, brought into His storehouse for their support. That provision is a moral obligation that was not abrogated with the change of dispensation, so those who give their lives to preach the gospel are to live from the gospel.

Levitical Service and Inheritance

The Levites were assigned to do the service of the tabernacle of the congregation as their appointed role, set apart to serve there continually at the sanctuary. To bear their iniquity means they bore responsibility for that service and for the sanctuary itself. Among the children of Israel they were to have no inheritance, meaning no land or tribal inheritance like the other tribes. The Lord was their inheritance, and their service was their appointed portion.

This was a statute for ever throughout generations, so the provision of service without land inheritance was to continue through Israel's generations. The verse belongs to the ceremonial law, not the ten commandments. It belongs to the chapter explaining how God designated the tribe to which the priesthood belonged, preserving the divinely ordered distinction between Levite and priestly duties.

The ten commandments do not regulate the taking of tithes, so the commandment to the sons of Levi to take tithes of the people is the ceremonial command meant by according to the law in Hebrews 7:5. The chapter was given after bringing Israel out of bondage and through the sea. Its rules are set alongside rebellion against God, remaining relevant to those who sought to overturn that order and seize the priesthood.

Tithe as Levitical Provision

In place of land inheritance among Israel, the Levites were given Israel's tithe for their tabernacle service as their inheritance, so the tithe is God's appointed provision for supporting the ministry. They were set apart to serve continually at the tabernacle and sanctuary and to bear responsibility for that service, receiving no tribal inheritance because the Lord was their inheritance, with their support provided through the tithes of the other tribes and through the tithes and offerings God assigned them. That provision is to be brought into the Lord's storehouse principally as the tithe.

This belongs to the law of the regular first tithe given to the Levites, distinct from other giving and from the second festival tithe. The second festival tithe was used by Israel at the three yearly feasts at Jerusalem, and in the third year for charity and for feasting together at home. The regular tithe belonged to the Levites for the house of the Lord and the support of those who ministered there, while another tithe was for the feasting of God's people together at the place where they met.

The tithe was to be brought to the Levites, and the Levites in turn were to give a tenth of what they received to the priests. Their tithe of it was to be brought up to the house of God to the priests for their benefit. The commandment to the sons of Levi to take tithes of the people is the ceremonial command meant by according to the law in Hebrews 7:5, since the ten commandments do not regulate the taking of tithes.

The tithe required is one-tenth of increase, whether of flocks or herds, grain, fruit, vegetables, fields, or income. It was to be collected in kind but was exchangeable into money when necessary to convey a long distance. Rent belongs to the person receiving it, and that person is responsible for tithing it.

After God delivered Israel from bondage in Egypt and through the sea and established them in the land promised to Abraham with detailed sanctuary service through Moses, He required this tithe of all the increase of flocks and fields as part of that sanctuary service. Yet the system was not new or merely Jewish or peculiar to Israel, but was the uniform plan God devised in the beginning for the good of all men and for the support of His work. It had been recognized long before as obligatory by Abraham and Jacob, and was incorporated into the sanctuary service when Abraham's and Jacob's descendants became a nation, with God's requirements identical in both periods despite differing conditions.

The tithe requirement did not originate in the Levitical law but is a moral obligation like one seventh of time for the Sabbath, not abrogated by change of dispensation and resting on the same basis as the Sabbath law. God orders the giving of one tenth of income as sacredly His, the tenth being the least portion and minimum of gifts, while all possessions and all time belong to God. The one tithe is a clearly taught debt owed to God, a full tenth to be paid honestly and faithfully with nothing excusing it. It is not figured by dividing income by seven after the pattern of the seventh part of time, and the second tithe stands on different ground, so those who hold it as duty should pay it honestly according to their best light as a tenth of what remains after the first tithe.

Support of Gospel Ministry

The Levites had no inheritance among Israel because they served at the tabernacle, and the Lord provided for that service by giving them the tithe of Israel. That provision applies to the support of those who give their lives to advancing Christ's kingdom, for as the priests lived from the things of the temple, those who preach the gospel are to live from the gospel. God's ministers are to use the tithe for its appointed work and to pay a tithe from what they receive.

The first tithe is set apart for those who do the service of ministry, supporting the ministry at home as well as ministers chosen to go to foreign fields, with surplus sent from time to time by vote of the conference as a donation to other needy fields. In the higher conference schools the Bible instructor is to be paid from the first tithe while the other teachers are paid from the second tithe. The first tithe for ministers and the second tithe for teachers stand as two equally perfect systems side by side, making God's most equal and just plan where rich and poor share alike and no one is unequally burdened.

The tithe is the inheritance of God's ministers, His ambassadors, laid up with God's people for those who do the service of God and bear the burden of that work. It is for those who throw their lives into the work and wear themselves out in it instead of laying up money or possessing land. A true minister who is earnest, zealous, wide-awake, studious, strenuous and devoted and is worthy to receive the tithe while well remains worthy when sick or aged, for a man does not cease to be a priest or minister when old or sick. The minister's family lives of the same tithe he lives of, as the priest's wife and children eat of what he eats, and his dependent widow and children remain worthy after his death. The conference to whose service his life was devoted is to care for his widow and children just as though he were living and working, and dependent widows and orphans of ministers who die in the work have a right to be supported from the tithe, helped as far as consistent to earn a living until assistance can properly drop, while a careless minister who does not take hold and work and devote himself is not worthy to receive the tithe.

The tribe of Levi being set apart wholly for God's service and supported by offerings made to God illustrates holiness as separation from the world and devotion to God's service. The Israelitish tithing system was necessary for God's plan of the Levitical priesthood and was the result of Infinite Wisdom, yet it did not insure perfect equality in every particular and does not embrace the whole duty of believers in the third message in free-will offerings. Its great moral duty is still plainly taught in the New Testament, which also requires equality, but the closing message presents a far greater call for giving whose multiplied importance every well-instructed believer will feel.