Numbers 18:30, commentary and pictures

The verse requires Israel to give a tenth of all its increase, and the tithe taken from increase belongs to the Lord's provision for the Levites. On one reading, after Israel sets apart the best portion of its produce, the remainder is counted to the Levites as the increase of the threshingfloor and winepress. The chapter assigns Israel's tithe to the Levites for their tabernacle service and requires the Levites in turn to offer a tithe from what they receive, since the tithe is God's portion and is not to be diverted from its appointed purpose.

After the Levites heave the best portion from what they receive, the remainder is counted to them as produce from the threshingfloor and winepress, providing for those set apart for sanctuary service. The best heaved is a tenth part of all the tithe the Levites receive from Israel, given to Aaron for the central service at Jerusalem, while the remaining nine tenths stays to support the workers whose homes are away from that city. That remainder, after faithful tithing of all that was received, is to be freely used as a farmer uses his own crop without guilt.

The use of the nine tenths outside Jerusalem is not for a different purpose from the tenth used at Jerusalem, because the men who perform the sanctuary service live with their families in Levitical cities distributed through the whole kingdom. The passage gives the law for the regular first tithe, in which one tenth of the annual produce belongs to the Levites and the Levites tithe what they receive for the benefit of the priests. This first tithe is distinct from the second festival tithe that remains at the disposal of the landowner for use in connection with the three great feasts and, in the third year, for charity at home, with one computation of the increase of the field serving for both tithes so that together one fifth of the annual produce is claimed for religious, hospitable, and charitable uses.

The requirement to give a tithe of all increase continues with undiminished force now, when time is short and means are needed to give the last merciful message to the world. The Levites and priests who received tithes were to give a tithe of the tithes received to the Lord, and ministers who live on means consecrated to God have the same privilege of giving, which abounds to their own account. Those who embrace the privilege are gainers and those who fail to give are losers who let the blessing rest on others, for those who receive much cannot afford to lose this blessing and those who receive little sell it very cheaply by withholding, cheaper than Esau sold his birthright.

The verse directs bringing the best as a thank-offering when coming up to the feast of the Lord, which applies to attending camp-meeting by coming the day before, staying the entire time seeking God, bringing families and friends to be converted, and bringing thank-offerings, with the promise that God will meet with those who do so.