The New Levites

21. “Behold, I have given the children of Levi all the tithes in Israel as an inheritance in return for the work which they perform, the work of the tabernacle of meeting.

22. ”Hereafter the children of Israel shall not come near the tabernacle of meeting, lest they bear sin and die.

23. ”But the Levites shall perform the work of the tabernacle of meeting, and they shall bear their iniquity; it shall be a statute forever, throughout your generations, that among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.

24. ”For the tithes of the children of Israel, which they offer up as a heave offering to the Lord, I have given to the Levites as an inheritance; therefore I have said to them, `Among the children of Israel they shall have no inheritance.' “

25. Then the Lord spoke to Moses, saying,

26. “Speak thus to the Levites, and say to them: `When you take from the children of Israel the tithes which I have given you from them as your inheritance, then you shall offer up a heave offering of it to the Lord, a tenth of the tithe.

—Numbers 18

On the basis of this and related quotes, many Christians assume that they should spend 10% to support their churches – including professional priests (or pastors, ministers, etc.). Supporting the poor on top of this is quite a burden on people’s generosity. This was less a problem in Old Testament times as there were other provisions for the poor than charity per se. There were the gleaner laws and the jubilee land redistribution. The main charitable act called for was to give zero interest loans, and those loans were fairly low risk, since the debtors became slaves if they didn’t pay the loans back.

Jesus upped the ante by calling for forgiving those loans. However, Jesus also took on the job of “bearing the iniquity.”

1. My little children, these things write I unto you, that ye sin not. And if any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous:

2. And he is the propitiation for our sins: and not for ours only, but also for the sins of the whole world.

3. And hereby we do know that we know him, if we keep his commandments.

4. He that saith, I know him, and keepeth not his commandments, is a liar, and the truth is not in him.

—1 John 2

5. For there is one God, and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus;

6. Who gave himself a ransom for all, to be testified in due time.

7. Whereunto I am ordained a preacher, and an apostle, (I speak the truth in Christ, and lie not;) a teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity.

—1 Timothy 2

Jesus’ death upon the cross has taken the place of the animal sacrifices performed by the Levites. Perhaps I should say, the animal sacrifices of the Levites were simply a foreshadowing of Jesus’ sacrifice.

The book of Hebrews goes into a detailed argument describing how Jesus has taken over the office held by the Levites. The argument goes through multiple chapters. I strongly suggest that you read the entire book to see this argument in depth. Some portions of the argument are:

An imperfect priest cannot truly do the job.
Animal sacrifices can only serve to purify the flesh. Jesus’ sacrifice purifies the conscience.
The office of priest, including the reception of the tithe, preceded the Levites. The Levitical priesthood was a transient incarnation of a more permanent principle. Before Levi was born, Abraham gave a tithe to Melchisedec. Today Jesus is the high priest. Perhaps we should give our tithe to him…

The book of Hebrews makes is clear that Jesus is the new high priest. God has validated this via history by allowing the earthly temple to be destroyed and attempts to restore the temple have been thwarted to this day. So, even the Jews who do not believe in Jesus have discontinued the animal sacrifices.

So, Jesus is the high priest, but are there any priests underneath him? In 1 Timothy 2:5 Paul says that there is one mediator between God and men. Paul says he is ordained preacher to preach this fact, but makes no claim of being an intercessor between men and Jesus. During much of his mission, Paul was not always a religious professional! At times, he had a day job as a tent maker [Acts 18:3]. (However, during times of traveling on church business did he ask for personal financial assistance [Romans 15:24, 2 Corinthians 11:8]. In fact, Paul repeatedly states that he deserved far more payment for his preaching than he actually received [1 Corinthians 9:7-13, 2 Timothy 2:4-7], but frequently opted not to collect in order to set a good precedent [1 Corinthians 9:12-19, 1 Thessalonians 2:5-9, 2 Thessalonians 3:8-9, Philemon 1:17-20]. I will have more to say on this later.)

Peter had this to say about priests to serve under Jesus:

5. Ye also, as lively stones, are built up a spiritual house, an holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices, acceptable to God by Jesus Christ.

6. Wherefore also it is contained in the scripture, Behold, I lay in Sion a chief corner stone, elect, precious: and he that believeth on him shall not be confounded.

7. Unto you therefore which believe he is precious: but unto them which be disobedient, the stone which the builders disallowed, the same is made the head of the corner,

8. And a stone of stumbling, and a rock of offence, even to them which stumble at the word, being disobedient: whereunto also they were appointed.

9. But ye are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar people; that ye should shew forth the praises of him who hath called you out of darkness into his marvellous light;

—1 Peter 2

If I am reading this correctly, St. Peter was referring to all Christians as part of the new priesthood. St. John continued this theme in Revelation.

4. John to the seven churches which are in Asia: Grace be unto you, and peace, from him which is, and which was, and which is to come; and from the seven Spirits which are before his throne;

5. And from Jesus Christ, who is the faithful witness, and the first begotten of the dead, and the prince of the kings of the earth. Unto him that loved us, and washed us from our sins in his own blood,

6. And hath made us kings and priests unto God and his Father; to him be glory and dominion for ever and ever. Amen.

7. Behold, he cometh with clouds; and every eye shall see him, and they also which pierced him: and all kindreds of the earth shall wail because of him. Even so, Amen.

—Revelation 1

8. And when he had taken the book, the four beasts and four and twenty elders fell down before the Lamb, having every one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of saints.

9. And they sung a new song, saying, Thou art worthy to take the book, and to open the seals thereof: for thou wast slain, and hast redeemed us to God by thy blood out of every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation;

10. And hast made us unto our God kings and priests: and we shall reign on the earth.

11. And I beheld, and I heard the voice of many angels round about the throne and the beasts and the elders: and the number of them was ten thousand times ten thousand, and thousands of thousands;

12. Saying with a loud voice, Worthy is the Lamb that was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and strength, honour, and glory, and blessing.

—Revelation 5

5. But the rest of the dead lived not again until the thousand years were finished. This is the first resurrection.

6. Blessed and holy is he that hath part in the first resurrection: on such the second death hath no power, but they shall be priests of God and of Christ, and shall reign with him a thousand years.

—Revelation 20

Once again, these quotes appear to refer to all Christians – at least those Christians deemed worthy of the first resurrection. While Peter refers to a “spiritual house” and “spiritual sacrifices” John refers to something more concrete during the Millennium. It is possible to interpret these passages as meaning all worthy Christians are to become priests at the first resurrection, or that all Christians are already priests now, at least in some spiritual sense. Either way, I see no justification for a special priesthood within Christianity to act as intercessors between God and men or between Jesus and men.

Either way, we have the same question: to whom do Christians tithe? If Jesus is currently the sole priest, then we should give our tithes to him. If all Christians are part of a spiritual priesthood, then what? Does this exempt Christians from tithing? Take a look back at Numbers 18:26. While the Levites received a tithe from the rest of Israel, they were also supposed to tithe themselves. This was done as a “heave offering.” We cannot tithe this way because we have no temple with altar into which to heave an offering. (I am assuming that a “heave offering” meant heaving into a fire; I could be wrong.) Even as priests, perhaps we should hand off our offerings to the high priest, to Jesus, to offer up in the heavenly temple.

Either way you interpret the current priesthood status of Christians, the logic points to giving tithes to Jesus. So how do we give to Jesus? In Matthew 25 we have:

31. When the Son of man shall come in his glory, and all the holy angels with him, then shall he sit upon the throne of his glory:

32. And before him shall be gathered all nations: and he shall separate them one from another, as a shepherd divideth his sheep from the goats:

33. And he shall set the sheep on his right hand, but the goats on the left.

34. Then shall the King say unto them on his right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:

35. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink: I was a stranger, and ye took me in:

36. Naked, and ye clothed me: I was sick, and ye visited me: I was in prison, and ye came unto me.

37. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?

38. When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee?

39. Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee?

40. And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.

41. Then shall he say also unto them on the left hand, Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels:

42. For I was an hungred, and ye gave me no meat: I was thirsty, and ye gave me no drink:

43. I was a stranger, and ye took me not in: naked, and ye clothed me not: sick, and in prison, and ye visited me not.

44. Then shall they also answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, or athirst, or a stranger, or naked, or sick, or in prison, and did not minister unto thee?

45. Then shall he answer them, saying, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye did it not to one of the least of these, ye did it not to me.

46. And these shall go away into everlasting punishment: but the righteous into life eternal.

—Matthew 25

When we give to the poor, the sick, or those in prison, we give to Jesus. The logic of New Testament tithing leads to the same conclusion as the passages referring to “treasures in heaven.” Christians should be giving heavily to the poor. In a sense, the needy serve the role that the Levites did of old. They are the proxy for God though whom we give to God. They are the new Levites!

This solves part of the economic problem of caring for the poor: spread the message above to Christians and a bigger pool of charitable money becomes available. But in the process of coming to this conclusion, we have stumbled across a facet of the New Testament message that has other profound implications for religious practice.

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