Torah Portion: Genesis 28:10-32:2

Vayetze (‘And he left…’)

Jacob met God in a special way at Luz. Heaven was opened and Jacob saw what would have otherwise been invisible. God used this moment to confirm His covenant with Jacob and his descendants. Such dramatic encounters with God bring forth a response from the heart. Jacob renamed the place Bethel (the house of God), set up and anointed a memorial stone and vowed to give a tithe to God of all God would give him in the future. For Jacob, tithing was a heart response to his encounter with God.

This is not the first mention of tithing in the Bible. Abraham gave a tenth of all the spoils of battle to Melchizedek, priest of God Most High (Gen 14:18-20). The writer to the Hebrews referred to Abraham tithing as if it were Levi, who was, as it were, in the loins of Abraham (Heb 7:9).

There is a link between the tithing of Abraham and the tithing of the Levitical priests. There is also a link between Jacob's tithing and the tithing through the Levitical priests. Tithing, like all of ‘the Law of Moses’, was intended to be a heart issue. But by the time of the Prophet Malachi, Israel had lost its relationship with God for exactly this reason, that tithing had become legalistic rather than relational. The consequence was that families were broken and husbands were divorcing their wives – a reflection of their divorce from God. In addressing this, God called attention to the poor quality of their tithes and offerings (Mal 1:7-8).

Our Hearts Revealed

Surely tithing – giving back one tenth to God of all that He had given to His people – was never intended as a dry ritual. Just as Israel's forefather Jacob tithed as a response from his heart, so all of God's laws (including tithing) are also matters of the heart.

What Jacob saw in vision, when Heaven opened, is a ‘behind-the-scenes’ reality, whether we see it through our physical eyes or through the eyes of faith. What does this mean to us? When we had our first encounter with the Living God, were we not stirred in our hearts like Jacob? Did we not pledge Him our all? As time goes on, just as it was for Israel, our hearts can become hardened and what was once a wonderful heart response can become legalistic duty, even a blemished offering.

It is not so much the physical offering that God desires. The physical offerings, much as they are needed, are a means of revealing our hearts.

Open my lips, Lord, and my mouth will declare your praise. You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it; you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings. My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit; a broken and contrite heart you, God, will not despise. May it please you to prosper Zion, to build up the walls of Jerusalem. Then you will delight in the sacrifices of the righteous, in burnt offerings offered whole; then bulls will be offered on your altar. (Psalm 51:15-19)

Author: Clifford Denton