Difficult Scriptures

Leviticus 27:31 - Does this say God allows you to borrow from your second tithe if you pay it back and add 20 percent?
 
  1. First of all, this scripture does not say anything about borrowing from your tithes. Secondly, this scripture is not talking about second tithe. Notice – the scripture says all the tithe of the land is holy to God (verse 30). This tithe belongs to God. Second tithe belongs to the individual for the purpose of observing God’s annual Feasts (Deut. 14:22-26).

  2. God says ten percent of a person’s crops and fruit belong to Him(Lev. 27:30). In ancient Israel most of the people were engaged in farming. Therefore, most of the tithes were in the form of crops, fruit or livestock.

  3. Often the individual would have a fruit tree and because of the excellent quality of fruit, he would want all of it for seed purposes. Because it was of a perishable nature anyway and often would spoil before the individual could turn it in as tithe, God permitted the farmer to keep it and pay the market value of the fruit plus 20 percent of its value.

This did not apply to livestock. No tithe of the herd could be redeemed (Lev. 27:32-33).

  1. Since we do not live in an agrarian society today, a Christian farmer may redeem (convert) the tithe of his land and herd and send it to God’s Work.
 
The Church of God, New World Ministries P.O. Box 5536 Sevierville, TN 37864