So I am to make my family suffer so that I can tithe?
I may be wrong, but from what I have read in Moses' law, the tithe acted as a tax in that community. God asked that all the Laws given during the Exodus be carried on generation after generation. But the initial policies were given to support the entire community, that had no taxes or government.
When Leviticus asks for a tithe for this and an offering for that, the people are not also paying taxes. Establishing principles that ten percent of a harvest goes back into the community, that the outer edge of a field is reserved for everyone to pick from, that wealthy people bring more to a pot luck dinner -- those all establish a system of higher equity in the community.
Requiring that everyone participate, ensures this equity to set the standard for the way people live, the type of economy. It was a bit like softening capitalism with voluntary socialist idealism (sorry to frighten)...social interventionism -- similar to what some contemporary political candidates are working toward.
The tithe was self-initiated. Priests did not bang down doors to make sure people paid their tithe. And God did not establish other ways of enforcing. It was trust-based.
From my experience, tithing did not make me rich, but it followed the Malachi 3:11 promise.
"Then I will
rebuke the devourer [SIZE=-1][/SIZE]for you, so that it will not destroy [SIZE=-1][/SIZE]the fruits of the ground; nor will your vine in the field cast its grapes," says the Lord of hosts.
There are so many things in life that eat away at our productivity. Sometimes if feels like as soon as we make money, a new twist comes up that robs us of it. God is able to hold these back, and pave a way for us.
In the chapter before "bring the tithes into the storehouse," God presents a list of the ways that people mistreated each other and misused their religiosity. (Malachi 2) He shows a distaste for people who are profaning the offerings and prayers, omitting reverence for God.
And like someone pointed out early in this thread, the tithe was not money. It was grain. The first tenth of the increase that came to them. So scripturally, the tithe today is not necessarily money. God gave increase to OT farmers through good harvests; He gives increase to us through various means. Time, skills, piles of zucchini that friends drop off, things from deceased relatives' houses, clothes our kids have outgrown.
We are a lot more wrapped up in tithing that the scriptures are. We have heard it preached so many times, because church structures depend on it.
I think that what God is asking for, is a generous stance -- a heart that wants to reach out to other people and support them. I do believe that tithing carries through "for all generations," but it is not the cash God is looking for. It is our lifestyle of generosity.