In this chapter of Disciplines of a Godly Woman, Barbara Hughes offers a sure cure for materialism–giving! She begins by explaining why most Christians believe that they are supposed to give 10 percent back to the Lord, but says this is “a woeful misconception. There were multiple giving requirements in Israel that came to considerably more than that.”

• The Lord’s Tithe: Numbers 18:26 “Moreover, you shall speak and say to the Levites, ‘When you take from the people of Israel the tithe that I have given you from them for your inheritance, then you shall present a contribution from it to the Lord, a tithe of the tithe. 27 And your contribution shall be counted to you as though it were the grain of the threshing floor, and as the fullness of the winepress. 28 So you shall also present a contribution to the Lord from all your tithes, which you receive from the people of Israel. And from it you shall give the Lord‘s contribution to Aaron the priest. 29 Out of all the gifts to you, you shall present every contribution due to the Lord; from each its best part is to be dedicated.’
• The Festival Tithe: Deuteronomy 12:10 But when you go over the Jordan and live in the land that the Lord your God is giving you to inherit, and when he gives you rest from all your enemies around, so that you live in safety, 11 then to the place that the Lord your God will choose, to make his name dwell there, there you shall bring all that I command you: your burnt offerings and your sacrifices, your tithes and the contribution that you present, and all your finest vow offerings that you vow to the Lord. 17 You may not eat within your towns the tithe of your grain or of your wine or of your oil, or the firstborn of your herd or of your flock, or any of your vow offerings that you vow, or your freewill offerings or the contribution that you present, 18 but you shall eat them before the Lord your God in the place that the Lord your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the Lord your God in all that you undertake.
• The Poor Tithe: Deuteronomy 14:28 “At the end of every three years you shall bring out all the tithe of your produce in the same year and lay it up within your towns. 29 And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
• Grace Giving: Numbers 18:11 This also is yours: the contribution of their gift, all the wave offerings of the people of Israel. I have given them to you, and to your sons and daughters with you, as a perpetual due. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it. 12 All the best of the oil and all the best of the wine and of the grain, the firstfruits of what they give to the Lord, I give to you. 13 The first ripe fruits of all that is in their land, which they bring to the Lord, shall be yours. Everyone who is clean in your house may eat it.

That’s more than 25 percent and does not include the freewill offerings! And we think we are so godly giving our 10 percent.

Well, what does the New Testament say about giving? The funny thing is that I can’t find a percentage anywhere in the NT. And it certainly doesn’t have anything to say about only giving out of one’s abundance. In fact, the most highly regarded group of givers can be found in 2 Corinthians 8 and they were dirt poor and enduring a severe trial. They gave out of their poverty!! Paul calls it “extreme poverty.” Another interesting fact about the way the Macedonians gave is that they did something else first: “but they gave themselves first to the Lord.” True grace giving has its beginning in first offering oneself completely to God. The example of the Macedonians proves that when God has your whole heart, money has no power over you.

O, Lord, let that be said of me.