Learning Fear (part 2)

“And before the LORD your God, in the place that he will choose, to make his name dwell there, you shall eat the tithe of your grain, of your wine, and of your oil, and the firstborn of your herd and flock, that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.” (Deuteronomy 14:23)

So, fearing the Lord is something to be learned.  God, it would seem, is more interested in our heart attitudes and has given us tithing as a pathway to learn it.  A quick search of “learn to fear” reveals five Bible locations, all of them in Deuteronomy.  The other four have to do with reading the law or hearing the word of God.

So what is it with tithing?

There seems to be three physical activities described here:  a separation, a relocation and a consumption.

Tithing itself is an act of separation, a putting aside to designate some of my produce for a sacred good.  Especially when we’re talking food products, it takes a physical action to put my grain in one pile and grain dedicated to God in another.  It would not have been automatic and would require me to be intimately aware of all my possessions.

Presenting the tithe required travel.  Travel takes planning and it takes time.  In a sense, adding travel to the practice extends tithing from simply a monetary commitment, but also one of time and thought.  Travel tithes me, not just my stuff.

Eating the tithe is funny because it is something that would have been done anyway.  But somehow, consuming specially designated produce and eating it before the Lord at a specially designated location makes it a sacred act.  Doing a daily activity in an a conscientious and expensive way is worship and teaches me to fear God.

But what does this mean for me now?  At the very least, I’m thinking I ought to stop the automatic giving withdrawals, start physically writing checks and hand delivering them.  My gut reaction to this idea is that it would be a waste of time.  

But maybe that is the point.  God wants for me to enter a sacred lifestyle more than he needs my cash.