Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Practical Bible advice, tithing and the Sabbath

I had a nice talk with my mother a little while back. We got talking about the Bible. It came around to just how everyday practical some of the stuff there is. Two specific things are the Sabbath and tithing.

Now observing the day of rest may seem like a hassle, a constraint. Actually it is in your best interest. If you don't take break you will get sick and die. Also the Sabbath limited the powers of landlords or slaveowners to extract work from their subjects. The Sabbath was for the common workers protection, giving them one day off each week that they wouldn't have gotten otherwise.

Regardless of whether you go to church or even believe in God, the advice about the Sabbath is right on, and you should observe it, for your own good, not necessarily God's.


Now tithing. So suppose you have to tithe. What does that really mean. In order to tithe you have to know how much you're making. Then you have to set aside a specific amount of that. Well once you do that then basically you now have a personal budget! Having and sticking to a budget is probably the most important aspect of being solvent and sustainably financially prosperous for your lifetime. So the benefit of tithing is that it forces you to have a budget and stick to it, and that is massively in your best interest to do, well worth 10% of your income. So again what may seem like a burden the Bible imposes is actually something that is in your best interest.