When God established the nation of Israel, did He have a taxation system?
The Lord’s tithe Leviticus 27 records the initiation of a taxation system in the nation of Israel. It became an essential part of life. Verses 30-31 say, “All the tithe [a tenth] of the land, whether of the seed of the land, or of the fruit of the tree, it is the Lord’s: it is holy unto the Lord. And if a man will at all redeem any of his tithes, he shall add thereto the fifth part thereof.” If you said, “I don’t want to give any grain; I would like to give money instead,” then you had to add a fifth to the tenth because they wanted the actual commodity. They were to give a tenth of everything each year. This tax was called the Lord’s tithe, because it was holy to the Lord (v. 30). It was even called the Levite tithe because the tenth was given to the Levites (Num. 18:21-24). (1) Supporting the priests Who were the Levites? Levi was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. When the land was divided among the tribes, the Levites received no land because they were not to be agriculturists. Th
