Deuteronomy chapter 14

vs 11-20

More unclean animals. I could never eat an owl.

Now here's an interesting question - you're not allowed to eat swarming flying insects. But John the Baptist eats locusts and honey. I have heard before that there is a kind of fruit called a locust. But how it translates through Greek is beyond me.

vs 21

I love that God, the ever-pragmatic, allows you to sell the meat to passers-by. And you wonder why the Jews got the reputation for being money hungry... well, it was more likely usury.

When you think about this, it is actually quite harsh. One of your sheep gets killed by a wolf, you can't eat it now. A chook dies of fright, you can't do anything with it.

This goat in mother's milk thing comes up so often, and is often used as the classic "law we follow because we would never do it". But I've always wondered - does it mean a kid who is still nursing, or does it literally mean boiling it in milk? Either way, there are so many people who have tried to make dietary and moral - MORAL! - arguments for why this law is put in place. I mean, moral? You eat meat that comes from an abbatoir! The mind boggles, it really does.

vs 22

Now we get to the whole thing about tithes. I don't even know where to start with this. Is tithing specifically mentioned anywhere in the NT? Little that I've read suggests it is. People look at tithing so legalistically - do I tithe before or after tax? May well I should ask whether I tithe 10% of the chillis off my chilli plant!

But for Israel, it was a command. This one particularly covers fields.

vs 23

And now it also covers firstborn of herds and flocks. Notice that the tithes are for eating. So they aren't really supporting anyone (sure, some priests might get some, but you eat some too - so how much of the 10% do they get?).

vs 24

Which for some people it would be. Not everyone can live next door to the place the Lord chooses.

vs 25

It's easier to move around that way. Note that you still have to make the trip though.

vs 26

So you spend your tithe to buy stuff that you and your household ends up boozing away in front of the altar! Where's the sanctimony in that?

vs 27

Ok, so some of it goes to the Levites. Although how much is in question - it does not say. But then, that's only if you do as the (T)NIV and split verses 27 and 28. If you kept them together so that 27-29 was a paragraph, it would read a whole lot more like the share of the Levites is outlined below.

vs 28-29

Ahh, now we get a picture of how the Levites eat. They eat alongside the widows and orphans and foreigners. They eat the tithes of the people every three years. So for two years, you get to booze up your tithe. It's only on the third year that you give it to the Levites. Well, I think it can at least possibly be read that way.

So what does this mean for tithing - that we should really only give 3.3% of our gifts to supporting church workers? After all, that's the purpose behind the preaching of a tithe, isn't it? The rest we should spend in boozing up for God (or at least on feasts and celebrations and banquets)? Forgive me if I think those who are legalistic about tithing don't mention this.