Definition of tithe
1: a tenth part of something paid as a voluntary contribution or as a tax especially for the support of a religious establishment
2: the obligation represented by individual tithes
3: tenth; broadly : a small part
4: a small tax or levy
Although the Mosaic law required the Israelites to pay a tithe to the Levitical priesthood in support of worship, the tradition of tithing has earlier biblical origins. The first mention of a tithe goes back to Abraham, who paid tithes to the mysterious Melchizedek, he without genealogy or end of days, made like a son of God and a perpetual priest. It is obvious from the Genesis text that Melchizedek is more of an angelic figure than human, and the writer of the Book of Hebrews makes this clear in his exposition of the subject in chapter 7. Melchizedek represents the eternal spirit within of which Jesus came to fully reveal. It is up to each of us to tithe our 10% to this aspect of ourselves. What does this mean?
While the numbers are constantly in flux, by fitting a theoretical model of the composition of the universe to the combined set of cosmological observations, scientists have come up with the composition of universe as consisting of 68% dark energy, 27% dark matter, and 5% normal matter. What if we upped that 5% to 10%, and called dark energy and dark matter “space?” This would fit nicely into Preston Harold’s assessment of Jacob’s tithe to the Lord at Peniel.
Jacob, later to become “Israel,” dreamed of a ladder set up on the earth, its top reaching to heaven, angels ascending and descending upon it. When he awoke, he took the stone used for a pillow, set it as a covenant, and made this vow: “of all that thou shalt give me I will surely give the tenth unto thee.” Something in man, in life, demands tithing. If one meets the need of the day, he will see to a self-imposed taxing of his revenue. Tithing serves the Lord, thy God – one must band for himself a bit of all that comes his way. He must serve his body and its needs, seeing it as “temple,” even as Jesus did.
Apply tithing to the second law of thermodynamics, for tithing appears to be the meaning Jacob gave to his dream. “Angels” – the expressed energy of God – ascending and descending the ladder reaching from earth to heaven bespeak a changing arrangement, not of the system itself but of the energy within it; but if tithing is the meaning inherent in this, the dream would say that in universal sense nature’s law works so that through the motion of any system all power cannot be exerted or spent because its effect is diminished as a bit of the energy is “banked” to provide in space source energy for the future. If so, source energy cannot be entirely spent: the last act provides a reserve ad infinitum – thus, the universe rests upon the last act’s creation of a reserve. If in each move that has ever been made nature has tithed a bit of energy, there is everywhere “banked” in space a reserve in God’s name: one, and it could be that energy, made unavailable at the time, is returned in time or now as available energy. Such energy made available now would not reverse time’s arrow or the direction of the transfer of energy from available to unavailable state because now is past before man can grasp it, and thus the arrow points always from past to future.
Jacob takes the experience (the need of the day) he has in the 10% of the universe known as the material world and offers it back to spirit for continued building of creation; a perpetual genesis of everlasting life and world without end.
Until next time, peace.