Scripture speaks of three tithes and one flat ten percent tax. As we will see, this provides a far more effective, more efficient and more beneficial government than man has ever been able to devise, and at far less cost.

 

When we live in the Land, the males are to bring the first tithe up to the Temple during the three pilgrimage festivals. When the tithes and offerings are all brought to one central point, a fair and equitable distribution can be achieved. This makes it possible to adequately fund all of the duties the priesthood must fulfill.

 

 

What kinds of duties must the priesthood fulfill? In addition to offering up the people’s sacrifices in the Temple, the priesthood is also responsible for teaching YHWH’s people the difference between the clean and the unclean.

 

 

If the priesthood must educate the people in YHWH’s ways, the best way for them to do that is to put the priesthood in charge of all children’s education in the land. School can let out two weeks prior to Passover and resume two weeks after Pentecost. It can also let out two weeks prior to Tabernacles, and resume two weeks after Tabernacles is done. This will give the children special time with their families centered around the festivals, making this a joyous and special occasion for them. It will also give those priests assigned to the teaching duties ample time to report for their duties in the Temple. It only makes sense that the priests would do their best job in helping Israel’s children to succeed, as the priesthood’s income fluctuates directly with the success or failure of Israel’s businesses. Since the kingship also has a direct interest in this regard, Israel’s king/nasi would naturally take a special interest in the education and upbringing of Israel’s children; and thus all parties would benefit by this mutually symbiotic arrangement.

 

Education would continue until the age of twenty, not grouped according to age, but according to ability. At that time all males need to go serve an initial period of military training and service, after which they would remain on reserve status.

 

 

Numbers 1:45-53 (below) shows us that those who choose service in the priesthood are not to be numbered in the military; but they must give a lifetime of service to YHWH (and to the nation) in other ways.

 

 

How else is the priesthood to serve the nation?

 

Let us remember that the priests are only allowed to do physical labor (such as facilitating the sacrifices of the people and arranging the wood) in between the ages of twenty-five and forty-nine. Once a priest reaches fifty years of age he can still serve in the Temple, but not in a physical way.

 

 

Once a priest reaches the age of fifty he qualifies as an elder. Since he has the benefit of years of experience and the wisdom that is attained with years of age, he can serve in advanced teaching and counseling capacities. He can serve as a teacher and as a judge as the priesthood directs, whether inside or outside of the Temple, or in the city where he resides.

 

 

Apart from an anointed judge, who but an experienced priest has the knowledge of Torah to judge the people with righteous judgment? And how else is the legal and judicial system to keep from ruling perversely, but to have those thoroughly schooled in the Torah to man it? And further there is no extra cost, as this is already provided for by the people’s first tithe.

 

Yet even if we limit our focus to those priests between twenty five and forty nine years of age, we can see that we do not need that many priests in the Temple on a daily basis. The only time all of the priests are needed to serve in the Temple is during the pilgrimage festivals (of Passover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles). Surely a higher than average number is also required on the Shabbat, the New Moon Days and those festivals that are not pilgrimage festivals (e.g., Yom Teruah and Yom

Kippur), but the majority of the priests should be available to provide instruction to nation’s children the rest of the time.

 

But what of the Levites? The Levites only serve in the Temple between thirty and fifty years of age. They do the heavy work of service and the work of bearing the burdens in the Temple.

 

 

The Levites can also assist the nation in other ways during the times they are not on duty in the Temple. They can perform public utility and roadwork projects, and other civil service that helps to further the nation.

 

Once Judah accepts Yeshua as their Messiah and the

Ingathering takes place, the kingship/nasi and the High

Priest will have the information necessary to establish a good working plan to utilize the resources available in order to provide for schools, courts, and public works. The second tithe is to be used to pay the people’s way to come up to Jerusalem for the festivals three times a year, and to purchase or give whatever their hearts desire.

 

 

[I give a more complete discussion of the three tithes in a work-in-progress, Tithes and Offerings, Old and New, currently located on the Nazarene Israel website.]

 

The Third Tithe is collected in the third and sixth years of the seven year Shemittah cycle. The third tithe is primarily intended for the poor, the widow, the orphan and the stranger, but the Levites may also partake of it if he has a need (perhaps with a large family).

 

 

In addition to these three tithes there is the ten percent tax for the kingship that I mentioned in earlier chapters.

This ten percent tax is to be used essentially to pay for the army (including the police), economic infrastructure projects (which will help boost the economy and hence the king’s revenues) and to create a war chest (rather than a national debt). Again this creates a mutually beneficial relationship to where the kingship/nasi wants to help the people succeed economically, because it will improve his operating funds as well.

 

If ever there was a man who needs to keep a close eye on cost-benefit ratios, it would be the king/nasi. A man in his position will have no end of encouragement to spend his war chest short of war; and yet he cannot do that. Scripture limits him to a flat ten percent tax, and the only wise expenditures he can make are those he believes will boost the economy of the nation overall.

Using army engineers to build road networks, rail lines,

Internet communications trunks and other infrastructure projects (that will give the nation an economic edge) should all be considered from a military point of view. All other projects he should leave to the public sector. He must use his ten percent wisely to help build up and nourish the economy, the army and the people if the Nation of Israel is to flourish and grow as a small superpower that rules over the nations with Yeshua’s rod of iron.

 

In ancient times the tithes were to be physically carried to the Temple three times a year. This is fine for hard goods, but for all those who receive their increase in shekels, one thing that simplifies things for all parties would be to allow people the option of having their tithes automatically deducted from their pay, and held in an account. They would still have to reconcile three times a year, but it would make the logistics of the vow of having tithed so much easier for all parties.

 

 

Even including the second tithe (which the people get to keep) this simple revenue structure is approximately half the rate of taxation in America today. It will allow you to pay all three of your tithes and also keep more of your income. This is because in YHWH’s model there are no sales taxes, state income taxes, or gas taxes. There are no inheritance taxes, because except for the priests and the Levites (whose duty is to serve YHWH and the other tribes), YHWH wants His people to leave an inheritance for their children.

 

 

In YHWH’s Old World Order, the three tithes and the ten percent flat tax mentioned in First Samuel Eight are supposed to pay for all of government, start-to-finish. The only stipulation is that the people must spend the entire Second Tithe during the festival season upon whatever their heart desires. If they do not spend it, then they must give it to the poor, or to the priesthood; but because this is so much less tax than the average westerner pays now there will be more wealth to invest, and the economy will boom as a result.

 

According to Torah, Scripture should be taught in our schools as the foundational text of all learning. When children grow up learning Scripture in school (along with other subjects) most of society’s ills will simply cease to occur; and when the courts are ruled by the elder priests there will be no recurring crime. Faith and family will be restored to their YHWH-given place as the focal points of everyday life, and society will be safe once again.

 

In YHWH’s order there is only complete unification of YHWH and state, because it is recognized and taught that the nation, its people and YHWH are all one. This model is a complete win-win-win for all parties. The only real loser will be Satan, because YHWH’s people will be brought up to keep His ways from the time they are small, and will be encouraged by both the priesthood and the kingship to succeed.

 

 

Western society lost to Satan because they were not vigilant with the media, the courts and the schools.  The people did not guard their gates, or their children’s gates. They did not take care with their eyes or their ears; and therefore they succumbed to the natural disposition of all flesh, which is degeneracy due to over-indulgence with pleasures and desires. Putting the media, the courts and the schools under the control of the priests and the Levites is therefore the key to long term generational success.

 

Futurist George Orwell told us that he who controls the present controls the past, and he who controls the past controls the future. This statement is true. That said, he who controls the media and the courts controls the history books, and he who controls the history books controls what is taught to children in the schools. Obviously, he who controls what is taught to the children in the schools controls the future of the nation. We must make sure it is YHWH’s priesthood that our children are taught the right thing in their classrooms and in the media. We must further make sure that the right thing occurs in the courts, so that problems are nipped in the bud, rather than allowing them to spiral out of control.

 

Zechariah prophesies of a day when Judah will accept their Messiah, and Hosea prophesies of a day when the twelve tribes will all come together and appoint (or elect) for themselves one joint leader.

 

 

May YHWH our Elohim lead him to establish His laws for our coming millennial kingdom, so that the prophecy given by King David might come true at last.

 

 

Bring us back to You, YHWH, renew our days, as of

old. And may it be soon, even in our day.

 

In Yeshua’s name,

 

Amein.