HEBREW WORD STUDY – CATTLE PROD – LAMED – ל מד  

Isaiah 29:13:  “Wherefore the Lord said, Forasmuch as this people draw near [me] with their mouth, and with their lips do honor me, but have removed their heart far from me, and their fear toward me is taught by the precept of men:”

Mark 7:18: “And he saith unto them, Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive…”

God gave the law to Moses who passed it on to certain individuals that God had gifted with special intelligence and the ability for recall as this was passed on orally.  People wanted to be sure they were keeping the letter of the law as they feared God would reek horrible punishment on them if they failed to keep the law. They lost the idea that you keep the law to show your love to God and that gave each individual common sense, a conscience or better yet, the Holy Spirit as a guide to fill in the gaps.

But the law soon became an obligation or duty to God rather than a labor of love.  Out of fear of maybe not making some mistake in keeping the law the people turned to their teachers to help them understand the law.  For instance, the law simply said you are not to work on the Sabbath but what constitutes work?   Well, the teachers of that day defined work for them.  As these teachers were learned men who were entrusted with putting the Torah to memory and had studied in seminaries, so to speak,   they were considered to be special, holy type men, honored for their position as teachers or sages.  Some people may have had a sage or teacher appreciation day where they brought gifts to their sage/teacher and honored him with testimonies on what wonderful men they and their wives were.  For they taught them things like a tithe was 10% of your gross income and not net. Of course, the Torah, as God gave it, does not specify that a tithe should be 10% of your gross income.  But the sage/teacher was the sage/teacher, he was special, he had a special anointing and if he said 10% gross then 10% gross it is, you do not question the sage/teacher.  

By the time of Jesus the teachings of the elders or the sages or the Tradition of the Fathers as some called it had reached the point of being just as authoritative as the Torah. About 200 years after Christ much of this teaching was preserved in the Mishnah and the Gemara around 400  years after Christ to form the Jewish Talmud. 

Don’t get me wrong there is much wisdom in the Talmud but it is also the wisdom of man.  If that man had been dead for a couple hundred years then his wisdom becomes almost divine. Thus if the old sage/teacher said a tithe is 10% gross income including garage sales, that is in the words of Shakespeare, “truth as proof of  holy writ.” 

In Isaiah 29:13 the prophet is telling the people they do their service to God out of fear.  Most Modern translations use the word worship for yara’ rather than fear.  However, when we look at the word for taught or teaching we find it is the word lamed.  If we trace this word to its Semitic origins it comes from a rod used to prod or goad cattle.  This is teaching that is motivated out of fear. It could be the fear of failure, a bad grade, or even corporal punishment as found in the oriental culture.  Thus I would not render the word yara’ here as worship but as actual fear of a punishment. It is the teacher’s interpretation that a tithe is 10% gross even though the Scripture does not define it that way, man does and soon man’s word becomes inspired truth and puts fear into the person to follow man’s teaching lest they are punished from God.

Along comes Jesus in the New Testament who responds to his disciples when asked to explain a simple parable: “Are ye so without understanding also? Do ye not perceive…”  In other words, He is saying to His disciples: “Do you really need me to interpret this for you?  Use the common sense that God has given you.”

Is the tithe 10% of your gross income or net.  Do you include garage sales since you already tithed the money to purchase the items you sold do you tithe it again as it is income?  If you help a friend in need, can you use your tithe money or does it all go to the church and the pastor’s salary?   Can you deduct the cost of your washing machine that you donated to the church camp as part of your tithe?    I believe Jesus is saying in Mark 7:18: “God has given you common sense man, use it.”  Where the Bible is silent use that common sense or leading of the Spirit of God and don’t be lamed, driven by fear.