Hey John!
Great point. My thought process is probably first to ask is this a prescriptive passage or descriptive (which it is clearly descriptive: it’s God telling His people what to do) and then ask the question to whom is it being described.
Here you see God giving an obvious prescription to his people, that is the nation of Israel. So i think the first important distinction to make is a difference between giving to an established nation or ethnic group (like a tax) and modern day giving to an institution (like charity).
I absolutely advocate for the same thing God does here: giving of your produce (first fruits) back to God because you recognize it is God who provides in the first place. But we must account for a difference in covenants between God and his nation versus God and his people today: Israel and the Church.
I think often the giving out of habit or giving out of obligation and tradition stems from a misunderstanding that God is trying to tax Christians to make the church an independent entity. So I think really what God is commanding here is absolutely applicable today for Christians: Give what you are making/producing in your life back to God because truly, as a Christian, your life already ought to be surrendered to him, so do not try to withold aspects of yourself from God. This is done not for “nation building” of the church but for building the Kingdom of God through sharing the Gospel and winning souls! Then comes the point of spiritual maturity where you recognize that work cannot be done without the local church.
So ultimately I of course agree with Scripture that commands us to give in our relationship with God but I think it is also important to understand cultural and covanental differences, not to say “Nothing applies to me I’m free from law to do whatever I want!” but ultimately to understand the burden of soul freedom and having a relationship with God.
So whiskey may not be the best offering, but I’ve seen people tithe with money, time, actual produce, I’ve even seen people tithe with stocks and airline miles! I think what’s more important than what people are giving is how they are giving it and why (hence the story the Widow’s offering: Mark 12:41–44, Luke 21:1–4)
Those are just my thoughts or how I would respond though!
Thanks for reading and letting me know what you think!
