Page 36 - BV15

36

redeemed; but it was brought to the altar, and the flesh, after being offered to God,
became the property of the priest, (Numbers 18:16-17).

Another fixed charge was made at the time of the census in the wilderness to the
amount of half a shekel. The rich were not to give more, nor the poor less, (Exodus
30:11-15). Also the law prescribed that when the Israelite should plant a fruit tree, the
fruit for three years was to be regarded as unclean, and not to be eaten; whilst in the
fourth year the fruit was to be set apart for giving praise to YEHOVAH, (Leviticus 19:23-
24).

Moreover, the seventh year was to be a year of release, when every creditor was
to refrain from enforcing re-payment for that which he had lent to his neighbour:

"Beware that there be not a base thought in thine heart, saying, The seventh year,
the year of release, is at hand; and thine eye be evil against thy poor brother, and
thou give him nought: and he cry unto the Lord against thee, and it be sin unto
thee," (Deuteronomy 15:1-2, 9).

Such, then, were the fixed deductions, annual or occasional, laid by the Mosaic
law upon an Israelite's increase -- the discharge of which was a duty and the withholding
a sin.

The Freewill Offering

Besides the foregoing, a freewill offering was enjoined for the Feast of Weeks:

"Thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the Lord thy God with a tribute of a
freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give, according as the Lord thy
God blesseth thee: and thou shalt rejoice before the Lord thy God, thou, and thy
son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite
that is within thy gates, and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that
are in the midst of thee, in the place which the Lord thy God shall choose to cause
His name to dwell there," (Deuteronomy 16:10-11).

The nature and amount of the freewill offering is here left to the liberality of the
giver; and this seems to be the only one of the feasts held at the metropolis to which the
stranger, fatherless, and widow are expressly named as persons to be invited. But the law
contemplated other offerings also, the bringing of which was not obligatory, but which
YEHOVAH expressed His willingness to accept from any of His people who were
disposed with a willing heart to give. A famous example of this occurred at Sinai, at the
making of the tabernacle, when the Lord spoke unto Moses, saying, "Speak unto the
children of Israel, that they take for Me an offering: of every man whose heart maketh
him willing, ye shall take my offering," (Exodus 25:2). The result of this appeal was such
that the people had to be restrained from bringing, "for the stuff they had was sufficient
for all the work to make it, and too much," (Exodus 36:7).