“The half portion for those who went out to war numbered: 337,500 sheep and goats, and the tribute to the Lord was 675 from the sheep and goats; from the 36,000 cattle, the tribute to the Lord was 72; from the 30,500 donkeys, the tribute to the Lord was 61; and from the 16,000 people, the tribute to the Lord was 32 people. Moses gave the tribute to the priest Eleazar as a contribution for the Lord, as the Lord had commanded Moses.” Numbers 31:36-41 CSB https://bible.com/bible/1713/num.31.36-41.CSB

I am amazed at how little the Lord required from the people. So many find God all about money and use that as an excuse for rejecting God. Regrettably, so many in church leadership have made themselves rich at the expense of the people, leading to this negative view of God and His requirements for us. Discussions and arguments about tithing demonstrate our failure to understand God or love Him truly. When God came to us as one of us in Jesus the Savior, He lived free from the love of possessions, though He was offered the world’s wealth in exchange for His worship of Satan. We worship Satan far too much, seeking to keep, accumulate, and hoard the things of this world rather than living free from their control and giving generously of all we have because we strive to possess nothing nor be possessed by anything. God in Jesus, while requiring little of our material goods except that we hold them all loosely for His availability, does require our whole lives. We are to love Him wholeheartedly, and He is to be our first priority. No one nor anything is to be of greater love or desire than God Himself. This is easy to do when He is our first love. Like committing to a spouse when we no longer desire another, for we have our true love so is God to be in our hearts. We are to love Him most and serve Him first, having our greatest desire and joy in Him and His glory. This will allow us to live and give freely of all material things, for they will increasingly mean nothing to us.