Festival Tithe—God’s Way to Finance the Feast

by Mike Blackwell

Each year about this time we begin to get excited about the Feast of Tabernacles—a fact that is substantiated by your reading this now. We start to make plans about where we want to “keep the Feast.” We are to go to “the place where the LORD your God chooses to put His name” to worship him, to learn to fear Him and stand in awe of Him and His plan, and to rejoice before Him.

To help us do this better, God has instituted a plan for paying for our expenses. It’s called the Festival tithe. This is an additional tithe beyond what we give to support the work of God. (We are forbidden to partake of that tithe in any way.)

Deuteronomy 14:22-23 tells us this is a tithe we are to save up from year to year to “eat before the LORD your God, in the place where he chooses to make His name abide, … that you may learn to fear the LORD your God always.” Today we refer to this as our Festival tithe (or second tithe). It is 10 percent of our income, which we set aside to use to celebrate the feasts of God each year. God gives us this tithe for our use to rejoice before Him annually at His solemn feast days. Since the Feast of Tabernacles and Last Great Day are celebrated for eight days at regional sites (a sojourn feast), we spend most of it at this time.

This is a wonderful plan. Deuteronomy 14:26 tells us that we are to spend it on “whatever your heart desires” to properly rejoice before the Lord our God. It is much easier to rejoice without worry or anxiety—and to even share our blessings with others—if we have saved in advance for it throughout the year as God commands. Occasionally some will not save their second tithe and instead will charge their expenses to a credit card and then spend the next year paying it off. It is very hard to really rejoice when one does that—one is more frequently left with stress and anxiety instead of true deep joy.  

Deuteronomy 16:11-15 tells us much the same thing, but adds certain details not mentioned in Deuteronomy 14. Deuteronomy 16:14 tells us that not only should we ourselves rejoice, we should also help our family, the stranger that is among us, the fatherless and widows rejoice—others who need help and are to share in our blessings. We are not to forget those less fortunate—those with no tithable income and with very limited resources. All God’s people are commanded to rejoice before Him at the Feast. Some are able to do that only because of the generosity of their brethren who are able to share their resources.  

There are several ways we can share our blessings by sharing our second tithe. We can give some of our funds directly to someone we know is in need. We can include them in our plans for certain things and pay their way.

We can also—after determining how much we’ll need—send a portion of our Festival tithe to the Church office, labeling it “excess second tithe,” to allow it to be used to help others. Each year the Church uses these funds to help dozens of families and individuals attend the Feast who would not be able to do so without the generosity of their brothers and sisters.

Tithe of the tithe

Each year there are expenses that the Church incurs that are uniquely related to the Feast of Tabernacles. There are charges for renting auditoriums and equipment, sponsoring activities and other costs. To cover some of these expenses, the Church has, in the past, suggested that members who are able to do so contribute 10 percent of their Festival tithe to help cover these costs. This became known as the “tithe of the tithe” and was used exclusively to help cover the costs associated with the Feast of Tabernacles, rather than have to cover all these expenses from the normal tithes and offerings of the people. The idea was to use Festival tithe to cover Festival expenses.

If you are able and willing to help with these expenses, even if it is less than 10 percent of your Festival tithe, you can send it with your regular tithe and offerings and label the amount set aside for that purpose as “tithe of the tithe.”

The Festival tithe is a wonderful blessing from God to enable us to come before Him and worship Him. When we do it God’s way, we have no regret or worry, and we can truly rejoice before Him at the Feast of Tabernacles and worship Him and learn to fear Him always.