Stephen
Terry, Director
Stewardship
and Mission
Commentary
for the September 12, 2026, Sabbath School Lesson
"I
have no need of a bull from your stall or of goats from your pens, for every
animal of the forest is mine, and the cattle on a thousand hills. I know every
bird in the mountains, and the insects in the fields are mine. If I were hungry
I would not tell you, for the world is mine, and all that is in it." Psalm
50:9-12
As a young child, during the
1950s and 1960s, I had the opportunity to attend several different churches for
Sunday School and Vacation Bible School, and seven decades later, I still have
memories of some of those early experiences. I remember a picture roll of a
paralytic being let down through the roof of someone's home so Jesus could heal
him. Strangely, while the religious leaders vigorously protested Jesus healing
the man, there is no record in the account of the homeowner being upset that his
roof had been torn apart. Where I grew up, if someone tore apart a homeowner's
roof, even to be healed, it would probably result in an arrest, a lawsuit, and
maybe even a fist fight. Property destruction was not taken lightly, and
probably still isn't.
I also remember singing the
hymn, "He Owns the Cattle on a Thousand Hills," in the children's Sunday School
at the local Baptist Church. It was a newer hymn, written in 1948 by John W.
Peterson. He was educated at Moody Bible Institute and was a prolific song
writer with over a thousand songs to his credit and was inducted into the
Gospel Music Hall of Fame in 1986. While singing this song I could mentally picture
God's cattle spread over many hills. The point of the song was that God does
not need our wealth. He has riches beyond our understanding. Interestingly, the
popularity of the song peaked around 1978 according to hymnary.org and then was
removed from most hymnals after that. Maybe it was too much irony for weekly
appeals for money from the pulpit while singing that God doesn't need our money.
In any event, when I checked a few modern hymnals, I could not find it. In
fact, even in the scripture index there was a paucity of hymns making any reference
to Psalm 50. Since many denominations place a heavy emphasis on paying tithe to
provide an income to pastors and administrators, it is understandable why
pastors would be reluctant to promote any hymn that would call that into
question.
Biblical offerings were not originally
money. They were animals sacrificed on an altar. The first offering mentioned
is that of Abel who offered a lamb from his flock. There is no mention of how
that offering was prepared and given. We don't know if God consumed the entire
offering or if part or all of it was consumed by Abel and/or his family or even
if it was just left as carrion for the birds. We can speculate based on later
examples in the Pentateuch and elsewhere, but speculation is not evidence. The
main point the Bible wants us to know about Abel is that God accepted his sacrifice
but rejected his brother Cain's sacrifice of vegetables. This led to bloodshed
and Abel's death at Cain's hands. Maybe if money were in vogue then as it is
now for sacrifices all of that could have been avoided. Cain could have sold
his vegetables and even Abel could have sold his lamb for coins, and both could
have come and presented their offerings to God, and all would have been well. Eventually
God apparently changed to see the convenience of money instead of goats and
sheep. He advised people who had too far to travel to convert their tithe of
livestock and produce to coins and then buy those things when they arrived at
the temple, throwing a party before the Lord as they consumed everything from
animals to fermented beverages. And they were reminded to invite the Levites to
their parties. (Deuteronomy
14:22-27)
Modern denominations often draw
upon this idea to urge their membership to pay tithe with fear as a motivator. Inevitably,
the charge is made that people are robbing God and are under a curse. Fear the
curse and start bringing all the tithe into the storehouse. (Malachi
3:8-11) Then God will finally treat you nicely and remove the curse. What a
horrible characterization of God, especially after the Psalmist told us he does
not need our wealth. Churches and denominations everywhere use this passage to
pressure their flocks to turn over ten percent of their income to the church.
Some even demand a double tithe with ten percent going to pay ministers'
salaries and an additional ten percent paying for church budget, building
programs, youth and educational programs and many other rabbit holes that coins
can roll down and disappear. While churches today want that tithe to
continually flow in to the storehouse for the modern "Levitical
priests," even in Old Testament times it was only to be taken from the third
year's profits, not every year. (Deuteronomy
14:28-29)
The importance of money to the churches is seen in who leads the church. Those
who pay to play are given positions of power within the churches, those who don't
are relegated to lower service positions where they might prepare the water for
foot washing or provide the bread or wine for communion but not lead out from
the pulpit or lead select committees. The sad part of all of this is that this
constant urging to pour ever more money into the church results in the poor
doing all they can to contribute, even robbing their own families of resources
in the hope that God will provide a miracle blessing. There is little
difference between this and taking the rent or grocery money and spending it on
lottery tickets in the hope of hitting it big one day.
This is why the use of Malachi
is so tragic and even evil. Sadly, when taking communion to the elderly and
disabled I have had them tell me that they use less medicine, so they have
money to pay tithe. When I have told them to use the money for medicine and
told them God doesn't need their medicine money and cited Psalm 50, some have
responded that the church points to Malachi and tells them that they will
receive a huge blessing, and they are going to continue to stint on their meds
in hope of that blessing. It breaks my heart that I have lived long enough to
know that the jackpot never arrived for those people. Some might say that
heaven was their jackpot, but heaven is ours by faith, not by works of
sacrifice. (Ephesians
2:8)
In the first decades of the sixteenth
century, Johann Tetzel began selling indulgences in Germany. The Catholic
Church was the only official church throughout much of Europe, and that church
needed money. They were building Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome and funds were
short. Tetzel was given the right to sell indulgences which are like a
get-out-of-purgatory-free card for those who have died. His aggressive sales
tactics caught the attention of Martin Luther who noted that those who could
least afford to buy them were doing so out of fear that a loved one would be
stuck in purgatory if they did not. He realized the church's greed for money
was insatiable and preached against Tetzel. Luther not only confronted the
church about the indulgences but also looked more closely at other church
practices culminating in his famous "95 Theses," a theological broadside fired
against a wealthy and powerful church.
Despite the Reformation that
grew and blossomed during that century and the many who died in the wars fought
between Catholic rulers and Protestant dissenters, it is questionable who won. The
Protestants certainly won the right to have denominations that did not answer
to Rome, but many of the practices of Rome continue in those churches to the present
day. Perhaps the most egregious of those is the lust for money that is never
satisfied. It provides the believers with political power and influence, both
secular and religious, in this world, and billions of dollars have built
glorious temples all over the world to a God who does not need them. When the
disciples pointed out to Jesus how beautiful the temple in Jerusalem was, he
pointed out how ridiculous it was to praise such things that are so easily
destroyed. (Matthew
24:1-2)
Still Waters Ministry of
Washington State is a departure from this way of doing ministry. Instead of
coveting the money of others so we can create a clerical caste living off the
hard work of others, we covenanted with God in 1997 to begin a ministry that
did not ask for or accept donations. Instead, we decided to follow Apostle Paul's
example of working to support the ministry. As a result, we have never run out
of funds and have kept pace with God's leading, growing to a digital presence
in 150 countries with over 160,000 visitors per year to our free website where
they can read hundreds of commentaries on the Sabbath School lessons just like this
one or download them as podcasts. At times people have sent us large gift
donations, but we have always sent them back with a cover letter that we do not
accept donations. We sometimes wonder how much more could be accomplished in evangelizing
the world if the churches followed Paul's model and instead of continually
shaming people to pay tithe and offerings, it required ministers to be self-supporting
with a trade. Paul was a tentmaker, and even Jesus was a carpenter.