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How to Starve While Paying Tithe from Your Garden

Writer's picture: Max SuekertMax Suekert

“Continual giving starves covetousness to death.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p.548).


This quarter’s Sabbath school (Q1 2023) has been full of very important lessons for us as an end-time people looking for and seeking to hasten the return of our Lord. When we study the subject of giving and covetousness deeply we start to see how really deceived we are by Satan’s lies. We think of ourselves as good, upstanding, faithful Christians, while often we are actually holding onto an idol of selfishness like the rich young ruler.


I would like to bring forth a thought that has challenged me and my family personally. While growing up in the church all my life I always thought of paying tithe only from the paychecks that I received. The Bible though, speaks about paying tithe on our “increase” not on our paycheck. Now, of course the paycheck that we receive is a part of our “increase” but that’s not all that the Lord gives us in means of material goods and money.


There are other sources of “increase” that we have that maybe also would be eligible for tithing. I’ll let you think and pray about that for yourself. But as the title of this article implies we should be talking about something connected with gardening.

Let’s look at some of the verses where it speaks about “increase”:


“Thou shalt truly tithe all the increase of thy seed, that the field bringeth forth year by year.” (Deuteronomy 14:22).


“And as soon as the commandment came abroad, the children of Israel brought in abundance the firstfruits of corn, wine, and oil, and honey, and of all the increase of the field; and the tithe of all things brought they in abundantly.” (2 Chronicles 31:5).


Now of course it could be argued that the children of Israel were living in a mostly agrarian society, so this was their livelihood. Farming was their job. So what they got from the fields was for many their only “increase”. But does fact alone that mean that we should neglect paying tithes from our gardens because we are not dependent upon them as our source of livelihood?


I believe that any form of “increase” is a blessing from the Lord and deserves to be tithed. God is the one who gave it to us, just like He gave us our paycheck. It isn’t our boss who blesses us with our income each month, it’s God. It’s not our hard work that makes the seeds grow and bring forth fruit, it’s Jesus life-giving power.


Some would argue that to pay tithe on our garden produce would be impractical and difficult because we don’t go and sell our things on a market. Others would say that our Pastor might be overwhelmed with way too much Zucchini if all the members were to give him 10% of their harvest.


Well, even in Biblical times a way was made that the tithes could be converted into money to bring to the temple. Look at this passage:

“And if the way be too long for thee, so that thou art not able to carry it; or if the place be too far from thee, which the LORD thy God shall choose to set his name there, when the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: then shalt thou turn it into money, and bind up the money in thine hand, and shalt go unto the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt bestow that money for whatsoever thy soul lusteth after, for oxen, or for sheep, or for wine, or for strong drink, or for whatsoever thy soul desireth: and thou shalt eat there before the LORD thy God, and thou shalt rejoice, thou, and thine household.” (Deuteronomy 14:24-26).


I don’t claim to have all knowledge, but I would just like to share with you a way that my wife and I pay tithe on our garden produce. You don’t have to do it this way, and maybe you have a better idea on how to do it. So it’s only an idea to get the creative wheels in your brain turning. Maybe it will be a blessing for you!


So here’s what we do:


1.) First we weigh all of the edible produce that we get from our garden. We do this with a kitchen scale. It doesn’t have to be fancy, but should measure at least a few kg’s. (It’s also nice to see at the end of the season how much produce God blessed you with from your garden!)


2.) Then we check the the price we would have to pay for those organic vegetables or fruits if we bought them at the store or on the market. Sometimes we have to estimate, but we always try to be a bit more generous in the price, because in the end, we are giving back to our Redeemer who gave everything for us!


3.) Finally based on the amount of produce we have, we multiply it by price per kg that we found.


For example: if in the first week of August we harvested 3kgs of carrots, and the price for carrots was 2 Euros per kg we would multiply our harvest by the amount per kg. (3kg x 2euros/kg = 6 euros) This is how much we would have needed to pay to purchase this amount of carrots on the market. So we estimate the value of our carrots from that week to be 6 Euros. From this 6 Euros then we would pay a tithe.


It’s actually quite fun to see how much God has blessed us from our garden! We get to see how much money we saved compared to if we bought those things from a farmer or from the store. It doesn’t matter that we would never purchase 10kg of zucchini on the market at one time, but God blessed us with those zucchini and we want to return a faithful tithe.


From this systematic form of giving, our gardens can be a place to help fund mission work, and teach us thankfulness while helping to “starve covetousness to death”.


Does it take a little bit of time to find the prices and weigh all the produce? Yeah, it does take a few minutes, but it’s also fun and you can involve your children in the work! (Our three year old son loves to weigh the produce and pretend to read how many kg of fruits and vegetable we harvested!) In the end it helps us to better thank God for the wonderful blessings that He has given us from the soil!


We have even started returning tithe on the wild berries we pick that grow in along the trails near where we live. We weigh them all and then again estimate the price. They are free, we never did any work to make them grow, but Jesus planted them there for us as a blessing! Sure the price of organic berries in the store is quite high, but in the end we only end up giving 10% of that price to God that others may hear of His matchless love. Does this all sound crazy to you? It’s just because we so often just forget who is really the one who gives us all the blessings in our lives. They don’t just come by chance. And I can tell you from experience that we have not lacked anything by paying a tithe from our humble harvests. God has blessed us in such amazing ways!


Here’s a few promises to encourage you in your effort to return more to God not only in tithes, but also in offerings:


“Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts.” (Malachi 3:10-11).

We experienced this with our garden! We had very minimal pests when we tithed our produce. We still used some natural things to deter a few pests, but for the most part we had very little problem with pests. We even had a very dry year but God still protected our plants! Praise Him!


“Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, and shaken together, and running over, shall men give into your bosom. For with the same measure that ye mete withal it shall be measured to you again.” (Luke 6:38). Basically, if we seek to measure out only the minimum what we have to give, the blessings will also only be the minimum.


“The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself.” (Proverbs 11:25).


Test God and see. He cannot lie.


We are living in the last days. We have a world to warn for Jesus. Let’s get serious about putting our money where our mouth is. If we really believe that Jesus is coming soon let’s invest more in that Stockmarket. The returns are not always monetary in nature. They are better.


“[Jesus] has given His blood; He asks our silver.” (Testimonies for the Church vol. 3, p.390).


“The constant practice of God’s plan of systematic benevolence weakens covetousness and strengthens benevolence. Continual giving starves covetousness to death.” (Testimonies for the Church, vol. 3, p.548).


Here’s how you starve while paying tithe from your garden. God promises that our physical bodies won’t starve, but that our selfish natures will. (I would highly encourage everyone to read Testimonies for the Church vol. 3, Chapter 33 - “Tithes and Offerings”).





Max Suekert is an American who landed in Europe by God's providence. He attended AFCOE-Europe missionary school before studying Horticulture at a technical college in Germany. He currently lives and works as a missionary in the Waldensian Valleys of Northern Italy with his wife and 3 year old son. Together with his family they seek to combine agriculture with their missionary endeavors.

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