On the first occasion that Jacob went to Bethel he was fleeing for his life. He had just pulled that dirty deed on Esau, taking advantage of Esau's weakness. He got the birthright and the blessing and Esau was rip-roaring angry and wanted to kill his brother and so Jacob was fleeing for his life when he came across Bethel. I do not know whether Jacob knew it at the time, whether Isaac had ever told him about the strange circumstances of their birth, but God had made His choice of the twins - Jacob, from the very beginning.
Bethel is significant not merely because God appeared to be dwelling there, but because of what happened to Jacob there. Jacob came to Bethel as a man with a past, a bad past, a rotten past. He was a sneaking, deceitful, conniving, grasping person, a great sinner.
Bethel represents Jacob's calling. It was the turning point of his life. So significant was the impact of his calling there that this conniving, grasping man said he was going to tithe! This was the man who wanted to grab everything and pull it into himself, but already a change was beginning to take place within him. Undoubtedly, some of the instruction of his father and grandfather suddenly came into his mind and God was much more real to him now than He had ever been before and he left there convinced that God was going to be with him.
What is Bethel then noted for? It is noted for transformation, meeting with God, and a person changes because of meeting with God. So Bethel then became associated in the Israelites minds as a place of renewal, a place of reorientation, of transformation that comes from God working through a person.
Look what happened to Jacob. From a grasping, conniving man, he suddenly decides he is going to give God a tithe. His attitude toward the tithing law changed. His attitude toward money was changed. He was still very vigorous in the accumulation of it, but a lot of the grasping and conniving was leaving from him. So there was a change in attitude toward law.
The next example of tithing found in the Old Testament is in Genesis 28.
Abraham and Jacob knew that their substance, their success, and their defense all came from God. They were reliant upon God. This is the lesson that we, too, are learning and practicing as a way of life. The International Bible Encyclopedia, Volume 4, page 862, says, "Jacob's tithe that went to support God's house, as symbolized by the pillar, anticipated a major purpose of the tithe in later Israel, namely, the care of God's house."
How did Abel know to sacrifice? How did he know what animals to sacrifice—unless he received instruction from God? Cain could not have been corrected for giving a wrong offering had he not been instructed as to what a right offering was. God is perfectly fair. How did Abraham or Jacob know to give ten percent? Why did they not give 2? percent or five percent? Why did they not say, "Take whatever you want"? We see that God's laws had already been given to man. God had instructed those with whom He was working.
The third and final episode from Jacob’s life referred to by Hosea is the patriarch’s meeting with God at Bethel, recorded in Genesis 35. Jacob had been at Bethel once before; in fact, he had named it. Bethel means “house of God,” and Jacob had named it that because he had received a vision there of a staircase reaching to heaven. On that earlier occasion, Jacob had been his old self, and he had bargained with God, promising to tithe to Him, to give Him a tenth of his possessions if God would prosper him.
Here Jacob was, trying to bargain with God, with something that was God’s already, because God owns that tithe, and we are just giving it back to Him. However, on his return, he was a different man. This time, he did not bargain with God. On the way, he had instructed his household and servants to get rid of whatever idols they may still have had, to purify themselves and change their clothes, and that is all he is reported as saying.
This tithing in patriarchal times was an act o expression of worship. In this instance, it is plainly connected with the setting up of an altar or pillar, which was to represent God's house. Jacob must have been taught about tithing by his father Isaac and his grandfather Abraham because he knew of it and he knew what the right use of it was.
