2. Gleaning—Another major practice taught in the Bible is gleaning.
Instructions for gleaning are found in Lev.
19:9-10. They are startling by today’s standards. “Now when you reap the
harvest of your land, you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, nor
shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. Nor shall you glean your
vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall
leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the Lord your God.”
To our individualistic, Puritan work ethic this
seems wasteful, maybe even lazy. Don’t pick up every apple? Don’t combine the wheat too
carefully? You’re kidding! The closest we come to gleaning is to turn the
cattle into the corn after it’s been harvested, and let them clean up the
pickings.
But think about it. This is a built-in way for a
land-owner (in biblical times, a person who is wealthy by definition) to share
something that really wouldn’t be missed, and someone who didn’t own land, or
was far away from home, to help herself and keep
her self-respect. This is one of the most
essential attitudes we need to keep clear in our attempts to serve. People don’t
like to feel they are on the other end of a handout. Paradoxically, when they
are forced to take such “charity” for long enough, even for generations, they
may come to take it for granted, and develop the “sense of entitlement” so much
decried by taxpayers. They begin to see no way out.
Gleaning didn’t feel like begging, (though
begging also was acceptable in that society and is in many societies today.) It
didn’t require filling out an application or even asking. It was the way things
were done.
On the other hand, gleaning also protected
against what some feared (and still do) as “wasting” their charity on the “unworthy
poor.” Are there really people who really are simply lazy? Who could help
themselves, but won’t?
An old joke, (not very funny) tells the story of
the town sluggard. Someone got tired of his begging, labeled him worthless, and
loaded him into a wheelbarrow to haul him to the dump. On the way, another
villager, feeling sorry for the man, said, “Don’t haul him away! I have a whole
bushel of corn he can have!”
From the depths of the wheelbarrow came the slow
question, “Is it shucked?” “Well, no, but …”
“Drive on,” said the sluggard.
Believe it or not, Proverbs speaks of just that
attitude in 19:24:
“The sluggard buries his hand in the dish, but will not even bring it back to
his mouth.” A person with this attitude wouldn’t get much from a system of
gleaning.
We can learn some principles from the story of
Ruth. To recap, Naomi, an Israelite widow, and her daughter-in-law, a Moabite
named Ruth, had come back to Naomi’s native town of Bethlehem, both “widows
indeed”—that is, women with neither husband nor child nor even close family to
care for them. This was a very desperate situation in ancient times. Most such
women would die or become prostitutes. But this was God’s country, and God’s
country had gleaning.
However, these were troubled times, and it wasn’t
necessarily safe to glean just anywhere. Naomi did still have a relative there,
though not a close one. His name was Boaz, and she advised Ruth to glean in his
fields.
Boaz quickly showed himself to be a man who
understood the real principles of caring behind the practice of gleaning. He
found out who Ruth was, urged her to stay near his workers where she would be
safe, offered her food and care above and beyond what the law required, and to
make a long story short, romance ensued, and Ruth and Boaz became ancestors of
the Messiah.
Who gleaned? Naomi didn’t. Ruth did. Not everyone should be required to work.
The aged, infirm, sick, those who are unable, even new mothers with very small
children need extra help, and it is the care of those who can to do for those
who can’t. Safe daycare is good. Ways for single parents to support themselves
and still be with their small children would be better. Someone who cares
enough to help for a while would be best of all. In this case, it was another
needy person doing the helping. Ruth gleaned for both herself and her
mother-in-law, so they could feel they were working together.
Boaz paid attention. We’ve noticed this before. Godly people keep their eyes open. They
care about those they see, and they show it. This picture implies a well-known
local benefactor. There must have been more gleaners there. Maybe Boaz left
more of his corners unreaped than he had to, because he knew times were tough.
But he knew who was there, and knew when he
saw a stranger. He asked about her.
Then he went the second
mile. He invited her to stay, glean nowhere else,
even eat with his own hired workers. He didn’t have to do this. And Ruth could
have said, “Oh, no, you’re doing enough for me already. I’ll go home and cook
some of the barley for Naomi and myself.” Instead, she accepted the offered
help, little knowing what effects these events were to have on her life. She
did ask, though, “Why are you so kind to me?” See Ruth
2:10. People often will ask that. Boaz’ answer is worthy of note.
He looked for something to
affirm. “All that you have done for your mother-in-law after
the death of your husband has been fully reported to me.” Ruth
2:11. Kind words like this help to rebuild self-confidence damaged by a
sorrow-weighted life.
And he gave the credit to
God. “May the Lord reward your work, and your wages be
full from the Lord, the God of Israel, under whose wings you have come to seek refuge.”
(Verse
12.) Boaz took the opportunity not only to bless, but to plant a suggestion
in the mind of this young woman with an idolatrous upbringing that it was God
she could thank for the positive turn her life had taken, God who would shelter
her under loving wings.
From the Bible it is clear that we need to
share, help others to help themselves when possible, guard their self-respect,
and always give credit to God. A contemporary example might be the thrift
stores that are operated by Adventist Community Services, Habitat for Humanity,
Goodwill Industries, and other nonprofits. They provide both jobs and
inexpensive clothes and other items which could be said to come from the “corners”
of a more affluent society’s fields. They recycle useful materials to those who
can use them, thus accomplishing two things; keeping unneeded items out of landfills,
and getting them into the hands of those who do need them. Are there any other
ways we could incorporate something like gleaning into our world today? Could
this be done on smaller, more local, even
individual levels? How could we take care to maintain the self-respect of all
parties?
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