Week Two: Gleaning the Intent

To read the introduction to this series, please click here.

I was reading the story of Ruth and Naomi and Boaz this week. It's fascinating. I don't have time to summarize the entire story, but there's a scene in which Naomi comes to Boaz's field to glean. Gleaning is the act by which someone goes behind the harvesters and basically, collects what's left over. God had instituted this rule for the Israelites in Leviticus 19:9-10, 23:33, and Deuteronomy 24:19 as a way for foreigners and aliens to be fed. The Israelites were instructed to pass over their fields and vineyards only once, and not go back and pick up whatever they missed. The leftovers would be for the gleaners. That was the law. Sounds pretty progressive for a God who's so often seen as old-fashioned, huh?

At any rate, Naomi comes to Boaz's field to glean, but when he sees her and talks to his hired men about her, he realizes her courage and sacrifice, so he tells his mean not to bother her, to let her glean, and even to leave some bundles of wheat in the field on purpose, so she'll have more to take. He then invites Naomi to come eat lunch with him, and even take back home what she can't finish.

Here's the thing: as I've been thinking about and praying about the issue of hunger in the world today, I think this story has all kinds of implications (probably some of the immigration debate, but that might be for another post.) At any rate, I was struck by Boaz's attitude concerning the gleaners and the law. See, the law said, leave something behind so the aliens and foreigners and those who couldn't work could collect. But, Boaz understood the heart of the law, which was to feed the people who were hungry. That's why he ordered his men to act they way he did. That's why he invited Naomi to eat lunch with him. It wasn't because he was required too, it was because he was compelled too.

Boaz remembered God's words when he gave the law to the Israelites that, "You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt." God wanted to give a constant reminder to the Israelites of what he'd done for them in bringing them out of slavery in the land of Egypt, and the concept of gleaning was one of those ways.

And, I wonder if we as the church and me as a believer would get this concept, what kind of changes would occur. If I really understood that the master of the field has told his hired men to leave me alone and let me glean, and to even leave more in the field than is required. If I realized that I was once unable to work and provide for myself and would have gone hungry had I not been invited to eat lunch with the man who owned the field, how would that change the way I think about those who are hungry in the world? For me, it's not primarily a money issue, or a time issue. It's the fact that I've forgotten that physical acts of tangible mercy have been given to remind me of a more important spiritual truth.