To Glean or Not to Glean

Good afternoon, everyone. Hope you're enjoying a beautiful Sabbath. Seems like the weather's been pretty variable lately, but we hit a home run today and looks like the rest of the weekend's going to be fantastic as well. Say hi to everyone out there on Zoom. Mr. Thomas and everyone else who's out there hope that he's starting to feel better. Hopefully we'll see everyone back here with us soon. Congratulations to young people as well. It's always good to see the milestone. I think that's something fantastic about our culture as a church that we're continuing to do so much to just continue to ground everybody in God's Word from our youngest people up. And thanks to all those who are spending the time teaching them as well. It's not easy and it's time consuming, but it does pay lifelong dividends. Well, one of the things I work, as all of you know, in sort of the financial accounting taxation space, I think a lot about in my day-to-day life about economics.

And one of the things I find interesting about the Bible is how much it actually has to say about economic concepts. And it's not something maybe that we focus on. It puts most people to sleep, I suppose. So get ready for a good nap this afternoon. And before I dive too deep into this topic, I'll just say there can be some pretty heated debates, especially in political circles, about the economic system. And we can often see God's name attached to different philosophies that are out there. We'll hear people correctly point out the fact that the Bible makes room for ownership, personal ownership of property. And sometimes we can reflexively say that means God is a capitalist. We see very clearly in the Bible that it teaches care for the poor and needy.

And in fact, that's at the core of biblical morality and Christianity. And that can cause some people to say that God must be a socialist. So before we dive into this topic, I just want to make it clear that the answer to those questions is none of the above. And one of the things we do have to be careful of as we look into God's Word is hold it separately and above the philosophies and political views and everything that we have in this world. Because to try to take God's views and fit them inside of a human construct is not the right way to go. Rather, what we should do is try to sweep those things aside as much as we can and look in God's Word and understand what it is that it teaches us in these different concepts that are there. So an example that I'd like to spend a little bit of time on today is the concept of gleaning. It's actually a distinct economic concept in the Bible. And we'll spend a little bit of time understanding, first of all, what it is and then what the spiritual lessons are that are in it for all of us. And yes, I said gleaning, not cleaning. My wife can tell you that I'm not really qualified to talk about cleaning.

It's not necessarily my strong suit. But I would like to spend a little time on the concept of gleaning. Who's heard of gleaning before? Probably some general concepts about it, and perhaps some of you have looked into it in a little more detail. But let's start at the surface level and just define what in the world this is. The Bible uses, in the Old Testament, a Hebrew word, lakat, which is translated in many places, gleaning. It's not always translated as that, and we'll see that in a moment. But it means to collect, to gather, or to pick up. And in addition to just reading a definition, I think we all know in the use of language, we can really understand what a word means a lot better by seeing how it's used. I've got a friend I'll talk to, and he'll sometimes tell me that, man, things are just stupid crazy right now. And if I looked at the definition of stupid, it wouldn't really define the way that he's using the word. So we always have to look at how words are used, because that's one of the fun things about language, actually, is the way that it morphs over time. And even the English language is used very differently today than it was even a few decades ago. So let's look at what gleaning is, what this Hebrew word is. It appears 30 sometimes in the Old Testament, so it's used quite a lot. We're not going to read all of those. We'll just go through a few of the uses of the word. I find it interesting, some of the different concepts that are embedded in it. It's used literally and repeatedly as simply to gather. So it means just to gather. Genesis 47 verse 14 is one place where it's used, and there in the New King James Version, it's simply translated gather. Genesis 47 verse 14, here talking about Joseph as he was getting ready for the years of plenty, followed by the years of famine. It says, the Joseph gathered up, and that's the Hebrew word lakat, all the money that was found in the land of Egypt, in the land of Canaan, for the grain which they bought, and Joseph brought the money into Pharaoh's house. So here, simply uses this word to say Joseph went out and he gathered. He pulled in all the money that was there. And there's some implication in doing this that he was looking for everything possible because we know the situation that he was preparing for, and so he's trying to gather in everything that was there. Exodus 16, interestingly enough, is a place where the word is used nine times. And Exodus 16 is a section where we're first introduced to the concept of manna. We still talk about manna from heaven. I sometimes wonder when people use that word, or that phrase, if they actually know what it means. But there are a lot of biblical phrases that still creep their way into everyday life. So this is literally manna coming from heaven, and in Exodus 16, this word is used over and over again. One example is in verse 4.

Here in verse 4 of Exodus 16, the Lord said to Moses, Behold, I will reign bread from heaven for you, and the people shall go out and gather a certain quota every day, that I may test them whether they'll walk in my law or not. So again, the word gather here is the same Hebrew word, because what they're supposed to do is they're supposed to go out there, and they're supposed to search it out and pull it in. Simply go out, gather the manna that's fallen on the ground, and take it in. This word is also used in a figurative way, and it's used by the prophets specifically in this figurative way, just like we typically have different metaphors that we use, using it in the same way to talk about events happening prophetically. Isaiah 27 is one example of that. We'll read verse 12. Here Isaiah is writing about the restoration of Israel, and he uses the metaphor of gleaning, or this Hebrew word, lakat, to talk about this metaphor of what God is going to do in the future to pull all of Israel together again. Here in Isaiah 27, verse 12, Isaiah prophesies, it shall come to pass in that day that the Lord will thresh from the channel of the river to the brook of Egypt, and you will be gathered one by one, you children of Israel. Again, using the same word here, to gather in. And so what we see, again, this time used metaphorically, is the idea that God is going to find every single one of them. We put this together with the other prophecies about Israel. We see his promise to Israel that he's going to gather them all back together as part of those physical promises that he made to Abraham, and hear this word, again, implying not only going out and kind of grabbing some stuff, but methodically going out and finding every last one, gathering everything together. Another place that's used prophetically is in Jeremiah 6, and here we'll read verses 6 through 9, which talks about punishment for Israel. You know, of course, the prophets talk both about punishment and God's mercy, in this case in Jeremiah 6, verses 6 through 9. He's talking about punishment. And starting verse 6, Jeremiah writes, Thus the Lord of hosts have said, Cut down trees and build a mound against Jerusalem. This is the city to be punished. She's full of oppression in her midst, as a fountain wells up with water, so she wells up with her wickedness. Violence and plundering are heard in her, and before me continually are grief and wounds. Be instructed, O Jerusalem, lest my soul depart from you, lest I make you desolate, a land not inhabited. And in verse 9, Thus says the Lord of hosts, They shall thoroughly glean as a vine, the remnant of Israel, as a grape-gatherer, put your hand back into the branches. And so what he's talking about here, and the punishment of Israel, is that the enemy is going to come, and just as somebody would go in and gather or glean from a vineyard, and to pick every single last grape to leave none of that produce behind, that's how, in this case, he's saying metaphorically, the punishment is going to come to Israel. That the enemy is going to come in and find every single last one. So as we look at how this word is used, I just want to park there before we move on in the message and talk about what this is referring to. We've seen these concepts, so physically gathering, but also with this concept of getting every single last thing, going in and making sure that everything is picked up and leaving nothing left that's left behind. So before we move on, a question. Is gleaning a good thing, or is it a bad thing?

Good thing or a bad thing? I guess I would say it depends, and let's look into that in this next section. In fact, there are people who are not supposed to glean. Who's not supposed to glean?

Okay, let's find out in Leviticus 19. Rhetorical question. Leviticus 19 verses 9 and 10.

Actually, landowners are not supposed to glean. Leviticus 19, starting in verse 9.

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not wholly reap the corners of your field, nor shall you gather the gleanings of your harvest. And you shall not glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather every grape of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the stranger, because I am the Lord your God. So what God is specifically telling the Israelites here in Leviticus is that the way that they treat their land when they go out there, harvest their land, they're not supposed to go out and pick up every last thing that's out there, whether they're harvesting a field, whether they're going out for olive trees, whether they have fruit, whatever it is, they're supposed to leave some behind. Talks here about the corners of the field. You can think about when you're out on a field with an ox and you're turning the corner, you've got a bit of a square corner there that you're not catching with the sweep. You're not supposed to go back and make sure that you get every last bit of produce that's hiding there in the corner.

Maybe you've got an olive tree and you put down the fabric underneath the olive tree and you start hitting it with a stick so the olives start to fall out and you gather up those olives. When you look back up at that olive tree and you see that maybe 10 percent, 5 percent of the olives are still kind of sticking up there, what God is saying here is you don't go back to that tree to get every last bit out of it. You leave that behind. Those are the gleanings. Those are things that you're not supposed to harvest as someone who owns the land. This concept is repeated in Deuteronomy 24. We'll read Deuteronomy 24 verses 19 through 22. Here we see some very similar concepts talked about. Deuteronomy 24 will start in verse 19. When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the stranger, for the fatherless, and the widow, that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat your olive tree, you shall not go over the boughs again. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not glean it afterward. It shall be for the stranger, the fatherless, and the widow. And you shall remember that you are a slave in the land of Egypt, and therefore I command you to do these things.

So again, we see if you if you own the land, if you're harvesting the land, God is saying, not every last bit of it, leave something behind. What I find especially interesting is a couple of things that are tied to this in Deuteronomy when he talks about it. First of all, that God is going to bless the work of your hands if you leave those things behind. Now that's counterintuitive from a physical perspective, isn't it? And especially, again, if we sort of put ourselves back into our economic concept these days, in the idea of capitalism—we'll talk a little bit about that more in a minute—but the idea is you get every—it's your duty, and in fact, you're doing good for society as a capitalist if you get every last ounce out of everything you have.

But God is saying here, if you want the work of your hands to be blessed, you leave something behind, and for a specific purpose, for people who are going to come afterwards who need it—the strangers, the fatherless, the widows—those who don't have productive assets of their own, those who aren't able, because of other circumstances, to take care of themselves.

Something else that's tied to in verse 22 is remembering that Israel, the Israelites, were slaves in the land of Egypt, and specifically says, therefore I command you to do this thing.

Now what does that tie into? One of the things that the children of Israel are always supposed to remember was the fact that God divinely blessed them with the land that they were given.

They didn't earn it. They didn't come into it themselves. They didn't inherit it from their parents and grandparents. They had to remember the ultimate inheritance of this land came from God.

And because of that fact, because they were taken from this condition of slavery, freed, and brought into the land, they were supposed to act a certain way with that land and with everything that it produced. And that's why there's this reminder, and you'll see it come multiple times, especially in the book of Deuteronomy, remembering that you were a slave in the land of Egypt. It ties very closely to how you treat other people. It comes into play here, as we see, in how we treat the productive goods that we have. And so there's a recognition that's built in with this that we reap blessings from God. God gives us the ability to generate the increase, and as a result of that, we have to leave something behind for others. It's not our job to go in and squeeze every single last ounce out of everything that we have. And in fact, we're told children of Israel will be blessed because of that and all the work of their hands, a concept I believe that carries on today. So is gleaning a good thing or a bad thing? If you're a landowner, it's not a good thing. You're not supposed to go back and glean your field. As we saw specifically in these scriptures, if you drop some sheaves in the field, you leave them. If you beat the olives out of the olive tree and there's still some left, you don't go and make a second pass, and you leave it behind for others. So, gleaning is also a good thing. In fact, there's people who are supposed to glean. We read that in a couple of the scriptures that we already looked at. So we see the flip side, both sides of the coin, in those scriptures, right? Just as a person who owns the land is not supposed to glean it. They're supposed to leave the rest of what's there for someone else. We're told again that that's the fatherless, it's the widow, it's the stranger in the land. So people who don't have their own productive assets, people who don't have their own inheritance or means to generate sustenance, are allowed then to come in and gather those things. It also involves, for those people, action to the extent of their ability. I find that interesting, too. When we look at this concept of gleaning, whether you look at the Israelites when the manna came down from heaven and they were told to gather or glean it in, it didn't say the manna is going to come down and it's going to magically appear in your pot, in your tents. All you got to do is turn on the fire. In fact, you don't even have to turn on the fire. God will turn the fire on for you and it'll just be cooked up and ready for you in the morning. Of course, he didn't say that. He said, you got to get up, you got to go out there, and you got to gather it in. Likewise, when people were gleaning in the fields, they were in need, but they did, to the best of their physical ability, need to go out and gather that into themselves. Let's read an example of that in the book of Ruth.

I think we're probably familiar, generally speaking, with the story of Ruth.

Ruth and Naomi came back, and Ruth was a Moabites, so she was not of the children of Israel. She was a stranger as they were coming back into the land. And in Ruth 2 and verse 1, we read then, there was a relative of Naomi's husband, a man of great wealth of the family of a limilec, and his name was Boaz. So Ruth the Moabites said to Naomi, who was her daughter-in-law. You might remember that Ruth's son had died. Please let me go to the field, and glean heads of grain after him, in whose sight I might find favor.

I'm sorry, Naomi is the mother, and Ruth is the daughter-in-law. And she said to her, Go, my daughter. And so here we have a situation where Naomi was probably older as the mother-in-law, probably didn't have the strength or the physical ability to go out and do it herself. And so Ruth was going to go out and glean and gather in that food so they could eat, and they could survive.

In verse 3, she left, and she went and gleaned in the field after the reapers. And so that's exactly what we've done, just like we read in the scripture, right? The reapers would go, they'd make their first pass, and they wouldn't get everything. There'd be stuff left, whether it was wheat or olives or whatever else. And so Ruth could follow behind as a gleaner, and she could gather up the additional things that were left there, and take them home so that she and Naomi could eat.

And Boaz, in verse 4, came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, The Lord be with you. And they answered him, The Lord bless you. And Boaz said to a servant who is in charge of the reapers, Whose young woman is this? The servant who is in charge of the reapers answered and said, Is the young Moabite woman who came back with Naomi from the country of Moab? And she said, Please let me glean and gather after the reapers among the sheaves. And so she came, and has continued from morning until now, though she rested a little in the house.

And so we see something customary that was happening here, and there was nothing unusual about this. We don't hear Boaz saying, What in the world are you doing? How come you're letting strangers come into the field and start picking my corn or my wheat or barley or whatever they were growing? This was something expected. It was part of what was done and happening. And of course, we know the story that as Ruth found favor in his sight, he began to actually let the people in the house come back.

She let tell the reapers, leave more behind or drop some stalks for her so that they will have more to eat. And it was a way that he began to care for her. And so Ruth went out and was able to glean. It's the lesson here in terms of, is it a good thing to glean? Is it something you should do or you shouldn't? It depends on where you are in life. It depends on the needs you have. And for the strangers, for the fatherless, for the widows, this was a very important thing that allowed sustenance so that people could still eat and survive during that time period as they got on their feet in the land of Israel.

So those who are in need are to glean. And for Mr. Thomas, who asked if I ever accidentally over-scroll on my iPad, I just did. Those who are in need are to glean. They're going to go out into the field to the best of their ability and gather what's been left to pick up. So all very interesting. It dates back several thousand years. I would recommend none of us go out and try to glean in one of the fields.

If you go next door, this guy plans to field next door, I would recommend not following after him and starting to pick out produce out of his field. He probably won't understand it. Nothing against him, of course, as our neighbor. But it's not the way that we do things in our society, is it? And so it's probably a bit of a foreign concept. In fact, in some parts of the country, you could perhaps put your life in danger if you started hopping the fence and picking apples out of somebody's trees in the orchard.

It's not completely foreign, though, when you think about it. You think about things like the baker's dozen, right? You go into a bakery, baker knows you, likes you, might know you're on hard time, throw an extra roll, an extra muffin, an extra donut in the batch. There is tradition, even in our culture, of these types of things happening. People looking out for each other and finding ways to help one another. Here it was hard-coded into how God wanted the Israelites to live. So in the balance of our time, I just want to focus briefly on what does this mean for us from a point of view of spiritual application?

How are we supposed to put into use something here that's really thousands of years old and doesn't even apply to the way that we live our lives? How many of us have fields that we harvest? We really don't in a literal sense. I don't think any of us is farming. But there are things that we're supposed to do. So from the physical side, let's go back to the idea of capitalism for a minute. Some of you might have heard of Milton Friedman, and I'll just read a short blurb from Forbes magazine that summarizes some of the things that Milton Friedman said about capitalism.

Friedman said that capitalism's moral logic was perhaps most famously articulated by free market champion Milton Friedman when he said that, quote, the social responsibility of business is to increase its profits, end quote. That sentiment puts faith in the market to distribute wealth in the freest, fairest, and most efficient way possible. Others might be familiar with Adam Smith. He was a Scottish economist. He had the theory of the invisible hand that basically says if everybody goes out there in the economy and tries to do whatever will maximize the use of their own resources that everyone will benefit, and the system will basically automatically allocate out to everybody what they need.

And that's sort of a pure, capitalistic view. What we have to do is compare those concepts to what it is that the Bible says in the way that we live our lives physically. Now, again, we don't have fields. We probably don't have olive trees. We probably don't have vineyards. But what do we have? We have resources. Just like God gave the children of Israel physical land, God has blessed us with different physical resources. And those resources are going to differ greatly for each of us, depending on who we are, depending on what stage of life we're in.

You know, time is a fantastic resource. It's one that we probably undervalue in our society in general. But time is a very precious resource, as is energy. Physical energy, mental energy. Of course, other things like money is a resource as well. But resources are not limited only to financial resources. What we need to think about in our lives is we take this concept of gleaning, is how do we use that in our lives to look at the resources that we have, what it is that God has blessed us with, each in a unique way, including the spiritual gifts that he gives us, and how do we make sure that we're leaving something back to help other people?

So when I look at this from a conceptual viewpoint, what it tells me is that no matter if I look at time, no matter how busy I am in my life, I need to leave some corners of my time so it's available to help other people. No matter how tight the money might be, I should have something so that if I need to help another person, whether it's somebody I pass on the street, whether it's somebody I see sitting at the gas station or whatever else it is, that there's something there. Now maybe that's not very much at all, depending on our financial situation.

But again, whatever the situation is that we're in, we're always leaving something behind at the corners. There's something there for others that we can give to others that we can benefit others with. Let's look in 1 John 3, one place that this concept comes through very strongly. 1 John 3, the epistle, written by John, will read verses 17 through 19. 1 John 3, verses 17 through 19.

As we've talked about before, I feel like this is a real characteristic that our congregation has as people are looking out for each other and helping one another, giving of their time for one another, giving of other resources for one another. So this is not meant in any way to say that we're not doing this. This is an incredible expression of God's Spirit that we see within our congregation all the time, and I am confident we'll continue to see. But it's something important as we think of this topic of gleaning that we need to continue to be focused on doing. Let's turn to Ephesians 4, 28. Same concept again, talking in a New Covenant context, essentially. That's what I find so interesting, reading the Scriptures. We know that we're not bound under the Old Covenant, we're under a New Covenant, but the fact is that the Old Covenant was given by God. It's an expression of His mind. The concepts that are behind it, all of the things that are written there in the way that people were to act, are an expression of the mind of God. And that's why we can learn so much from it as we're going through our lives. Ephesians 4, 28. Let him who stole steal no longer, but rather let him labor, working with his hands what is good. Notice the punchline? That he may have something to give to him who is in need. Stop stealing. Honest labor. There's another outcome to the honest labor other than putting just food on your own table. It's so you might also have something to help one who has need.

The physical lesson of gleaning as we look at our lives is that no matter how much or little we might have of any particular resource, God wants us to leave some of it in reserve for the benefit of others. Just like you would leave grain in the field, you'd leave some of the grapes on the vine, that we have something there so that when we encounter a situation when a brother or sister has need, when a neighbor has need, we've got the ability to help fill that. Let's think then about the spiritual application, because there is that side of it as well. I find it interesting. So we talked earlier about how strangers were one of the categories of people for whom the gleanings in the field were left. What is it that we are spiritually? We're talked about in the Bible as strangers and pilgrims. You want to read through Hebrews 11 at some point, and you'll see it's written about Abraham, it's written about others, talks about them waiting for a homeland, being strangers and pilgrims on this earth, realizing that they and we are not of the world that we're living in. 1 Peter 2 verses 11 and 12 goes on and uses that concept again, and we won't necessarily turn there, we might see it up on the screen, but again, talks about us as strangers and pilgrims. So in a land that's not our homeland, God still divinely gives us sustenance.

And from a spiritual point of view, what is that sustenance? It's His word. It's there waiting for us that we can go out, we can pick it up, we can put it to use in our lives, we can be sustained spiritually by it. We think about it, God gives us a calling, and we have to act on that calling. It tells us many are called, not all are chosen, not everyone acts on the calling.

We look at the parable of the sower and the seed, for example, and the difference there in how people react to that seed that's sown. God gives us His spirit, and we have to put it to use. God gives us His word, and we have to go to it, study it, and fill ourselves with it. So just as we think of the children of Israel had to go out and they had to gather in, glean in that manna that was out there in the field, these things that God gives to us, He also expects us to go out there and be active in it, being in His word, fanning the flame of the spirit, and using it so that we can grow as Christians.

Turn with me, if you will, to Revelation 3, verse 20. This further carries on this idea, I think probably a fairly familiar scripture for most of us. Revelation 3, verse 20. I think this is a great analogy, great symbolism in Revelation 3, verse 20, in terms of how God deals with us. Here, it says, So that's really an example about how it is that God deals with us.

He's knocking on the door. He's there. Now, we've got the decision of whether we're going to go, metaphorically, are we going to gather? Are we going to get up and we're going to open the door and invite Him in? Are we going to go to His word that He's left for us to sustain us, sustain us, and open it and drink in of it? Are we going to take the things that He's given us and use them? And that's a decision that's in our hands, just like it was for the children of Israel when they saw the manna that was out there in the field, and they had to decide, am I going to get up?

Am I going to go out of my tent and gather it in? In which case they would eat, but if they weren't ready to do that, then they wouldn't have the food to eat. Turn with me, if you will, to 2 Timothy 3. We'll read verses 16 and 17, which further bolsters the idea of the Word of God as the sustenance that's been left for us. Just like manna was a complete food, filled all the food groups, food pyramid, I don't think we talk about the food pyramid anymore, do we? I guess it is the pyramid instead of the food groups, isn't it?

I have to go back and check that. 2 Timothy 3, verses 16 and 17. Here, Timothy writes that all Scripture is given by inspiration of God. It's profitable for doctrine, for proof, for correction, for instruction, and righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. So we read here that the Word of God is complete. Just like manna was a complete diet for the children of Israel, it went out and they gathered it. God's Word is a complete diet for a Christian. It's what we need in order to sustain ourselves. But we have to go out, we have to glean it.

We've got to gather it in and take it in to ourselves. So as we wrap up the message today, to glean or not to glean, that is the question. It's also the title for those who like Shakespeare. Maybe you'll think if you like Shakespeare, maybe you'll think that's not a good use of Shakespeare. In our physical lives, we should glean. Regardless of how much or how little we have in resources, I'm sorry, we should not glean. Regardless of how much or little we have in resources, we are to leave something in reserve to help other people.

So with our physical resources, we're not to glean. We're not to squeeze every last ounce out of everything that we have for ourselves. So this involves the thought of assessing what is it that we have as resources? What is it that God's blessed us with that we can give to others with?

And what are we leaving behind and how are we using it in order to benefit others when they need it? On the flip side of it, in our spiritual lives, we must glean. In fact, it's essential to our survival. Just like a stranger living in the land of Israel with no land, no ability to grow any crops, we're living in a strange land.

We're strangers in pilgrims. And we've very much been given what we need to glean so that we can live. God's given us that perfect spiritual food that sustains us. And like the children of Israel, gathering or gleaning manna from the ground, we need to regularly and diligently gather in of God's word. So as we go forward in our lives, as we think about the physical blessings that God has given us, what it is that we have as resources, as we also consider our spiritual lives, I hope that we'll continue to reflect on the question, to glean or not to glean.

For that is the question.