Part 21

---The series on Ruth began in Part 10---
“I will give you treasures of darkness and hidden riches of the Secret Place, that you may know that I, the Lord, Who calls you by your name, am the God of Israel.”  Isaiah 45:3

“And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, ‘Let me go to the fields and pick up the leftover grain behind anyone in whose eyes I find favor.’  Naomi said to her, ‘Go ahead, my daughter.’  So she went out and began to glean in the fields behind the harvesters.” Ruth 2:2-3a

We already know from Ruth 1:22 that Naomi and Ruth returned back to Bethlehem just as the barley harvest was beginning.  We also know that Naomi and Ruth had no resources for satisfying their hunger pains.  The water was free--they just had to go to the well and draw.  However, buying food was difficult unless they bartered their belongings, or sat at the city gate with the rest of the beggars, or even worse, sell themselves into prostitution. 

We do not really know what kind of upbringing Ruth had.  She was raised in Moab, of course, and we can speculate from the Word that it was a place of some wealth since foreigners such as Naomi’s family were willing to migrate there to live and work.  Ruth could have come from a prominent family, one given to wealth and a prosperous life-style.  She could have had all the fine things of this life and never wanted for anything.  Whatever her background, she fell in love with a foreign man, not of her race and not of her religion, and married into his family.  Even when she had the opportunity to go back and start her life again, she was drawn to Naomi’s God and left everything behind.  And because of her deep love for her mother-in-law, she was willing to work hard, not sit at the city gate and beg, nor resort to prostituting herself, but endure physical hard work to supply food to sustain their life.  She literally worked for the “bread of life”.      

As stated in Part 20, there was a law of “gleaning” that assisted the widows and the orphans in their poverty, and it happened in the season of harvest.

Glean:  (akin to OIr doglenn “he selects”)  to gather grain or other produce left by reapers (harvesters); to gather information or material bit by bit; to pick over in search of relevant material; to find out;  to collect; to collect gradually; to receive a tiny handful; a process of searching and transforming. 

Harvest:  (akin to L. carpere “to pluck, gather” Gk karpos “fruit”) the season for gathering in crops; the act or process of gathering in a crop; a mature crop (as of grain or fruit); an accumulated store or productive result; reap.  (Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary)

“Bethlehem was a town surrounded by lush fields and olive groves.  Its harvests were abundant and plentiful.  Because Israel’s climate is moderate, there are two harvests each year, in the spring and in the fall.  The barley harvest took place in the spring, and it was during this time that Ruth and Naomi returned to Bethlehem.  Bethlehem was a farming community, and because it was the time of harvest, there was plenty of leftover grain in the fields.  This grain could be collected, or gleaned, and then made into food.  When the wheat and barley were ready to be harvested, reapers were hired to cut down the stalks and tie them into bundles.  Israelite law demanded that the corners of the fields not be harvested.  In addition, any grain that was dropped was to be left for poor people who picked it up (this was called gleaning) and used for food.  The purpose of this law was to feed the poor and to prevent the owners from hoarding.  This law served as a type of welfare program in Israel.”  (NIV Life Application Study Bible)

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest.  Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen.  Leave them for the poor and the alien.  I am the Lord your God.”  Leviticus 19:9,10

“When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back and get it.  Leave it for the alien, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands.  When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time.  Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.  When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again.  Leave what remains for the alien, the fatherless and the widow.  Remember that you were slaves in Egypt (in bondage to the enemy).  That is why I command you to do this.”  Deuteronomy 24:19-22

Harvest:  mature – an accumulated store or productive result
Gleaning:  following and receiving from the harvest

Receive a spiritual gleaning any time you can.  Never lose an opportunity for blessing:  glean at the Mercy Seat, glean in private meditation, glean in associating with Godly people, glean every opportunity in the process of searching and being transformed; and if we can only get a tiny handful, it is sufficient for us! We glean in the Outer Court of His Sanctuary…we harvest in the Secret Place of the Most High God.  Glean in the Lord’s field.  The storehouse of Heaven awaits us and is open to all who will come.  Just as Boaz will allow Ruth to glean in his fields, He who owns the field is calling us to come.  “The harvest is plentiful, but the workers are few.  Ask the Lord of the harvest, therefore, to send out workers into His harvest field.”  Matthew 9:37-38

God is serious about gleaning and harvesting.  It is the principle of living this life with plenty.  In some seasons we are gleaners; in other seasons we are harvesters.  God once told me, “You can only glean (receive a tiny handful) My glory on this earthly side of eternity.”  Oh, the glory that awaits us!  No eye has seen and no ear has heard….yet the tiny handful I receive here is more than enough to sustain me until then…I have seen His glory:  when I felt my babies move in my womb, when I first looked into my newborns’ eyes, when I watched my now grown-up babies hold their newborn for the first time, when my husband looks at me as if I am the only person in this world, when I hear the laughter of my friends, when I watched my Grannie die, when I see the colors burst forth to call the morning and again when they beckon the evening, when a butterfly dances across my path, when the birds sing their praise, when I watch my German Shepherds play with care-free abandon and are entertained by the squirrels every morning as if they have never before seen such a sight, when I smell the budding of a rose and watch as it grows to maturity, when I have heard the brush of the angel wings, when I have seen the ministering and warrior angels with my earthly eyes, when I hear God’s heartbeat and His gentle whisper…..…it is well with my soul!

“Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward.  It is the Lord Christ you are serving.”  Colossians 3:23-24

Father, show me more of Your glory!