Leviticus 19-20 / Psalm 68 "Principles of Gleaning"

READ: Leviticus 19-20 / Psalm 68

Verse chosen for meditation: Leviticus 19:9-10

⁹ “When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, neither shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. ¹⁰ And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the Lord your God.

REFLECT

These verses bring us to what we call the laws of “gleaning”. “Gleaning” was the practice of going into a recently-harvested field and picking up whatever grain remained. Here, God commanded people not to gather all the grain their land produced, but leave some behind for the poor to gather themselves. 

This isn’t exactly charity, as the act of gleaning requires considerable work on the part of gatherers. The poor did not simply receive on their laps these resources but were made to work for it. A portrayal of this law is in the book of Ruth, when Boaz graciously cared for Naomi and Ruth, and urged them to glean in his fields (Ruth 2:8-10).

RELATE

What can we glean (pun unintended) from this? First, we should be careful not to say, “these things don’t apply to us anymore”, as these laws are grounded in God’s character, which never changes. We may not be farmers and be able to leave our field’s harvest for others to gather, but if these laws reflect the intention of our God to provide for others in certain ways, we who believe in such a God should find some way to apply these in our own practices, even if we do not live in the same historical context.

What do these laws reveal about God’s will in our lives then? Basically, it is telling us not to squeeze every profit out of whatever we are doing, then choose to give a small part away as charity, thinking we have done our part for the poor. We can empower the poor too, helping them to be more self-sufficient. This helps their self-esteem, sparing them the embarrassment of asking for charity. What might this look like in our daily practices?

Business owners can choose not to squeeze every cent of profit for themselves by charging the highest prices to customers or paying the lowest wages to workers. We see nowadays, for e.g., most hawkers raising prices (or cut quantities) because everyone else is doing it to combat inflation. However, the increase in prices is often higher than the increase in inflation. Is that combating inflation, or making use of inflation to make more profits? Do the wages to workers increase by the same %? There are a few shining lights going against the flow, who refuse to raise prices, citing that many of their poor customers could not afford it. Instead, they chose to make lesser profits as they have enough, maintaining a reasonable price for others to work for it. Another example: those working in the social service sector could favour or design programmes that encourage work and self-sufficiency rather than dependency.

Many of us are not business owners or social workers, but if we reflect enough, we can make many decisions in our lives to invest in areas (could be time, involvement in other pursuits, gaining a skill, etc.) that empower the poor, even if at the expanse of not earning the maximum we could. Besides the application, more crucially is how we view our riches (belonging to us or God?) and the habit of keeping what is sufficient for ourselves (vs hoarding), then sharing the rest. When God provided for the people’s material needs by giving them manna to gather (Exodus 16:15-16), some were more able gatherers than others (better money-makers), but they were called to share such that no one had too much or too little. Manna that was hoarded turned rotten (Exodus 16:19-20). Quoting Tim Keller, “money that is hoarded for oneself rots the soul”.

REST

Father, we are in a society where we are taught to save for rainy days, yet you have a whole other system that should everyone obey, there should be no poor amongst us (Deuteronomy 15:4-5). Help us to see once again what we are to do with the riches that you have blessed us with. In Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

Chris Chong

[Many insights here are adapted from “Generous Justice” by Timothy Keller]