Leviticus 23:22 Leave Some for Others
“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. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner residing among you. I am the Lord your God” (NIV).
The Hebrew meaning of “gleaning” is the practice of collecting leftover crops from fields after they have been harvested. It is an agricultural term that can also refer to any activity that involves collecting individual items from different sources. In other words, “Get it all. Be sure nothing is missed or anything of even the smallest value is left where someone could get it.” Makes sense doesn’t it—except that it doesn’t make sense to God. God instructed His people to leave the bits of the harvest that were difficult to harvest. He instructed them not to go back over the fields once they have done the main harvesting work. They’ve got the whole field while others not as fortunate as they may have had little or nothing. In fact those less fortunate may have been living on the leavings from the owner’s fields. What is just the “leftovers” to the owner may have been the very food that a mother gathered to feed her young children. The poor and foreigners referred to in Leviticus 23:22 are the dispossessed, the ones who are just hanging on. Even though this is an agricultural example, it can just as well refer to a business owner who squeezes every possible penny out of his business rather than being certain that his workers are paid a good wage. So what does it mean to you and me, John Q. Public? How about taking the change from everyday purchases and keeping it until a substantial amount has accumulated, and then making it available to those in need in the community. There are numerous community services that make sure that your “small change” goes to feed those who are hungry.
One interesting example of leaving the gleanings is told in the book of Ruth. Ruth was a woman whose husband died in a foreign land. Ruth joined her mother-in-law in returning to Israel, where Ruth gathered the gleanings in the fields of a man named Boaz. As the story progresses, Boaz took notice of Ruth, and eventually married her. This woman who gathered the leftover grain in the field gave birth to a son called Obed. Oh, yes, Obed had a son named Jesse, and a grandson named David, yes, the David who became the king of Israel. The entire nation of Israel was blessed because Boaz instructed his men to leave plenty of gleanings for the poor and foreigners in the land.