THE
BOOK OF RUTH, Part 11, The Law Of Gleanings
By
Dr. Stephen Jones
Blog Post Date: 6-15-2019
With the main players in the story now set forth,
we can see that this is ultimately a story of the restoration of all things. On
the surface, it is the story of one woman’s restoration from idolatry to the
true God. On a deeper level, it is the story of Israel’s restoration from false
gods under Egyptian rule to the Promised Land of the Kingdom, which in turn is
rooted in a greater story of restoration from the bondage of Adam to the
freedom in Christ.
Within that overall context, it is also a story of
how the nations are to be restored. First and foremost, Ruth is herself as an
individual, but she also plays the role of the Israelites who enter the
Promised Land, and lastly, as a Moabite, she represents the nations in general
as a prophetic forerunner of all non-Israelite nations as they are restored to
God through love.
She is drawn to God first through her love for
Naomi, “My delight, pleasantness, beauty,” and finally through the kindness of
Boaz. The story culminates with the birth of the son, Obed, showing us the
lawful path to Sonship. The various details in the story contribute to this
overall theme, pointing to various laws by which the sons of God are
manifested.
The
Law of Gleanings
2 And Ruth the Moabitess said to Naomi, “Please
let me go to the field and glean among the ears of grain after one in
whose sight I may find favor [khane, “grace, favor, good-will”].” And
she said to her, “Go, my daughter.” 3 So she departed and went and
gleaned in the field after the reapers; and she happened to come to the portion
of the field belonging to Boaz, who was of the family of Elimelech.
Ruth understood that she had the lawful right to
glean during the time of harvest. The law of gleanings is set forth in Leviticus
19:9-11,
9 Now when you reap the harvest of your land,
you shall not reap to the very corners of your field, neither shall you gather
the gleanings of your harvest. 10 Nor shall you glean your vineyard,
nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them
for the needy and for the stranger; I am the Lord your God. 11 You
shall not steal….
In the flow of revelation, we see that the law of
gleanings is linked to laws against theft. This suggests that those who fail to
leave gleanings “for the needy and for the stranger” are actually guilty
of stealing from them. In other words, the needy and strangers (foreigners) are
given the right to glean in the fields. The law establishes the rights
of the people, and anyone violating those rights commits injustice, an offence
to the God of Love.
The law of gleanings is just the start of a longer
section in the law, which shows us how to love our neighbor as ourselves. It
culminates in Leviticus 19:17, 18,
which says,
17 You shall not hate your fellow countryman
in your heart; you may surely reprove your neighbor, but shall not incur sin
because of him. 18 You shall not take vengeance, nor bear any grudge
against the sons of your people, but you shall love your neighbor as
yourself; I am the Lord.
If any man believes that his rights have been
violated, he may “reprove” his neighbor and attempt to settle the case
out of court. If, after discussing the case with his neighbor, they remain in
disagreement, they may take it to the gate of the city and present the case to
the judge. But the neighbor does not have the right to “take vengeance,”
that is, to bring judgment against his neighbor as if he were a judge. He is
not even allowed to “bear any grudge” but is instructed to walk in the
spirit of love. By walking in love, he “shall not incur sin.”
Ruth, of course, was not only needy but a foreign
immigrant who had come to worship the God of Israel and to change her
citizenship by faith from Moabite to Israelite. We do not know if she had known
about the law of gleanings previously through the witness of Naomi or if she
discovered it when she arrived in Bethlehem. Nonetheless, she came to know this
law and no doubt rejoiced in its benefits, giving thanks to God for His love
and provision.
This is just one law that proves Jesus’ word in Matthew
22:37-40, when He responded to the lawyer’s question about which law was
the greatest:
37 And He said to him, “You shall love the
Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your
mind. 38 This is the great and foremost commandment. 39
The second is like it, You shall love your neighbor as yourself. 40
On these two commandments depend the whole law and the prophets.”
The law is the expression of the God of Love. Those
who violate the law do not yet know fully how to love God or their neighbor.
The law of love does not somehow negate the law; love is the basis for the
entire law.
The law of gleanings is one such law that is based
upon love for the needy and for foreigners. The fact that this law is
specifically designed to bless foreigners proves that they ought to be included
in our definition of “neighbor.”
In later centuries the rabbis rejected this and
applied the term more exclusively to Jews only. But when a man asked Jesus in Luke 10:29,
“who is my neighbor?” Jesus told the parable of the Good Samaritan. The
conclusion was that a neighbor was one who was being neighborly, that is,
showing love to those in need. The Samaritans in those days were viewed with
hostility, but Jesus showed that Samaritans were “neighbors.”
The law of gleanings is based upon the second great
commandment, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself,” which
summarizes the entire section of the law in Leviticus
19:9-18. Somehow the later rabbis were overly influenced by narrow
nationalism and so they justified their hatred of Samaritans by excluding them
as “neighbors.” If they had connected the law that gave gleaning rights to
foreigners at the start of this section with the summarized law about loving
their neighbor, they would have taught the law as Jesus taught it.
Jesus did not put away the law. He taught it
correctly, putting away men’s traditions.
Armed with Jesus’ view of the law, we can see how
the story of Ruth contributes to the overall theme of the restoration of the
nations. The nations worship false gods because they know nothing better. They
know nothing better because those who claim to worship the God of the Bible
have yet to manifest Christ to them and to teach them the art of love as
expressed in the law. As long as men present God as being unequal, holding that
God loves a particular group more than others, the world will fail to know that
God is Love.
The law of gleanings shows God’s concern for
foreigners as well as for Israelites. He is benevolent toward all nations. The
harvest itself was given to the owner of the field as a reward for his
labor—minus the ten percent tithe that was given to God for His labor. The
gleanings were also claimed by God, who then gave it to the needy and to
foreigners.
There was no requirement in the law to export the
gleanings or even to do the work of gathering it and dispersing it to the
needy. The needy were required to labor to gather the gleanings for themselves.
Yet the overall law of love would take into consideration the indigent who were
incapable of such labor. Love would motivate others to donate their time and
labor to benefit such people as well.
Prophetic
Applications of the Law of Gleaning
In Isaiah 17:1
the prophet begins a prophecy about the destruction of Damascus and also the
judgment upon the tribe of Ephraim (Isaiah 17:3).
In Isaiah
17:4, 5 he compares this judgment to a harvest, much like Jesus
did later in Matthew 13:39, when He said, “the harvest is the end of
the age; and the reapers are the angels.”
In Isaiah 17:6,
7
he speaks also of the gleanings, saying,
6 Yet gleanings will be left in it like the
shaking of an olive tree. Two or three olives on the topmost bough, four or
five on the branches of a fruitful tree, declares the Lord, the God of Israel. 7
In that day man will have regard for his Maker, and his eyes will look to the
Holy One of Israel.
This is a reference to another gleanings law found
in Deuteronomy
24:20, 21,
20 When you beat your olive tree, you shall
not go over the boughs again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and
for the widow. 21 When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you
shall not go over it again; it shall be for the alien, for the orphan, and for
the widow.
Isaiah applies this law prophetically to the
judgment of nations, for He said to Judah in Jeremiah
11:16, “The Lord called your name a green olive tree.” When the
olive tree is beaten to shake the tree and harvest the olives, it speaks
prophetically of divine judgment upon the nation. In that judgment, God
reserves a gleanings company for Himself, a surviving remnant. This remnant are
those under God’s direct covering, because they have no earthly covering and
have no “avenger of blood,” or kinsman redeemer, to advocate for them in a
court of law.
The gleanings are given to those who have no
covering—widows, orphans, and foreigners—and so there is also a gleanings
company who are orphaned from the church and are under God’s direct protective
covering. These are the ones who are submitted to God, rather than men, those
who submit to men only insofar as those leaders are submitted to God. God is
their priority. These are the surviving remnant of Isaiah 17 in the day that
God shakes the olive tree nation. They are depicted in Isaiah’s first son,
She’ar-jashub, “the remnant will return” (Isaiah 7:3;
10:21).
The remnant is an Old Testament word for the overcomers.
Isaiah expands the scope of his gleanings
prophecies in Isaiah 24, where he speaks of judgment upon the whole earth (Isaiah 24:1,
3, 4, 5). In
Isaiah
24:13 then says,
13 For thus it will be in the midst of the
earth among the peoples, as the shaking of an olive tree, as the gleanings when
the grape harvest is over.
Hence, there are gleanings (a remnant of
overcomers) not only from the olive tree (Israel) but also of the grape
harvest, which represents the whole earth—all nations.
Ruth
Gleans
When Ruth gleans in the barley field of Boaz, the
story sets forth its underlying theme of restoring all the nations specifically
through the barley company, which is the overcoming remnant. Ruth herself,
being both a widow and a foreigner, was eligible to glean, because she was
under God’s direct covering. Gleanings were God’s provision for the overcomers.
Later she also gleans in the time of wheat harvest
after Pentecost (Ruth 2:23), which speaks of a secondary step in the
restoration of all things. Wheat represents Pentecost and the church under the
Pentecostal anointing. The story does not include the gleanings of the grape
harvest, but we may infer the restoration of all the nations simply by the fact
that Ruth was from a foreign nation.
The bottom line is that the gleaning laws show a
prophetic progression in the salvation of the world—first the overcoming barley
remnant, next the wheat company of the church, and finally the grape harvest of
all nations.
THE
BOOK OF RUTH, Part 12, How Boaz Treated Ruth
Ruth went out to look for a field where men were
harvesting their barley, so that she might glean in the field. She came across
a field owned by “Boaz, who
was of the family of Elimelech” (Ruth
2:3). As with Elimelech, Boaz was a righteous man. We do not know his
precise relationship with Elimelech, but the story later tells us that Boaz was
his second nearest kinsman, perhaps a first cousin.
Boaz was not present when Ruth arrived that
morning, but when he arrived from Bethlehem later in the afternoon, he noticed
the new gleaner resting in the hut that had been erected to give the workers a
place of rest and refreshment.
The Reapers
Ruth 2:4 says,
4
Now behold, Boaz came from Bethlehem and said to the reapers, “May the Lord be
with you.” And they said to him, “May the Lord bless you.”
In the parable of Jesus, “the reapers are angels” (Matthew
13:39), who come to cut down the stalks of grain. The Hebrew word for
“reaper” is qatsar,
which means “to be short, be
impatient, be vexed, or be grieved.” Hence, to reap is to cut
short, and when applied to grain, it means to reap by cutting the stalks short.
But the word is also used in other contexts, such
as we see in Isaiah 28:20, “the bed is too short.” Also, in Isaiah
50:2 God asks, “Is My hand
so short that it cannot ransom?” We read in Proverbs
10:27,
27
The fear of the Lord prolongs life, but the years of the wicked will be
shortened [qatsar].
Hence, when the angels reap the earth at the end of
the age, as Jesus said, “the
years of the wicked will be shortened,” or cut short, even as the
stalks of grain are cut short. The context of this parable is given in terms of
harvesting wheat (Matthew 13:25, 26), but the principle of reaping is the same,
whether it speaks of wheat or barley. In fact, we even have the strange
metaphor in Revelation 14:17, 18, 19 about an angel harvesting grapes with a
sickle.
In each case, the underlying theme is about
shortening something, sometimes in a positive sense and at other times in a
negative sense. The positive sense portrays God gathering that which is His
into His barn, while the negative sense portrays God cutting down the
wicked—i.e., shortening their time to grow “tares” (do evil) in the earth.
In the story of Ruth, we see the positive side. The
barley was being reaped because it was ripe and the time had come for the great
Husbandman to reap the reward of His labor, as we read also in James
5:7, 8,
9,
7
Be patient, therefore, brethren, until the coming of the Lord. Behold, the
farmer waits for the precious produce of the soil, being patient about it,
until it gets the early and late rains. 8 You too be patient;
strengthen your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do
not complain, brethren, against one another, that you yourselves may not be
judged; behold, the Judge is standing right at the door.
God is the “farmer” (or Husbandman) here, and He is
also the Judge. Reaping is an act of judgment. Judgment condemns
unrighteousness and rewards righteousness. James told the brethren to “be patient” and not to
complain, “that you yourselves
may not be judged.” There are, therefore, two sides of judgment.
Let us be found on the positive side. Patience is to be contrasted with
complaint.
In the story of Ruth, the reapers at the time of
barley harvest speak into the overall prophecy, indicating a seasonal change
from the wilderness to the Promised Land, from scarcity to abundance, from
adversity to comfort and joy. Although we have no serious enemies being cut
down in the story, we are later given an example of a type of believer who
refuses the message of Sonship. This is the kinsman who refuses to take Ruth as
his wife to bring forth an inheritor of Elimelech’s estate.
The barley harvest in the story of Ruth is
primarily positive, focusing on the overcomers, the fruitful ones, being
claimed and gathered to God in the first resurrection of Revelation
20:4-6.
Boaz Notices Ruth
Ruth 2:3 indicates that Ruth had not known
whose field it was that she was gleaning. It says “she happened to come to the portion of the field belonging
to Boaz.” Here we see the sovereignty of God at work, for though we
live and walk in the best way we know how, we understand that God directs our
paths (Proverbs
3:6).
When Boaz arrived, he noticed Ruth sitting in the
shade of the hut. Ruth 2:5-7 says,
5
Then Boaz said to his servant who was in charge of the reapers, “Whose young
woman is this?” 6 And the servant in charge of the reapers answered
and said, “She is the young Moabite woman who returned with Naomi from the land
of Moab. 7 And she said, ‘Please let me glean and gather after the
reapers among the sheaves.’ Thus she came and has remained from the morning
until now; she has been sitting in the house for a little while.”
The foreman informed Boaz that this was the young
Moabite woman who had just returned from Moab with Naomi. Being a small
community, Boaz no doubt had heard the news but had not yet met them. Ruth had
asked permission from the foreman to glean in the field, because this was
probably her first experience as a gleaner. There is no mandate in the law to
ask such permission. All gleaners had the right to glean in whatever field they
chose, but Ruth was probably timid and, as a foreigner, took pains to avoid
being resented.
Boaz’ Instructions
8
Then Boaz said to Ruth, “Listen carefully, my daughter. Do not go to glean in
another field; furthermore, do not go on from this one but stay here with my
maids. 9 Let your eyes be on the field which they reap and go after
them. Indeed, I have commanded the servants not to touch you. When you are
thirsty, go to the water jars and drink from what the servants draw.”
The first thing we notice is how Boaz’ actions
contrasted with the Jews of New Testament times. In Jesus’ day Jewish men did
not talk to women other than their own wives. It was doubly horrifying for a
Jewish man to talk to a foreign woman. When Jesus talked to the Samaritan woman
at the well in the fourth chapter of John, His disciples were surprised at this
breach of cultural etiquette.
So we find that Boaz is very much a type of Christ
in his kindness to a foreign woman. In those days talking to women and to
foreign women was not shameful.
Boaz was kind to Ruth, urging her to glean in his field
and go nowhere else. He intended to leave enough gleanings in the field that
she could be fully supported in her effort. Furthermore, he “commanded the servants not to touch you.”
They were not to lay a hand on her, either to harm her or to take advantage of
her sexually.
Boaz must have seen that she was beautiful and that
she might be in danger if she were to glean in another field. Later, when Ruth
told Naomi about Boaz’ kindness, Naomi told her in Ruth
2:22, “It is good, my
daughter, that you go out with his maids, lest others fall upon you in another
field.” We may extrapolate from this that not everyone in Bethlehem
was upright. Boaz knew everyone in town, and he apparently believed that some
did not treat foreigners with equal respect. Not everyone followed the law
written in Numbers
15:15, 16,
15
As for the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the alien who
sojourns with you, a perpetual statute throughout your generations; as you are,
so shall the alien be before the Lord. 16 There is to be one law and
one ordinance for you and for the alien who sojourns with you.
Boaz also instructed his servants to allow Ruth to
drink from the same water pots that the rest of them used. In other words, she
did not have to bring her own water. She was treated with equality with all the
others.
Ruth Compared to the Woman from Samaria
This too reminds us of the Samaritan woman at the
well, whom Jesus befriended. In that story however, the situation was reversed,
for Jesus asked her for a drink (John
4:7). Her first reaction was that of surprise that a man from Judea would
speak to a Samaritan woman. Then the situation changed, and Jesus essentially
offered her a drink from the fountain of living water (John
4:13, 14).
This is the point where the situation was comparable to the story of Ruth.
In essence, Boaz, the type of Christ, prophetically
offered Ruth the Moabite the water of life, which springs from the word of God.
That word of kindness extended grace to foreigners and offered them full
equality before God. We see this in the story of Ruth and again in the story of
the Samaritan woman.
So in John
4:20 the Samaritan woman asked Jesus the great question faced by all
denominations today,
20
“Our fathers worshiped in this mountain [Gerazim], and you people say that in Jerusalem is
the place where men ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman,
believe Me, an hour is coming when neither in this mountain, nor in Jerusalem,
shall you worship the Father.”
Jesus explained to her that God desired that all should
worship Him “in spirit and in
truth” (John 4:24). This was the message given to her
when she asked to drink of the living water. It was the message that tore down
the dividing wall in the outer court of the temple (Ephesians
2:14) separating Jewish men from women and non-Jewish converts.
It was also the message of the veil that was torn
when He died on the cross (Matthew
27:51), making a way for all to approach the throne of grace on equal
footing (Hebrews
10:19, 20). So that is how I would interpret the
significance of Boaz offering water to Ruth. She is treated as an equal to all
others of his household, and thereby is she given the revelatory word
confirming that we are all to worship at the same mountain in spirit and in
truth.
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