“So she gleaned in the field until even, and beat out that she had gleaned: and it was about an ephah of barley” (Ruth 2:17).
TEXT — Ruth 2:15-18
On a cold winter day, a wealthy man on his way to a business meeting noticed a barefooted boy of about 10 years of age shining shoes at the corner. Fingers reddened with cold, the boy smiled at every customer. As the boy polished his shoes, the man asked,“Why aren’t you in school?” The boy shrugged. “Gotta help Mama. She’s sick.” The man nodded, paid triple, and left. Two weeks later, the boy arrived home to find a doctor treating his mother and a grocery basket at the door. A note from this wealthy man read: “Consider this a loan until your mother smiles again. Pay it forward someday.” Years later, that boy became a medical doctor himself. On his clinic wall hung a framed note: a reminder of quiet help that expected nothing in return.
Just as the wealthy man did for the poor little shoe shiner, Boaz brought a smile to Ruth’s face. In Jewish culture, gleaning was a practice where leftover crops were collected by the poor and less privileged after harvest. Ruth, a Moabitess widow, who had just returned to Bethlehem with her mother-in-law, Naomi, was allowed by Boaz, a gentle and kind-hearted wealthy Bethlehemite, to glean closely to the reapers. He also gave her access to refreshment and instructed the reapers to “let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her.” Ruth’s gleaning amounted to about seven and a half gallons of grain, which she gladly shared with her mother-in-law.
Boaz turned out to be a near kinsman to Ruth’s late husband and by the “levirate law” had the duty of marrying Ruth. Their union became the lineal ancestor of King David and eventually Christ. The little kindness we show to the undeserving gleaners often produces significant results.
We live in a world that has become so impatiently materialistic where people hardly pause to look at the plight of “gleaners” – the less privileged people in society. Believers should make a difference. In addition to spreading the gospel, we are expected to identify with the needs of the downtrodden, poor, sickly, and hopeless people around us, and like the Good Samaritan, pour in oil and wine to make them survive.
Listed among “500 most powerful people on the planet” by the Foreign Policy magazine in 2013, Pastor (Dr.) William F. Kumuyi is the founder and General Superintendent of the Deeper Christian Life Ministry (DCLM) headquartered in Lagos, Nigeria. DCLM started in 1973 as a 15-member Bible study group right in Kumuyi’s apartment at University of Lagos where he was a lecturer. His revolutionary Bible teaching on personal holiness and commitment to evangelism soon gained so much traction and resulted in a widespread revival.
Leave a Reply