This devotion is an excerpt from the book, The Gospel of Ruth: Loving God Enough to Break the Rules and was written by Carolyn Custis James. We hope you will be encouraged.
THE ANCIENT WELFARE SYSTEM
When Boaz woke up that morning, he had a hearty breakfast, a full agenda in front of him, and no forewarning that his life was about to change. Plans for the day included a routine trip to his barley fields to check on progress, talk to his foreman, and make sure things were running smoothly. Boaz was a man who was paying attention. Unlike many in the days of the judges, the man was meticulous in keeping God’s commands both in his personal conduct and in how he ran his business. In the fields belonging to Boaz gleaning practices were in effect. The “Gleaners Welcome” sign was posted conspicuously, in compliance with Mosaic Law. We’d expect no less from a man of such honorable reputation. This meant that his harvesters left the corners and edges of the field uncut when they harvested and that they only combed once over the field, leaving behind uncut grain and missed scraps for the poor — the widow, the orphan, and the foreigner.10 We have idealized images of how gleaning actually worked. We’ve all seen lovely pastoral paintings of gentle maidens scooping up armloads of golden grain. In reality, gleaners were often mistreated and went home hungry. A landowner might choose to keep them out or eject them if he pleased. Harvesters could get rough.11 Unattached women were especially at risk and could be (and were) victimized. Then, of course, gleaners competed with each other. Bump into another gleaner who is stronger, more aggressive, or simply hunger-driven, and you can expect to get shoved around. Depending on conditions and attitudes in the field, Ruth could easily labor all day and not bring home enough to feed her mother-in-law and herself. When I was on a mission trip in Central America, a missionary took the idealism out of my views of gleaning during a brief but unforgettable outing to the local garbage dump. It was a filthy place, and the stench turned my stomach. But more appalling than the odor was the sight of people — men, women, and children — crawling over piles of rubbish like an army of ants, gleaning “edible” bits of trash to eat and reusable scraps of cardboard to reinforce the flimsy walls of their dilapidated shacks. I couldn’t fathom eating anything in that awful place and afterward felt depressed for days. I still think of gleaners whenever I see a homeless person rummaging in the garbage outside a fast-food restaurant, scavenging for a few discarded fries or the uneaten remains of somebody’s Big Mac. Rather than accept the terms of gleaning and the meager offerings she could hope to bring home for Naomi and herself, Ruth challenges the status quo and stretches the limits of the law. By the time Boaz arrives, she has already made a highly irregular request to the foreman that goes beyond his authority to grant. Until the landowner comes and she learns how the matter will turn out, she diligently sets to work, picking up bits of grain here and there without stopping for rest breaks.
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