Are You Still Gleaning?

Ruth 2:8

So Boaz said to Ruth, “My Daughter, listen to me. Don’t go and glean in another field and don’t go away from here. Stay here with my servant girls.

Why would you leave a place where you are gleaning from? Why would you walk away from a field when its harvest time; especially when you are gleaning so much? Maybe it’s because many of us don’t understand the word “Glean.”

The word Glean means to gather something slowly and carefully in small pieces; to gather from the field after harvesting. Maybe the reason people leave a field where they are harvesting is because of the key words in that definition, “slow,” “careful,” and “small.” We live in a time where we don’t want to glean anything slow, carefully, or in small amounts. We want to hit the lottery all at once. We want overflow immediately. We don’t want to take our time and glean behind somebody else in somebody else’s field. We want it now! So we leave one field to go to another field and then get to the end with not much to show for all our movement.

When I was a little boy my job in the Tobacco fields was to pick up or glean leaves behind the harvesters. In cutting the tobacco, the workers would inadvertently drop leaves that were valuable in the market. All those little loose leaves when strung together could make a good amount of money at the market, so the children were tasked to pick them up. As a child our eyes were on big leaves and we would jump from row to row picking up leaves. The older more mature workers would stay on one row and by the time they got finished they had more than us! Why? Because they gleaned more by staying in one field and being steady not jumping from one place to the next.

In life we jump from one relationship to the next. We jump from one job to the next. We jump from one bed to the next. We jump from one church to the next never really gleaning anything substantial because we have not learned how to follow other workers and be faithful in somebody else’s field.

Boaz told Ruth to stay in his field. What she didn’t know was that Boaz had instructed his workers to drop some extra leaves on purpose because she found favor with him by sacrificing for Naomi. What you don’t know sometimes is that the field you’re in is where God wants you to be and the unseen sacrifices by others is seen by God and he’s about to drop some blessings in your path if you would just remain steadfast. When you Glean where God puts you:

1. He will drop extra stuff in your path. Vs. 16

2. He will make sure you are protected. Boaz told the Workers not to touch her.
V.9 When you do what God told you to, he will put a shield of protection around
you.

3. He will not embarrass you or bring you to an open shame even when you mess up.
V.15

Dear God,

Keep me in the right field. Don’t let me be anxious for anything. I know you planted me here and you will provide me with everything I need and some of what I want. Thank you for putting me in this field.

In Jesus Name,
Amen