Leviticus 19:10,  “And thou shalt not glean thy vineyard, neither shalt thou gather [every] grape of thy vineyard; thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger: I [am] the LORD your God.”

Most of us are familiar with the concept of gleaning from the story of Ruth (Ruth 2:2) who went out to the fields to glean to gather wheat so that she and her mother in law could survive.  Initially I learned about this practice in Sunday School where I was told that Boaz was such a good man that he instructed his harvesters to deliberately allow some stalks of wheat to fall by the way side to allow the poor to gather it up. It wasn’t until I was in Bible College that I learned that Boaz did not so much do this out of the goodness of his heart but that he was commanded by Mosaic law to do so.

It wasn’t until last night in reading the midrashic literature and a Jewish lexicon that I discovered something even deeper that is being taught in this law. According to the Holiness Code i.e., laws of Leviticus 17-26 so called because of the frequent use of the word holy, in these chapters, farmers were to leave the corners of their fields unharvested or to pick up that which was dropped or to not harvest any left overs that had been forgotten after they harvested the majority of a field.  These were to be left for the poor and for the strangers.  The Deuteronomic Code specifically commands that they be left for strangers and widows and paternal orphans. Ruth fit the category of a stranger and a widow and so it would have been only natural for Ruth to glean to provide for herself and Naomi. This was a sort of welfare system. It was not only a practice within Hebrew law but was a common practice among many Near Eastern Cultures. However, as I was later to learn, there was a little different twist in this for the Jews. Even Jesus and His disciples practiced a form of gleaning when they walked through grain fields breaking off heads of wheat to eat (Mark 2:23).

So here is a passage of Scripture which has absolutely nothing to say to me a twenty first century city dweller. Just what possible application could I make to my own personal life from Leviticus 19:10 which tells me I am to leave a portion of my field unharvested for the poor. I have no field and if I happened to be one of the poor there is no field around for me to glean.  And you just try and pull a gleaning stunt in a modern field today, If you do you will have a sunglassed State Trooper with a Smoky Bear hat glaring at you saying: “You in  heap of trouble boy.”

Yet, I could not sleep as this passage, of all Scripture passages was keeping me awake.  I just read today on the Elijah List written by some modern day prophet who said God woke him up at midnight to give him a prophetic revelation of the future.  Me?  I am neither a prophet nor the son of a prophet so God wakes me up at midnight to go through the Midrash trying to find some sense out of an obscure passage in Leviticus.  Man, I tell ya, I’ve got to get a life.

Anyway, I go to the most obvious word in this passage and that is the word for glean which is ‘alal which means to roll in the dust, to repeat. That means  nothing to me.  I finally land on the word ta’zov (to leave) and I feel my spirit is quickened. Sort of like the Holy Spirit is saying, “Bingo, you’ve arrived.”  This comes from the root word ‘azov which means according to my Christian lexicon means to leave or to forsake.   The Jewish lexicon tells me it means to abandon, renounce or give up in favor of the poor.  I can tell I am not going to get any sleep tonight.

Wait a minute, the Jewish lexicon says nothing about leaving, ‘azov  is clearly speaking of an abandonment or forsaking, and not just simply leaving as it is expressed in our English versions of the Bible.  In fact I read 25 different modern translations and all say leave.

However, the Jewish Lexicon referred me to the Mishnah Peah Seder Zeraim (order of the seeds) where I read something very interesting.  This passage is not to be translated as leave them for the poor and stranger, but rather it is to read,  abandon or forsake them for the poor and stranger. In fact the Jewish view of the word ‘azov teaches that this means to abandon or renounce one’s property in favor of the poor. Looks like I may get some sleep after all.

Jewish literature is teaching that by rendering ‘azov as abandonment or renouncing this passage is instructing that the landowner was to totally renounce any ownership on his grain or property that was allowed to fall in the corners so that the poor who picked it up would have no obligation to the landowner. Not only that this offering or giving to the poor was to give no benefit to the landowner.

I understand now why God put an urgency upon me for this passage. I am keeping this in the first person because I know there are many who will not like it if I use the third person plural you.  So let’s just keep this in the first person, me and I and no one else ok?  But there is ingrained in my psyche the idea that if I really sacrifice and give my tithes and offerings at 10% of my income the Lord will bless me.  If I jack that up to 20% well, wow, will I get a return.

Up to now I would not keep any of these returns from the royalties of my books or gifts from speaking gigs for personal use, every dime I receive goes into ministry or missions. As I begin to contemplate a dramatic increase in this income I began to consider holding back some of this for personal pleasures. But then I thought about the promise I made to God a few years ago that I would not accept one dime for anything that involved ministry or sharing the Word of God.  I began to fear that if I did not keep this promise God may not bless me.

I understand why the Lord would not let me sleep tonight until I resolved an internal conflict. Up to now I felt that by giving 100% of the money received from my books and ministry to ministry and missions God would really bless the sales of my books and bring growth to my ministry. However, reading Leviticus 19:10 I am strongly impressed to reject our English translations of the Hebrew word ‘azov as leave and accept the Jewish translation as renounce and abandon. In other words before God I renounce and abandon all royalties and gifts such that I put no obligation on God nor upon anyone who receives these funds. I will receive no personal benefit from these funds, even to rejecting a pat on the head and being told that I was a being a nice little Chaim Bentorah.

Ok, now that this is resolved I can rest in peace, uh, that didn’t come out right, I mean I can have a peaceful night’s sleep.