Opus 2026-149: Don’t Glean

I was listening to a segment of Steven Gregg’s program and a caller used the phrase, “Gleaning from the Bible.”  It struck me that he was more accurate than he imagined.

Run a definition of “gleaning” through you head.  Gleaning was the process of going to the corners of a field and harvesting what the farmer had missed.  It might also involve picking up anything he missed in the middle of the field.  It was a provision for the poor who were willing to work.

Gleaning means gathering the left overs.  It is not the process for feeding the population or seeing a return on your investment of labor.  If you apply it to the Bible it would seem to mean looking for the leftovers so that you can act like you have the harvest.  Not a good picture when God had gone to so much trouble to preserve His written word.

In a perfect world the grain harvested from the corners is as nutritious as what came from the center of the field.  That may work when you are dealing with wheat or barley but it is totally inadequate for dealing with truth.

Don’t be a spiritual gleaner.  Don’t spend your time listening to people who are spiritual gleaners.  The farmer does not plan to live on the leftovers and neither should you.

homo unius libri