(an extract.)
“And, now, as to the second class of statutes contained in our section, namely, those which so touchingly bring out divine tenderness and care. Take the following, “And when ye reap the harvest of your land, thou shalt not wholly reap the corners of thy field, neither shalt thou gather the gleanings of thy harvest. 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.” (chap. 19:9, 10.) This ordinance will meet us again in chap, 23; but there we shall see it in its dispensational bearing. Here we contemplate it morally, as unfolding the precious grace of Israel’s God. He would think of “the poor and stranger,” and He would have His people think of them likewise. When the golden sheaves were being reaped, and the mellow clusters gathered, “the poor and stranger” were to be remembered by the Israel of God, because Jehovah was the God of Israel. The reaper and the grape-gatherer were not to be governed by a spirit of grasping covetousness, which would bare the corners of the field, and strip the branches of the vine; but rather by a spirit of large-hearted, generous benevolence, which would leave a sheaf and a cluster, for “the poor and stranger,” that they, too, might rejoice in the unbounded goodness of Him whose paths drop fatness, and on whose open hand all the sons of want may confidently wait.
The book of Ruth furnishes a fine example of one who fully acted out this most benevolent statute. “And Boaz said unto her, (Ruth) At meal time come thou hither, and eat of the bread, and dip thy morsel in the vinegar. And she sat beside the reapers, and he reached her parched corn, and she did eat, and was sufficed and left. And when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not: and let fall some of the handfuls of purpose for her; and leave them, that she may glean them, and rebuke her not.” (Ruth 2:14-16.) Most touching and beautiful grace! Truly it is good for our poor, cold, selfish hearts, to be brought in contact with such principles and such practices. Nothing can surpass the exquisite refinement of the words, “let fall also some of the handfuls of purpose for her.” It was evidently the desire of this noble Israelite that “the stranger” might have abundance, and have it, too, rather as the fruit of her own gleaning than of his benevolence. This was the very essence of refinement. It was putting her in immediate connection with, and dependence upon, the God of Israel, who had fully recognized and provided for “the gleaner.” Boaz was merely acting out that gracious ordinance, of which Ruth was reaping the benefit. The same grace that had given him the field, gave her the gleanings. They were both debtors to grace. She was the happy recipient of Jehovah’s goodness. He was the honored exponent of Jehovah’s most gracious institution. All was in most lovely moral order. The creature was blessed and God was glorified. Who would not own that it is good for us to be allowed to breathe such an atmosphere?
Let us now turn to another statute of our section. “Thou shalt not defraud thy neighbor, neither rob him; the wages of him that is hired shall not abide with thee all night until the morning” (chap. 19:13.) What tender care is here! The high and mighty One that inhabiteth eternity can take knowledge of the thoughts and feelings that spring up in the heart of a poor laborer. He knows, and takes into account, the expectations of such a one in reference to the fruit of his day’s toil. The wages will naturally be looked for. The laborers heart counts upon them—the family meal depends upon them. Oh! let them not be held back. Send not the laborer home with a heavy heart to make the heart of his wife and family heavy likewise. By all means give him that for which he has wrought, to which he has a right, and on which his heart is set. He is a husband; he is a father; and he has borne the burden and heat of the day, that his wife and children may not go hungry to bed. Disappoint him not. Give him his due.
Thus does our God take notice of the very throbbings of the laborers heart, and make provision for his rising expectations. Precious grace! Most tender, thoughtful, touching, condescending love! The bare contemplation of such statutes is sufficient to throw one into a flood of tenderness. Could anyone read such passages, and not be melted? Could anyone read them, and thoughtlessly dismiss a poor laborer, not knowing whether he and his family have wherewithal to meet the cravings of hunger. Nothing can be more painful to a tender heart than the lack of kindly consideration for the poor, so often manifested by the rich. These latter can sit down to their sumptuous repast, after dismissing from their door some poor industrious fellow creature, who had come seeking the just reward of his honest labor. They think not of the aching heart with which that man returns to his family, to tell them of the disappointment to himself and to them. Oh! it is terrible. It is most offensive to God, and to all who have drank in any measure into His grace. If we would know what God thinks of such acting, we have only to hearken to the following accents of holy indignation: “Behold the hire of the laborers who have reaped down your fields, which is of you kept back by fraud, crieth; and the cries of them which have reaped are entered into the ears of the Lord of Sabaoth.” (Jas. 5:4.) “The Lord of Sabaoth” hears the cry of the aggrieved and disappointed laborer. His tender love tells itself forth in the institutions of His moral government, and even though the heart should not be melted by the grace of those institutions, the conduct should at least be governed by the righteousness thereof. God will not suffer the claims of the poor to be heartlessly tossed aside, by those who are so hardened by the influence of wealth as to be insensible to the appeals of tenderness, and who are so far removed beyond the region of personal need as to be incapable of feeling for those whose lot it is to spend their days amid exhausting toil or pinching poverty. The poor are the special objects of God’s care. Again and again He makes provision for them in the statutes of His moral administration; and it is particularly declared of Him who shall, ere long, assume in manifested glory the reins of government, that “He shall deliver the needy when he crieth; the poor also, and him that hath no helper. He shall spare the poor and needy, and shall save the souls of the needy; He shall redeem their souls from deceit and violence, and precious shall their blood be in His sight.” Ps. 62:12-14.
May we profit by the review of those precious and deeply practical truths! May our hearts be affected, and our conduct influenced by them! We live in a heartless world; and there is a vast amount of selfishness in our own hearts. We are not sufficiently affected by the thought of the need of others. We are apt to forget the poor in the midst of our abundance. We often forget that the very persons whose labor ministers to our personal comforts are living, it may be, in the deepest poverty. Let us think of these things; let us beware of “grinding the faces of the poor.” If the Jews of old were taught by the statutes and ordinances of the Mosaic economy to entertain kindly feelings towards the poor, and to deal tenderly and graciously with the sons of toil, how much more ought the higher and more spiritual ethics of the gospel dispensation produce in the hearts and lives of Christians a large-hearted benevolence toward every form of human need.
True, there is urgent need of prudence and caution, lest we take a man out of the honorable position in which he was designed and fitted to move, namely, a position of dependence upon the fruits—the precious fruits of honest industry. This would be a grievous injury, instead of a benefit. The example of Boaz should instruct us in this matter. He allowed Ruth to glean; but he took care to make her gleaning profitable. This is a very safe and a very simple principle. God intends that man should work at something or another; and we run counter to Him when we draw our fellow out of the place of dependence upon the results of patient industry, into that of dependence upon the results of a false benevolence. The former is as honorable and elevating as the latter is contemptible and demoralizing. There is no bread so sweet to the taste as that which is nobly earned; but then those who earn their bread should get enough. A man will feed and care for his horses; how much more his fellow, who yields him the labor of his hands from Monday morning to Saturday night. But some will say, “There are two sides to this question.” Unquestionably there are; and no doubt, one meets with a great deal amongst the poor which is calculated to dry up the springs of benevolence and genuine sympathy. There is much which tends to steel the heart and close the hand; but one thing is certain, it is better to be deceived in ninety-nine cases out of a hundred, than to shut up the bowels of compassion against a single worthy object. Our heavenly Father causes His sun to shine upon the evil and on the good, and sendeth rain upon the just and upon the unjust, &c. The same sunbeams that gladden the heart of some devoted servant of Christ are poured upon the path of some ungodly sinner; and the self-same shower that falls upon the tillage of a true believer, enriches also the furrows of some blaspheming infidel. This is to be our model, “Be ye, therefore, perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matt. 5:4, 8.) It is only as we set the Lord before us, and walk in the power of His grace, that we shall be able to go on from day to day, meeting with a tender heart and an open hand every possible form of human misery. It is only as we ourselves are drinking at the exhaustless fountain of divine love and tenderness, that we shall be able to go on ministering to human need, unchecked by the oft-repeated manifestations of human depravity. Our tiny springs would soon be dried up, were they not maintained in unbroken connection with that ever-gushing source. —From MS. of “Notes on Leviticus.”