God who is infinite in His wisdom and knowledge and has an unfathomable depth of compassion and concern for all people no matter their educational, social, economic, spiritual and political class. And as the El-Shaddai (the multi breasted God that sustains all, but is sustained by none), in His abundance has made provisions for the spiritual nourishment of man in His word which is a landmine of all manner of precious pearls and jewels (Matthew 13:45-46, Job 28:18, Colossians 2:3).

As we know that precious solid minerals like gold, diamonds and other precious minerals are not found on the surface but deep in the rock and earth, and can only be found by an intentional and deep excavation and mining of the rocks and earth. In the same vein, the scriptures are an ocean of hidden treasures, a plantation of all manner of precious stones, gems, fruits and grains, and only the deliberate, intentional and poor in spirit can glean from the vastness and abundance of hidden treasures embedded in it.

Gleaning in scriptures is a deliberate act of collecting leftover crops from farmer’s field after they have been commercially harvested or on fields where it is not economically profitable. It is a practice described among the Hebrews in scripture and has become a legally enforced entitlement of the poor as commanded by God. The commandment of gleaning reflects God’s desire for people of means to create opportunities for the poor and marginalised.

Gleaning from scriptures is the provision God has made for the spiritual nourishment of the poor in spirit and those whose souls are hungry for Him (Matthew 5:3, 6).The Merriam Webster dictionary defines the word “glean” as; to obtain, to get, to draw, to take. It was first used in the English language in the early 14th century with the definition “to gather by acquisition, scrape together,” and the Hebrew root word originates from “laqat,”.

God expects that as we gather, acquire, obtain and extract truths from scriptures they become words that we live by. Most of the scriptures sound parabolic. They are meant to be, as God intended to ensure that only the humble and hungry are satisfied by its richness and deep fountain.

Asaph’s song about the coming of the Messiah in Psalm 78:1-3, depicts Jesus’ earthly ministry during His first coming, as one in which He will mostly communicate to His audience in parables. Parables are stumbling blocks. They’re meant to be as God has set a trap in scripture for the rebels and self-satisfied in heart (Isaiah 28:9-13).

Jesus in His earthly ministry spoke in parables for two reasons:

1) To make truth difficult to understand for the proud and self-satisfied

2) To make truth easy to understand for the humble and hungry.

Moses’ writings about the events around the life of Job painted a word picture of three great animals with deft hunting skills and voracious appetite. The fowl with its rake-like claws searches for grains in the sand, the vulture with its piercing vision in the air looking for carcasses, the lion with its prowling instinct stalks its prey unnoticed in order to pounce and devour it (Job 28:7-8). The same is true of those who will unlock and glean truths from scriptures; they must of necessity be of a humble spirit and have a voracious hunger to unravel truth by the help of the Holy Spirit from the vast reservoir of the Holy Scriptures.

Prophet Amos predicted in Amos 8:11-13 that a time will come when there will be a famine of the word of God (1 Samuel 3:1), but only those who are hungry, poor and destitute in spirit will be able to glean from the hidden treasures of scriptures.

God in His magnanimity commanded His people that when they harvest their fields at the time of ingathering, they should not completely harvest the fields but should leave out some fruits and grains for the fatherless, widows and strangers. The same truth applies to us today because, like Ruth, we are in the midst of foreigners.

Paul wrote to the Philippians that “our citizenship is in heaven” (Philippians 3:20(NIV). We need to intentionally glean from the living word of God so as to sustain us as we apply its truth and teachings in a fallen and broken world where there’s a scarcity of the undiluted truth of God’s word.

We must be intentional like Ruth who gathered for the whole harvesting season. She gathered barley from March until May, and gathered wheat from May through July. As we also seek to mature in our faith we will have different seasons of harvest.

Like Ruth, we need to stay in the fields with other mature and experienced saints of both the old times and the contemporary world in which we live in order to glean what we can from their depths of wisdom by the help of the Holy Spirit.

Furthermore, beyond gleaning by the help of the Holy Spirit, God desires that we become practitioners of the word so as to conform to His image in order to be His true messengers and representatives in this crooked and perverse generation.

Let us all go together on this adventure as those who are poor in spirit and hungry for the scarce and undiluted truth littered on the pages of the holy scriptures in this ever-changing world and humanistic culture.