Ruth 2:15
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 when she was risen up to glean, Boaz commanded his young men, saying, Let her glean even among the sheaves, and reproach her not:
The verse belongs to the brief, beautiful pastoral story of Ruth from the time of the judges. In it Boaz commands his young men to let Ruth glean even among the sheaves and to protect her from reproach. His generosity is seen in letting her keep all the grain she gathered, in contrast with the practice of diamond companies in giving poor women only a share of the value of the stones they found. The story closes with the ancestry of the Lord Jesus, into which Ruth, a Moabite woman, is brought as an ancestor of Jesus. The near kinsman in the book is a type of Christ.
Gleaning pictures seeking people who have been overlooked or passed by, and gathering even a few of them for God is valuable work. The harvest field is a pattern for conversion in which cutting down the grain is not enough and others must bind the sheaves. Binding the sheaves means gathering the loose cut material and combining it in Sabbath-schools, prayer-meetings, missionary associations, and churches, bringing out followers of Christ who have never been brought out. It means organizing the army of God into companies, regiments, battalions, sharpshooters, artillerymen, infantry, sappers and miners, putting all the troops into action instead of leaving idle troops in reserve, so that all the castles of sin can be taken for King Immanuel.
Like Ruth gleaning in the field, people should join in the humble, diligent work available to them rather than remain idle. That labor is to be taken up even when it is difficult. It is to be taken up even when it is lonely.