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Harvest definition bible11/29/2023 ![]() Access to education, capital, product and job markets, transport systems, and non-discriminatory laws and regulations may be what poor people need to be productive. In more industrialized and knowledge-based economies, land is not the chief factor of production. In many countries, land reform is certainly needed so that land is securely available to farmers, rather than being controlled by capricious government officials or landowners who obtained it corruptly. In contemporary societies, it may not be easy to discern how to apply the principles of gleaning. It was simply a command that everyone had a right to access the means of provision created by God. Through gleaning, the poor earned their living the same way as the landowners did, by working the fields with their own labors. Also unlike charity, it was not given to the poor as a transfer payment. In this sense, it was much more like a tax than a charitable contribution. Unlike charity, it does not depend on the generosity of landowners. Gleaning is a process in which landowners have an obligation to provide poor and marginalized people access to the means of production (in Leviticus, the land) and to work it themselves. This is a good and noble thing to do, but it is not what Leviticus is talking about. In charity, people voluntarily give to others who are in need. This highlights the distinction between charity and gleaning. We do it because God says, “I am the Lord your God” (Lev. We might classify gleaning as an expression of compassion or justice, but according to Leviticus, allowing others to glean on our property is the fruit of holiness. (Other biblical references to gleaning include Exod. Other texts specify the widow and the orphan as members of this category. This was yet another way that God’s people were to be distinct from the surrounding nations. Laws benefiting the poor were common in the ancient Near East, but only the regulations of Israel extended this treatment to the resident foreigner. These two categories of people-the poor and resident foreigners-were unified by their lack of owning land and thus were dependent on their own manual labor for food. Third, they were to harvest their vineyards just once, presumably taking only the ripe grapes so as to leave the later ripening ones for their poor and the immigrants living among them. This would apply when a harvester grasped a bundle of stalks and cut them with the sickle, as well as when grapes fell from a cluster just cut from the vine. Second, they were not to pick up whatever produce fell to the ground. ![]() ![]() The width of this margin appears to be up to the owner to decide. First, they were to leave the margins of their grain fields unharvested. Learning From the Psalms How to Pray Through Your WorkĪlthough ancient methods of harvesting were not as efficient as today, yet Leviticus 19:9-10 instructs Israelites to make them even less so.Beyond Rank and Power: What Philemon Tells Us About Leadership.Evangelism - Sharing the Gospel at Work.10 Key Points About Work in the Bible Every Christian Should Know.
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