“I’m going out to glean among the sheaves.” Ruth 2:2

This is one of the most significant decisions in the Old Testament.
Let me explain.

As I read the book of Ruth this morning I was so impacted by Ruth’s willingness to glean. Gleaning was good old-fashioned manual labor: gathering leftover crops after a field had already been harvested. In a sense, it was the ancient welfare system. But it wasn’t a free hand-out. It was back-breaking work. And it took a spirit of humility. There was nothing glamorous about gleaning. But Ruth was willing to do it.

Can I borrow that metaphor? Leaders are gleaners. They glean everything they can from everyone they can! It harkens back to something that has been attributed to everyone from Ben Franklin to Thomas Carlye to Ralph Waldo Emerson. I’m not sure who said it first, but it’s such good advice: “Every man is my superior in some way, in that I learn of him.“

Back to Ruth.

You know the rest of the story. Boaz sees that Ruth has been working since sun up. Some people are attracted to people because of their personality or their physique. For Boaz, it was Ruth’s work ethic. Long story short, they fall in love, get married, and live happily ever after. Oh yeah, and her Great Grandson, a shepherd named David, becomes King of Israel.

Here’s how I see it: David owes His existence to a Great Grandmother that was willing to glean. Those who glean will one day rule kingdoms. Or their Great Grandchildren will.

Glean everything you can from everyone you can!