The Gleaning Principle

“When you reap the harvest of your land, do not reap to the very edges of your field or gather the gleanings of your harvest. Do not go over your vineyard a second time or pick up the grapes that have fallen. Leave them for the poor and the foreigner. I am the LORD your God” - Leviticus 19:9-10

I’ve been thinking a lot about this command lately, taken from an early old testament book of the bible. It’s even repeated again in another early old testament book.

“When you are harvesting in your field and you overlook a sheaf, do not go back to get it. Leave it for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you beat the olives from your trees, do not go over the branches a second time. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, do not go over the vines again. Leave what remains for the foreigner, the fatherless and the widow.” - Deuteronomy 24:19-21

I find it interesting that God commands His people to act in this specific way. If His sole intent was to provide for the poor, the foreigner, the orphan and the widow, He could have just as easily commanded the Israelites to harvest their field to the fullest, and give 10% of the harvest away to create the first food bank of Israel. But He doesn’t.

It would have been more efficient that way, the owners of the land would know it a lot better than others. They would have experience working it and infrastructure in place for harvesting it. They could do it all at once, rather than over time and as needed. Yet, God commands them to leave both the work and the fruit of that work for others.

Why?

I believe God knows that our need for dignity is often just as important as our material needs. We weren’t designed only to receive, but to work for what we need to support ourselves and our family. As more research is done on effective charity, we are learning more and more that the best forms of charity empower the receiver to participate in the work.

To work to meet our needs is to have purpose, to have enough, and maybe even enough to share with our community. This principle is further confirmed in Paul’s new testament writings, where he instructs the church that “The one who is unwilling to work shall not eat.” - 2 Thessalonians 3:10

These commands must go hand in hand though. Paul makes that statement in a society where gleaning would be commonplace. Where work was readily available to anyone willing.

Sowing without Reaping

When I read these commands to the Israelites, I think about the farmer working long hours to sow seed, and when he comes to the “very edges of his field” he continues to sow. That farmer is intentionally sowing seeds that he knows he will never reap. He is sacrificing, working longer hours than he needs to, with no personal benefit to come, but for the good of his community.

I think about the same farmer who is harvesting his field months later, and stops some time before he reaches the edge of his field. Who walks back from a long day of work and makes the intentional choice to ignore the fruit lying on the ground that he missed the first time, even though it would be a quick and easy harvest.

I also think about the way that the gleanings would be reaped. This farmer would not get the personal satisfaction of standing at the edges of fields on a Saturday morning handing out food to the hungry. He likely may not even know who benefitted from the crops on the edges of his fields. He would have lost the dopamine hit that charity sometimes provides, but he would have been found faithful and obedient, and his community would be better for it.

2025 America

Many people in business today have a desire to do good, to treat people fairly and preserve the environment and community around them. However, I often hear those desires followed up with something to the effect of “and by doing so, we’ll actually realize a greater financial return because we will have happier employees, happier customers, more investors, etc..”

There is nothing wrong with that, and I do believe that ethical business will beat exploitative business practices in the long term. But what happens when the choices required don’t result in finding alpha? Is it still worth it? Is the farmer that only harvests 90% of his field eventually somehow benefitting from this choice? Or is this purely a sacrifice he is called to make so that the community around him thrives?

Capitalism is the best economic system humans have ever invented. In an incredibly short time (from a global historical perspective) it has created enormous progress and contributed to human flourishing the likes of which our ancestors wouldn’t have been able to even dream. In 200 years we’ve reduced the percentage of people in extreme poverty from 80% to less than 10%.

That should be celebrated and expanded on. However, during this same time period, wealth and income inequality have risen dramatically, even leading some to pine for a return to communistic and socialistic societies of the past. No matter how much the rising tide lifts all ships, no matter how many charitable dollars flow from those ships, comparison will always steal joy and people will always desire access to the sources of wealth generation and the ability to create it for themselves. And some will always be left behind. The poor we will always have with us.

But maybe, as a speaker I recently heard from opined, if more of us thought about business the way God intended, people would be slower to think that we should try socialism again, and realize that capitalism with Jesus can actually work pretty well for everyone.

So what would it look like to practice the gleaning principle in 2025 America? Who is responsible for it? And who are the poor, foreigners, orphans, and widows of our time?

We no longer live in the agrarian society Leviticus, Deuteronomy, and 2 Thessalonians were written to. Most of us don’t own or harvest any fields. But some of us do own businesses, the “fields” of 2025. What could it look like to leave the gleanings of our businesses for the vulnerable today?

Selective Inefficiency

Efficiency is great, it has become an American ideal. If you’re anything like me, you’ve likely thought so much about optimizing for efficiency that the thought you’ve put into it may have made the efficient process you came up with not even efficient enough to justify all the thought that went into it. You may even be running that calculation in your head now to see if your thoughts about efficiency are efficient enough to justify the efficiency they create.

But is our God efficient?

Does our God always take the most efficient route from A to B to accomplish His purposes? I would argue no, and I think the act of gleaning is to choose to be selectively inefficient.

If the efficient way is to maximize profit and maximize generosity, we would never choose to hire someone who is entering the free world again after a time in prison. The risk does not justify the reward. We may instead tell ourselves “I’ll hire this experienced, qualified, and reliable person, and I’ll donate some money to the prison ministry! A win win.”

Charity is good. I want to be very clear in my stance that actively choosing to part with your dollars for a greater good is a noble thing. However, in the above scenario, are we really helping to solve the problem? If everyone in the world thought this way, would we solve the problem, or simply sustain the need for our charitable dollars?

If no one is willing to hire the person recently out of prison and looking for a second chance, the likelihood that person returns to the jail cell he was freed from is high. And the need for robust prison ministries is sustained.

Sadly, we are often quick to point this person to the bible verse stating that a man who does not work shall not eat, but slow to point ourselves to the verses calling us to leave the edges of our fields to create work for men like him.

Practical Examples

I see four groups of people specifically called out in the two verses mentioned. The poor, the orphan (or fatherless), the widow, and the foreigner (2x).

All of these people share something in common - they lack access. In 1400 BC and 2025 AD, access to the means of production is harder to come by for these groups of people.

The poor lack the resources to live in nicer neighborhoods and attend better schools, and therefore usually have networks made up of people like them, rather than business owners and hiring managers.

The orphan, or fatherless, lack role models and mentors to show them how to work and provide, how to get a job and succeed in life.

The widow or single mom faces the burden of providing financially and emotionally for her children. Trying to work enough to make ends meet but also be present enough to raise her kids well.

I don’t believe it’s a coincidence that the foreigner is the only group called out twice, as oftentimes that is where the greatest gap between ability and access lie. As immigrants and refugees move to America, we have a shockingly large number of ex doctors, lawyers, and engineers who now stock shelves at Walmart, unable to get through the cultural and language barriers required to hold a job closer to their ability level.

So for those of us blessed with a field in 2025, how do we leave the gleanings of that field for these groups of people? A few ideas come to mind:

• Identify positions where a learning curve is acceptable and hire those positions for potential instead of current ability. Use these to seek out the vulnerable and train them in the way of your company. Promote and continue to disciple those who excel.

• Look at the whole picture, and see where one solvable problem (i.e. cultural barriers) can lead to an impactful employee contributing to the success of your organization

• Be willing to sacrifice efficiency - maybe a 6 month ramp time to full effectiveness is worth the wait rather than your typical 3 month ramp.

• Create employee programs that incentivize lifegiving habits and improve quality of life.

  
  

I recently heard about a business owner who felt passionately that no one should be in credit card debt. He knew that money was one of the biggest personal and marital stressors, and causes of divorce, and he wanted his employees free from those shackles. He knew many of them were in credit card debt, and rolled out a program to match any debt payments they made dollar for dollar. He believes he ended up with happier employees in happier marriages, with a pretty minimal cost to the business.

Here’s a video from another business that is leading the way in this kind of work.

There are some problems charity can not solve

The book When Helping Hurts asserts that all help needed falls into one of three categories - relief, rehabilitation, or development.

And while the vast majority of the time, the help needed is developmental, a large majority of charitable dollars go towards relief efforts.

I think about the son of a single mother from a poor neighborhood. What that child needs most is a consistent mentor (development) but what he often gets is a new bike. And instead of learning life skills he could utilize later, he learns simply to depend on generosity, a non-sustainable solution to his problems.

It’s easier and it makes us feel good, but it’s also why many leaders in Africa are now asking for donations to stop, and investment in local companies to grow. Providing relief where development is needed often hurts the places we try to help.

There are many problems that businesses are better equipped to solve than charities, but viewing the world through the lens of a sacred/secular divide has hindered our ability to see them and fulfill that call.

This call does not fall on just a select group of entrepreneurs, or those who consider themselves social impact businesses. This call falls on all Christians. It’s a call to move beyond charity and embrace selective inefficiency - a deliberate choice to create access and opportunity for the vulnerable, even when it doesn’t maximize profit.

By intentionally leaving gleanings in our modern fields, we not only provide for the material needs of the poor, the fatherless, the widow, and the foreigner, but also honor their inherent dignity, empowering them to work and thrive.