Gleaning from God's Word

Gleaning from God’s Word

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Dear Pastor, Preacher, or Bible Teacher –

Here is a thought for your Monday, following a weekend of serving God, His people, and a needy world…

Ruth 2 presents the wonderful picture of Ruth, the Moabitess, finding favor with Boaz. Boaz generously gave her permission to glean in his field.

She gleaned in the field until evening,
and beat out what she had gleaned. (Ruth 2:17)

“Gleaning” was the practice of going into a recently-harvested field and picking up whatever grain remained. God commanded Israel in Leviticus 19:9-10 to deliberately leave some behind for the poor and needy of the land to get food.

Gleaning from God's Word

God blessed Ruth and people were generous to her. At the same time, she did work hard, and she worked all day long. It wasn’t easy to follow the reapers of the harvest and carefully search for every remaining stalk of grain, carefully picking up even the small pieces left behind. It was work that demanded a lot of focus, attention, and searching.

We should use Ruth’s example to glean everything we can from the word of God:

  • Ruth worked hard – we should work hard in studying God’s word.
  • Ruth had to stoop to gather every grain – we don’t have to explain every “grain” when we preach and teach, but we can gather the “small grains” for ourselves and benefit from them.
  • Ruth could only pick up one grain at a time – we should think through what we learn from the Bible, piece by piece.
  • Ruth had to hold on to each grain, and not immediately drop it – we should mentally “hold on” to truth, to meditate on it and benefit from it.
  • Ruth took the grain home and threshed it – the benefit from our gleaning in God’s word should first be a blessing to our home.
  • Ruth took the threshed grain and winnowed it – what we glean in our study must be carefully prepared to have the most benefit for those who will receive it.
  • Ruth was nourished by the grain – we must be nourished by God’s word, and not receive it as only truths to tell others about.

This week, may God bless your gleaning in His word!

Blessings to you in Jesus’ Name – David Guzik

Click Here to Receive Email from David for Pastors, Preachers, and Bible Teachers

Good Accusations

Good Accusations

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Then they secretly induced men to say, “We have heard him speak blasphemous words against Moses and God.” And they stirred up the people, the elders, and the scribes; and they came upon him, seized him, and brought him to the council. They also set up false witnesses who said, “This man does not cease to speak blasphemous words against this holy place and the law; for we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs which Moses delivered to us.” (Acts 6:11-14)

It’s never nice to be falsely accused, but there can be something good even in false accusations. We see this in Acts 6, when Stephen – a newly-recognized servant in the early church – was untruthfully charged.

Stephen boldly preached, and God did miraculous things through him. Acts 6:10 says that Stephen’s opponents were “not able to resist the wisdom and the Spirit by which he spoke.” They wanted to stop Stephen’s message. So, they secretly induced men to bring false charges.

Good Accusations

Normally, Luke would not know what they secretly induced men to say. Possibly he knew because a man named Saul of Tarsus was among the opponents. Saul (who became known as Paul the apostle) may have told Luke about this.

In doing this, they stirred up the people. The opponents of Stephen could do nothing against the followers of Jesus until popular opinion was on their side. Previously, persecution against the apostles was limited because popular opinion was with them (Acts 2:47, 5:26).

Popular opinion is easily shaped. The crowds that loved the apostles (Acts 2:47, 5:26) here condemned Stephen. Therefore, we should never let popular opinion shape the vision or focus of the church, but let it rest on God’s eternal word.

When we look at the charges against Stephen, they all centered on the ideas that Stephen spoke against the God of Israel, Moses, the law, and the temple. The accusations twisted truths that Stephen clearly taught: that Jesus was the Messiah, and greater than Moses. In the specific accusations, we can see that Stephen clearly taught:

– Jesus was greater than Moses (blasphemous words against Moses).
– Jesus was God (blasphemous words against…God).
– Jesus was greater than the temple (blasphemous words against this holy place).
– Jesus was the fulfillment of the law (blasphemous words against…the law).
– Jesus was greater than their religious customs and traditions (Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs).

Stephen never taught against Moses and God, but his exaltation of Jesus was twisted by his enemies. Stephen never spoke blasphemous words against this holy place (the temple), but he refused to make it an idol as did some Jewish people in that day.

Here is the good part: many of these same false accusations were also made against Jesus (Matthew 26:59-61). It is a good thing to be accused of the same things Jesus was accused of. Even if the accusations are false, you’re in good company!

Click Here for David’s Written Commentary on Acts 6