The stalks of grain wither and produce nothing to eat. And even if there is any grain, foreigners will eat it.
(Hosea 8:7 NLT)
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According to ancient Hebrew law, when a farmer was harvesting his grain, he was not to be overly diligent in getting every last stalk of grain. If a stalk or two was bent rather than cut when he swung the sickle, he was to leave it behind and move forward. The reason for this was so that those that were poor and hungry, those who did not have the lands, resources, and fields of the farmer, could come behind and pick out what was left and they would not starve.
I can see a few social advantages to this practice. First, the better off farmer is making good use of his time. The entire field can be harvested in far less time when the workers are moving forward in a steady rhythm rather than breaking it every time a stalk or two of grain is missed. The second advantage for the farmer is that he is knowingly doing something to benefit society as a whole. I guess you could almost say this is one of the first known cases giving to charity as a part of a culture.
There are also two benefits of this system for the poor. First, they have the chance to survive. If the richer farmer did not leave behind the gleanings of the field, there is a much greater chance that the poor neighbor would starve to death. Also, even the poor are working for their food. There is the sense of true pride that I have earned this bread with my own hands. This is in contrast to the false pride of entitlement that would say, "he is rich and I am poor, therefore he should give me some of the grain he has cut."
This is the social situation that made the love story of Ruth and Boaz possible. The line so often read at weddings: "Don't urge me to leave you or to turn back from you. Where you go I will go, and where you stay I will stay. Your people will be my people and your God my God. Where you die I will die, and there I will be buried. May the LORD deal with me, be it ever so severely, if anything but death separates you and me." Is actually taken from the beginning of this story. Ruth is a poor widowed foreigner who moves to a strange land with her mother in law. While she is there and working in a field like I described above she is noticed by that rich farmer. He tells his field hands to "accidentally" drop some grain where she will be coming behind them every now and then so she can have a bit more to bring home. One thing leads to another and they get married, have babies, and live happily ever after.
One of their great grandkids became the famous King David. He obviously didn't take the lesson from his heritage to heart. Because of his actions (and because as king he could not be directly confronted and accused) a prophet came to him with this parable. There was a rich man who had lots of sheep and a poor neighbor who only had one. One day the rich man had some guests come over and wanted to offer them some meat. But because he was greedy and did not want to kill any of his own sheep, he stole his neighbors and served that up instead. Rather then helping the poor he was exploiting them.
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Now what does either of these stories or the scripture from Hosea have to do with me? When I was chewing over this verse from Hosea, I started thinking to myself, "I am the foreigner." Not just me as an individual, I'm talking also about me as a society, me as a culture me as a country. There is a reason why so many countries refer to me, to us, as the ugly American or the western devil.
Am I as an individual and are we as a country doing what we can to help our poor neighbors across the street and around the world? Or am I keeping an eight year old in Nicaragua in economic slavery so that I can pay 25 dollars for my shoes instead of 80? The same question has been asked regarding sexual addiction and the human slave trade. The movie Blood Diamond also does a great job showing the very real cost of that wedding ring we just have to buy.
So am I an exploiter or am I a giver? What are some ways that I could turn my consumerism into generosity? Instead of buying drinks when I go to Barnes and Nobles, could I give that money to the Mocha Club? Instead of buying a Christmas present for a friend that doesn't really need it, what if I were to get a gift through Operation Christmas Child? Are there any extraneous bills like for cable, or a faster internet connection, or netflix that I could cancel and use that money to sponsor a child through Compassion? Should I be more informed and selective in where I shop and what companies I buy from? What are some other things that I can do?
I understand what you are talking about, I myself want to be more of a compassionate person. It's little things, as well as bigger things that could be done. Like, donate unwanted things to goodwill, or give to homeless people who beg on the highways, or put your extra change in a jar at a store. The way I look at it is, I would want somebody to help me if I was hard up, so why not give? It just makes one feel happy to give rather than to recieve. I think we, as a nation just get caught up in the rat race and worry too much about our own problems, rather than others. As far as the giant super stores that sell groceries as well as everything else, it is a great savings and truthfully, I don't know what I would do without those extra savings, I would be going to family members houses for dinner more often I know, and believe me, that doesn't give me a sense of pride, counting on others to feed me. So in the long run it does help the normal folks like you and me. Also, volunteer to help people, be it friends or family when they are in need, open doors for old people or handicapped folks or send anonymous gifts to those less fortunate. I know I am guilty of not doing these things as often as I should, but maybe this can be the beginning of a change for me...If everybody did these things more often, we would live in a much happier world.
America is the wealthy farmer. Or more like a king with a bunch of serf countries. I give $50 every month to a charity. It's not a lot of money I know, but $600 a year is better than nothing. And then at the end of the year you get to put it on your taxes . As my husband and I no longer want a piece of clothing we put it in a big bag in our closet and when it gets full bring it to one of those clothing drop off boxes. That's just the way I was raised, I can't imagine throwing away perfectly good clothes! Since I was younger my mom has been sponsoring a family at a local shelter every christmas to buy toys. I've continued on with that tradition. It's not hard, you just google for shelters in your state and give them a call. They're more then willing to provide you with a list of what people would like.
I don't think it's hard to implement things like that into your life. Other people have mentioned how they only want to buy cheap groceries. Well, look for coffee or chocolate with 'fair trade' on the label. In the coming months farmers markets will open up and you can get your produce from there. It's not expensive.
Once I was working as a cable TV installer This was within the first year of my new life as a christian. We went to a house that was emormous. It had a full baskettball court i the back yard, and 3 fountains. two of which were inside the house. The utility room where we had to connect the cables was full of shelves; each stacked full of board games, and clear plastic totes full of toys. These shelves could put a toy store to shame. The last room that we had to put a connection in was the office. When I got inside the office I saw the book shelves full of bibles and religious books. On the walls were signed pictures of pastors and evangalists thanking this person for their contributions. It was clear that whoever owned this house was a christian, but I could not conceive of a christian having such extravagance, especially since I was barely making ends meet in my $11 per hour cable tv job. I mean... instead of installing the second indoor fountain, couldnt they have fed a whole homless shelter or something? This house was nestled on a private road back in the woods, but the across the street from that hill was a trailer park. Wasn't there at least some people in there who could use some help? All this bothered me greatly, and I asked a good friend about it. Where do you draw the line between being blessed with wealth, and being greedy? My friend explained to me that the way to guage weather a christian is blesed or greedy, is if they give, and how much is left after they give. We are commanded to tithe. In tithing we are giving back to God what is already his. But in the parable of the talents we see that to give back to God what is only his is lazy and wicked. We are to put what he gives us to work so that it will mulitply and further his kingdom. We can do this by practicing charity. So to answer these questions I don't belive that it is wrong to do things for yourself, as long as your giving is done freely with love, and without holding back.
. As my husband and I no longer want a piece of clothing we put it in a big bag in our closet and when it gets full bring it to one of those clothing drop off boxes. That's just the way I was raised, I can't imagine throwing away perfectly good clothes! Since I was younger my mom has been sponsoring a family at a local shelter every christmas to buy toys. I've continued on with that tradition. It's not hard, you just google for shelters in your state and give them a call. They're more then willing to provide you with a list of what people would like.
