Leave the Edges of Your Field

A farmer swings his sickle through golden barley. Row after row. Then, near the edge of the field, he stops. He leaves a whole strip standing. On purpose. And he walks away.

That farmer has not yet been born. Right now, the people of Israel are camped in the desert at Mount Sinai. They have no fields at all, only tents and sand and manna each morning. But God is preparing them for a land of their own, with vineyards and harvests. Through Moses he speaks to the whole community. Be holy, he says, because I, the LORD your God, am holy. And then he shows them what holiness looks like. Not only in the tabernacle. In the field, at the market, at the gate, in the heart.

When you reap your harvest, God says, do not cut all the way to the edges of your field. And do not go back to pick up the bits that fall. In your vineyard, do not strip every last grape or gather the ones that drop. Leave them for the poor and for the foreigner. I am the LORD your God. Think about what that means. A widow with no land, a stranger who has just arrived, a family that has fallen on hard times: they could walk into a field at harvest and gather food with their own hands. Not as beggars, but as guests God had already provided for. The farmer's field had room built into it for other people.

Then God goes on, one command after another, each one about how to treat people. Do not steal. Do not lie to one another. Do not use my name to make a false promise. Do not cheat your neighbour or rob him. If you hire a worker for the day, pay him before nightfall, because he needs it. Do not curse the deaf, even though they cannot hear you. Do not put something in front of a blind person to trip them, even though they cannot see you. Fear your God, who sees everything. When you judge a case, be fair. Do not favour the poor because you feel sorry for them, and do not favour the powerful because you are impressed by them. And do not go around spreading gossip.

Now God goes deeper, into the heart. Do not hate your brother in your heart. If someone is doing wrong, speak to them honestly, rather than letting resentment grow. Do not take revenge, and do not hold a grudge. Instead, God says, you shall love your neighbour as yourself. I am the LORD. And then, later in the chapter, he adds the people they might be tempted to forget. When a foreigner comes to live in your land, do not mistreat them. Treat them like someone born among you. Love them as yourself. And here is the reason. You were foreigners once, in Egypt. You remember how that felt. Remember it, and be kind.

In 1908, at the ancient city of Gezer, archaeologists found a small limestone tablet, probably from around the tenth century before Christ. Scratched into it is a farmer's year: months of sowing, of flax, of barley harvest, of harvest and feasting, of tending the vines, of summer fruit. It is known as the Gezer Calendar. It shows that Israel's year was shaped by harvests, the very moments when this law asked farmers to leave room for the poor.

Leave the edges of your field. You'll find these words in Leviticus chapter nineteen, verses nine to eighteen, and thirty-three to thirty-four. Centuries later, Jesus called love your neighbour as yourself one of the two greatest commandments. So here is a question to carry with you. What could you leave at the edge of your field this week, so someone else has enough?