Rut 2:17 | KingComments | STEP | Ruth has gleaned, but she also needs to beat out. Grain cannot grow without straw. However, straw is not food for humans. In speeches and comments there will often also be some straw, such as examples or repetition, so that the meaning of the Bible section is well remembered. In addition, there is the weakness of the expressions that are used or sometimes wanting to say it more beautifully to impress. All these human elements must be removed. Often, it is those things that we take home from a meeting and we talk to each other about the straw, and little or not at all about the grain. We remember the defective or beautiful form in which something is said, while ignoring the content. Ruth has no interest in straw. She beats the grain out to take it home, because only therein is food. Spiritually, it means that we consider before the Lord what we have read in God’s Word and take into our hearts what it contains. Not everything we hear or read we keep. It’s about what we beat out. We have to work on it and we have to make an effort to do so. Then what we have gathered can become bread. Ruth has gleaned an ephah of barley at the end of the day. An ephah is ten omer ( ) and an omer in the wilderness was the meal of manna for one day ( ). Ruth has collected food for ten days. She takes that home, so others can be fed with it. Beating out also indicates that more work needs to be done to get the full benefit of what she has gathered. It can be compared to the ‘chewing the cud’ – by clean animals ( ) – of what we have taken from the Word, for example in a meeting or a conference. Beating out means to pray and think about what we have read or heard from and about God’s Word. Many impressions disappear like smoke, simply because we haven’t thought about them afterward.

‏ Ruth 2:17

The Yield

Ruth has gleaned, but she also needs to beat out. Grain cannot grow without straw. However, straw is not food for humans. In speeches and comments there will often also be some straw, such as examples or repetition, so that the meaning of the Bible section is well remembered. In addition, there is the weakness of the expressions that are used or sometimes wanting to say it more beautifully to impress. All these human elements must be removed. Often, it is those things that we take home from a meeting and we talk to each other about the straw, and little or not at all about the grain. We remember the defective or beautiful form in which something is said, while ignoring the content.

Ruth has no interest in straw. She beats the grain out to take it home, because only therein is food. Spiritually, it means that we consider before the Lord what we have read in God’s Word and take into our hearts what it contains. Not everything we hear or read we keep. It’s about what we beat out. We have to work on it and we have to make an effort to do so. Then what we have gathered can become bread.

Ruth has gleaned an ephah of barley at the end of the day. An ephah is ten omer (Exo 16:36) and an omer in the wilderness was the meal of manna for one day (Exo 16:16 ; 22). Ruth has collected food for ten days. She takes that home, so others can be fed with it.

Beating out also indicates that more work needs to be done to get the full benefit of what she has gathered. It can be compared to the ‘chewing the cud’ – by clean animals (Lev 11:3) – of what we have taken from the Word, for example in a meeting or a conference. Beating out means to pray and think about what we have read or heard from and about God’s Word. Many impressions disappear like smoke, simply because we haven’t thought about them afterward.