“When you enter your neighbor’s vineyard, you may eat enough grapes to satisfy your appetite; but you are not to put any in your basket. When you enter your neighbor’s field of growing grain, you may pluck ears with your hand; but you are not to put a sickle to your neighbor’s grain.”-Deuteronomy 23:25-26
Finally, finally we come to the final verses of Deuteronomy Chapter 23 dealing with the right to eat from a neighbor’s crops.
The rule we’re given is that a person passing through his neighbor’s fields can pinch off some of the heads of grain or pluck off some grapes from the vines to satisfy any immediate hunger pangs he may be suffering while travelling.
However, no doggy bags are allowed!
One wasn’t allowed to bring a basket and fill it up with grains or take a sickle and harvest the fields.
Understand this wasn’t about feeding the poor.
The laws of gleaning for the poor had already been established.
Rather, this particular law was for travelers.
In ancient times, it was perfectly normal for a person to walk through someone’s field during their journey.
In those days, since there were not a lot of clearly defined roads or paths, it was darn near impossible to avoid having to walk through a field.
In addition, there weren’t any hostels or rest stops along the way.
And since most people traveled by foot, they didn’t want to carry heavy loads.
Therefore, pretty much the only option that was available to them was to eat the produce of the fields or vines while travelling.
We actually get an interesting depiction of this law of travelers in the New Testament.
Yeshua and his disciples were plucking and eating some grain from a field they had been walking through when they got into a dispute about it with some nearby Pharisees.
However, the issue had nothing to do with stealing grain from a farmer because again the law here in Deuteronomy 23 plainly states that it’s okay.
No, rather the problem was Yeshua and his followers were accused of defiling the Sabbath but not in the way most people think about it.
The real issue is that apparently Yeshua had walked more than the permitted distance he should have walked and the Pharisees were getting all hotheaded about it.
According to the traditions of the day, since Yeshua and his followers had walked to a field outside of the town, that was considered work.
CONNECTING THIS TEACHING TO THE NEW TESTAMENT
“At that time Yeshua went through the grainfields on the Sabbath.
His disciples were hungry and began to
pick some heads of grain and eat them.
When the Pharisees saw this, they said to him,
“Look! Your disciples are doing what is unlawful on the Sabbath.”
He answered, “Haven’t you read what David did when he
and his companions were hungry?
He entered the house of God, and he and his companions
ate the consecrated bread—which was not lawful for them to do,
but only for the priests.
Or haven’t you read in the Law that the priests on Sabbath duty
in the temple desecrate the Sabbath and yet are innocent?
I tell you that something greater than the temple is here.
If you had known what these words mean,
‘I desire mercy, not sacrifice, you would not have condemned
the innocent.
For the Son of Man is Lord of the Sabbath.”
-Matthew 12:1-8
NEXT TIME WE BEGIN DEUTERONOMY CHAPTER 24
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