Ruth 2:10
Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger? Then she fell on her face, and bowed herself to the ground, and said unto him, Why have I found grace in thine eyes, that thou shouldest take knowledge of me, seeing I am a stranger?
Ruth 2:10 stands in the brief, beautiful, wonderfully interesting pastoral story of Ruth from the time of the judges, which ends by showing the ancestry of the Lord Jesus, into which a Moabite woman is brought. The verse records Ruth falling on her face and bowing herself to the ground in humble gratitude, surprise, and wonder that favor and grace have been shown to her and knowledge taken of her, seeing she is a stranger and foreigner. Boaz in the verse is her redeemer and future husband, whom she trusted to pay her debts and provide for her needs, and her trust illustrates relying on Christ instead of being anxious about whether He has redeemed His people and will sustain them.
The verse belongs to the account of Ruth gleaning in Boaz's field, and her gleaning shows that even humble labor such as gathering a handful of grain belongs in the work of the harvest and is a humble service to be counted a privilege. Her work pictures seeking out people who have been overlooked and bringing them into the church's care. The harvest-field of Boaz where the verse takes place is the harvest of conversion, where cutting down the grain is the first work of the law giving knowledge of sin, which is not enough by itself, so binding the sheaves must follow it.
Binding the sheaves means gathering up loose material left scattered and idle and combining it in Sabbath-schools, prayer-meetings, missionary associations, and churches. It means organizing the army of God into companies, regiments, battalions, sharpshooters, artillerymen, infantry, and sappers and miners for active service, so that all the castles of sin can be taken for King Immanuel.