Before examining the details of the book of Ruth, however, we shall first remind ourselves more fully of what Christians have understood by the term ‘providence’, and indicate some of the difficulties that stand against such a faith in our day. Then we shall move back to the very different world of twelfth- or eleventh-century BC Palestine, to ‘the days when the judges ruled’, and shall discover nevertheless that in some ways the challenges to faith in the providence of God were not so very different
Page 12