The book of Ruth is a tale of charm and delight. It tells about very ordinary people facing very ordinary events. We meet Naomi, who underwent hardship in famine and bereavement but eventually won peace and security. We meet Ruth, a young foreign woman from Moab who attached herself to her mother-in-law, Naomi, and to Naomi’s God. And we meet Boaz, who, by marrying Ruth, fitted into God’s purposes for history. Both King David and Jesus are numbered among their descendants.
Goethe calls it “the loveliest complete work on a small scale, handed down to us as an ethical treatise and an idyll.” Another writes, “No poet in the world has written a more beautiful short story.” David Atkinson demonstrates clearly that the story of Ruth, theologically, is a story about God’s providence.
