Publisher's Description: Does God help those who help themselves? That may seem to be the message of the Books of Esther and Ruth. Some think that Ruth's attractiveness won over naomi and Boaz, or that Esther's bold faithfulness saved her people. But a closer reading shows an embittered Namoi to have abandoned the Promised Land and God's people, and Esther to have become thoroughly assimilated to the culture and values of Persian society.

In Esther, God works in invisible ways to shave his people. In Ruth, God's grace comes to Naomi unexpectedly, and with it, a depiction of redemption for her people. In both books, a gracious and sovereign God works through flawed individuals - unable even to help themselves - to rescue his people and prepare for the coming of Christ.

201 Pages
Published 2005

About the Author: Iain Duguid (M.Div., Westminster Theological Seminary; Ph.D., University of Cambridge) is professor of Old Testament at Westminster Seminary California. He has written a number of books on Christ-centered exposition, including Living in the Gap Between Promise and REality: The Gospel According to Abraham and Living in the Grip of Relentless Grace: The Gospel in the LIves of Isaac and Jacob, in the Gospel According to the Old Testament series.

About the Series: The Reformed Expository Commentary is biblical (committed to comprehensive exposition of the text), doctrinal (committed to the Westminster Standards), redemptive-historical (committed to a Christ-centered view of the Old Testament), and practical (committed to applying the text to people today). Coeditors are Philip Ryken and Richard Phillips; biblical editors are Iain Duguid and Dan Doriani.

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