Kathleen Nielson - Ruth and Esther: A 12-Week Study

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This series is a tremendous resource for those wanting to study and teach the Bible with an understanding of how the gospel is woven throughout Scripture. Here are gospel-minded pastors and scholars doing gospel business from all the Scriptures. This is a biblical and theological feast preparing Gods people to apply the entire Bible to all of life with heart and mind wholly committed to Christs priorities.

BRYAN CHAPELL, Chancellor, Covenant Theological Seminary

Mark Twain may have smiled when he wrote to a friend, I didnt have time to write you a short letter, so I wrote you a long letter. But the truth of Twains remark remains serious and universal, because well-reasoned, compact writing requires extra time and extra hard work. And this is what we have in the Crossway Bible study series Knowing the Bible. The skilled authors and notable editors provide the contours of each book of the Bible as well as the grand theological themes that bind them together as one Book. Here, in a 12-week format, are carefully wrought studies that will ignite the mind and the heart.

R. KENT HUGHES, Senior Pastor Emeritus, College Church, Wheaton, Illinois

Knowing the Bible brings together a gifted team of Bible teachers to produce a high-quality series of study guides. The coordinated focus of these materials is unique: biblical content, provocative questions, systematic theology, practical application, and the gospel story of Gods grace presented all the way through Scripture.

PHILIP G. RYKEN, President, Wheaton College

These Knowing the Bible volumes provide a significant and very welcome variation on the general run of inductive Bible studies. This series provides substantial instruction, as well as teaching through the very questions that are asked. Knowing the Bible then goes even further by showing how any given text links with the gospel, the whole Bible, and the formation of theology. I heartily endorse this orientation of individual books to the whole Bible and the gospel, and I applaud the demonstration that sound theology was not something invented later by Christians, but is right there in the pages of Scripture.

GRAEME L. GOLDSWORTHY, former lecturer, Moore Theological College; author, According to Plan, Gospel and Kingdom, The Gospel in Revelation, and Gospel and Wisdom

What a gift to earnest, Bible-loving, Bible-searching believers! The organization and structure of the Bible study format presented through the Knowing the Bible series is so well conceived. Students of the Word are led to understand the content of passages through perceptive, guided questions, and they are given rich insights and application all along the way in the brief but illuminating sections that conclude each study. What potential growth in depth and breadth of understanding these studies offer! One can only pray that vast numbers of believers will discover more of God and the beauty of his Word through these rich studies.

BRUCE A. WARE, Professor of Christian Theology, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary

KNOWING THE BIBLE

J. I. Packer, Theological Editor
Dane C. Ortlund, Series Editor
Lane T. Dennis, Executive Editor

Genesis	Mark
Ruth, Esther	John
Psalms	Acts
Proverbs	Romans
Isaiah	Philippians
Matthew	James

J. I. PACKER is Board of Governors Professor of Theology at Regent College (Vancouver, BC). Dr. Packer earned his DPhil at the University of Oxford. He is known and loved worldwide as the author of the best-selling book Knowing God, as well as many other titles on theology and the Christian life. He serves as the General Editor of the ESV Bible and as the Theological Editor for the ESV Study Bible.

DANE C. ORTLUND is Senior Vice President for Bible Publishing at Crossway. He is a graduate of Covenant Theological Seminary (MDiv, ThM) and Wheaton College (BA, PhD). Dr. Ortlund has authored several books and scholarly articles in the areas of Bible, theology, and Christian living.

LANE T. DENNIS is President of Crossway, a not-for-profit publishing ministry. Dr. Dennis earned his PhD from Northwestern University. He is Chair of the ESV Bible Translation Oversight Committee and Executive Editor of the ESV Study Bible.

RUTH AND ESTHER

A 12-WEEK STUDY

Kathleen B. Nielson

Knowing the Bible: Ruth and Esther, A 12-Week Study

Copyright 2014 by Crossway

Published by Crossway

1300 Crescent Street

Wheaton, Illinois 60187

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or otherwise, without the prior permission of the publisher, except as provided for by USA copyright law.

Some content used in this study guide has been adapted from the ESV Study Bible (Crossway), copyright 2008 by Crossway, pages 475483 and 849868. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Cover design: Simplicated Studio

First printing 2014

Printed in the United States of America

Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version), copyright 2001 by Crossway. 2011 Text Edition. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

All emphases in Scripture quotations have been added by the author.

Trade paperback ISBN: 978-1-4335-4038-7

PDF ISBN: 978-1-4335-4039-4

Mobipocket ISBN: 978-1-4335-4040-0

EPub ISBN: 978-1-4335-4041-7

Crossway is a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

KNOWING THE BIBLE, as the series title indicates, was created to help readers know and understand the meaning, the message, and the God of the Bible. Each volume in the series consists of 12 units that progressively take the reader through a clear, concise study of that book of the Bible. In this way, any given volume can fruitfully be used in a 12-week format either in group study, such as in a church-based context, or in individual study. Of course, these 12 studies could be completed in fewer or more than 12 weeks, as convenient, depending on the context in which they are used.

Each study unit gives an overview of the text at hand before digging into it with a series of questions for reflection or discussion. The unit then concludes by highlighting the gospel of grace in each passage (Gospel Glimpses), identifying whole-Bible themes that occur in the passage (Whole-Bible Connections), and pinpointing Christian doctrines that are affirmed in the passage (Theological Soundings).

The final component to each unit is a section for reflecting on personal and practical implications from the passage at hand. The layout provides space for recording responses to the questions proposed, and we think readers need to do this to get the full benefit of the exercise. The series also includes definitions of key words. These definitions are indicated by a note number in the text and are found at the end of each chapter.