A new commentary for today's world, The Story of God Bible Commentary explains and illuminates each passage of Scripture in light of the Bible's grand story. The first commentary series to do so, SGBC offers a clear and compelling exposition of biblical texts, guiding everyday readers in how to creatively and faithfully live out the Bible in their own contexts. Its story-centric approach is ideal for pastors, students, Sunday school teachers, and laypeople alike. Each volume employs three main, easy-to-use sections designed to help readers live out God's story: LISTEN to the Story: Includes complete NIV text with references to other texts at work in each passage, encouraging the reader to hear it within the Bible's grand story. EXPLAIN the Story: Explores and illuminates each text as embedded in its canonical and historical setting. LIVE the Story: Reflects on how each text can be lived today and includes contemporary stories and illustrations to aid preachers, teachers, and students. —Ruth, Esther— The book of Ruth presents a compelling account of how most of us experience God in our everyday lives. We see God working indirectly behind the scenes, giving us a theology of divine and human cooperation, as those who pray for God’s blessings participate in answering their own petitions as well as the prayers of others. In Esther’s story, we recognize our own world today, often experiencing it as a place where God seems hidden. Her book challenges us in unique ways. Edited by Scot McKnight and Tremper Longman III, and written by a number of top-notch theologians, The Story of God Bible Commentary series will bring relevant, balanced, and clear-minded theological insight to any biblical education or ministry.

A thorough exegetical and homiletical analysis of each passage of Judges and Ruth This masterly commentary sheds exegetical and theological light on the books of Judges and Ruth for contemporary preachers and students of Scripture. Listening closely to the text while interacting with the best of scholarship, Chisholm shows what the text meant for ancient Israel and what it means for us today. In addition to its perceptive comments on the biblical text, it examines a host of themes such as covenants and the sovereignty of God in Judges, and providence, redemption, lovingkindness, and Christological typology in Ruth. In his introduction to Judges, Chisholm asks and answers some difficult questions: What is the point of Judges? What role did individual judges play? What part did female characters play? Did Judges have a political agenda? Chisholm offers astute guidance to preachers and teachers wanting to do a series on Judges or Ruth by providing insightful exegetical and theological commentary. He offers homiletical trajectories for each passage to show how historical narrative can be presented in the pulpit and classroom.

The early church fathers readily found parallels, or types, in the narratives of the historical books that illumined the New Testament. This ACCS volume features a rich treasure trove of ancient wisdom, including homilies of Origen, commentaries from Gregory of Nazianzus and Bede the Venerable, and question-and-answer works from Augustine, Theodoret of Cyr, and Bede.

The Brazos Theological Commentary on the Bible encourages readers to explore how the vital roots of the ancient Christian tradition inform and shape faithfulness today. In this addition to the series, two respected scholars offer a theological reading of Judges and Ruth. As with other volumes in the series, this commentary is designed to serve the church--providing a rich resource for preachers, teachers, students, and study groups--and to demonstrate the continuing intellectual and practical viability of theological interpretation of the Bible.

Does God help those who help themselves? That may seem to be the message of Esther and Ruth. Yet a closer reading shows a gracious and sovereign God at work, one who uses obviously flawed people--unable even to help themselves--to rescue his people and prepare for the coming of Christ.