The book of Esther is unlike every other book we have studied in this series. It does not directly mention God. It contains no direct prophecy of Jesus Christ. And Esther herself is not listed in the genealogy of the Messiah as Ruth is in Matthew 1. It would be easy, for that reason, to think that Esther has nothing to say to us about Christ.

The book of Ruth reads, at first, like a beautiful and quiet family drama. There are no plagues, no parted seas, no walls falling down. There is only an old woman, her young daughter-in-law, a barley field, and a kind man at harvest time. And yet beneath the gentle surface of this story is something that leads us straight to the heart of the gospel — straight to Jesus Himself.