Find this podcast and others like it at the number one new media network, podshow.com.

Better, faster, stronger.

Stronger.

And now with new minty fresh scent.

The Bible study podcast, episode 11.

The Book of Hosea.

Welcome. Welcome to the Bible study podcast. I'm your host, Chris Christensen.

The title of this episode is, would God want you to marry a prostitute, which you have to admit is a pretty bizarre title.

And clearly I did that just to get your attention, but it also happens to be the plot of the Book of Hosea. Book of Hosea is a minor prophet in the Old

Testament. And it begins this way. The word of the Lord came to Hosea, son of Bury, during the reigns of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and

Hezekiah, kings of Judah, and during the reign of Joroboam, son of Joash, king of Israel.

When the Lord began speaking through Hosea, the Lord said to him, go take yourself an adulterous

wife and children of unfaithfulness, because the land is guilty of the vilest adultery in departing from the Lord.

So he married Gomer, daughter of Di Blam, and she conceived and bore him a son.

One of the things that I do is I teach a Bible study for the high school kids at our church during Sunday school.

And one of the questions they asked is, does the Bible have anything to say about relationships?

Well, of course, they were thinking about dating relationships, but the truth is,

the Bible talks about practically nothing else other than relationships.

And if we haven't gotten that, then we haven't

really understood what the Bible is about. The Bible is talking about the relationship between God

and us and the relationship between us and each other. And the book of Hosea, this strange

little book in the Old Testament, is a particular interesting view into that view of relationship.

...