Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible recap.

We've been hovering over the fall of the Northern Kingdom of Israel and we keep dipping

in and out of prophecy and narrative to give us the whole lay of the land.

Today we started out in Hosea, another minor prophet who prophesied the demise of Israel.

This message was probably intended for both kingdoms, Israel and Judah.

During this time, Israel was financially flourishing, or at least the elite were.

And their hearts had grown calloused to God as they drifted further from compassion and

generosity and a humble awareness of who was providing for them.

Their sacrifices were empty, and they were still worshipping other gods.

So God sends his prophet to intervene, and here's how he wants Hosea to do it.

Excuse me?

As we've seen before, God often calls the prophets to personally feel and experience

the weight of what they're going to be speaking into.

We've seen them getting beaten up on purpose, putting on skits, walking around naked,

and now marrying an adulteress.

So once again, we see that being a prophet is not a fun calling.

God says all this is to reveal what things are like in His relationship with Israel.

So the language of this adultery image is woven throughout the book to continue to reveal

God and His character to both ancient Israel and to us today.

Hosea marries a woman named Gomer, and she gives birth to three kids.

The text only clarifies that the first child is his.

The second and third children might be from one or more of her lovers.

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