Why does God want a relationship with us?

Hey, what's up? This is Shariah at Bible Project.

In this episode, Khrista will teach us from the book of Hosea,

where we'll discover what God desires in relationship with us.

This message can positively change our minds about who God is

and what he's really all about. So stay tuned and listen in.

Following the books of the three major prophets Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel

is the scroll of the minor prophets Hosea to Malachi.

These are shorter books that together form one scroll and are interconnected

at their seams or their beginnings and ends.

So as you read through, you might notice some repetitions binding these works together.

The very first prophetic book of these minor prophets is Hosea,

and it dives right into a brutal and memorable story about God's desire for relationship with his

people Israel. The first words that God speaks to Hosea in the book are a command to go and marry

an unfaithful woman, and he does. Now, this might seem like a really weird thing for God to

ask a person to do, and it is. But as you read the prophets, you'll notice that these prophets

who encounter and represent God to the people often perform symbolic acts. So this isn't something

God regularly asks people to do, but this symbolic act is actually a really effective way of

communicating, if you think about it. So what's the point of Hosea's marriage?

Well, God says to him that Israel, his people, are like Hosea's wife, they're unfaithful.

Later in the book, God compares Israel's chastised or loyal love for him to a mourning mist

that doesn't last. He says that rather than chastised, there's lying, murder, stealing,

...