The Bible Study Podcast, episode 729.

Today, the Bible Study podcast begins a study of the book of Hosea with chapter 1.

This is an interesting book, Josea.

It is one of, I would say, the strangest books in the Bible.

Josea is considered a minor prophet, not because he said things that were less important,

but because he just didn't write as much. This is a book that is 14 chapters long,

and so we're going to cover it in roughly 14 weeks, is my plan.

And we'll take a look and see what Josea has to say to the people of Israel. But it's a book that reads, especially in this first part here,

almost like an allegory, but we believe Josea to be a historic prophet who was sent by God to the people

of Israel. And here in this first chapter, we learn about when he was sent, God to the people of Israel. And here in this first chapter we learn about

when he was sent, who were the kings at the time of Hosea. And then we get a very strange story.

The word of the Lord came to Hosea, son of Be'eri, during the reign of Uzziah, Jotham,

Ihas, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah,

and during the reigns of Jeroboam, son of Jehoash, king of Israel.

And so here we get where Hosea fits in time,

and like all the minor prophets, he's going to fit in the time period of the kings,

and particularly during a period of some good kings in Israel, such as Hezekiah, but again,

all of the kings of Judah, like Jehoash, are not faithful to God, and they're serving other

gods. And for those of you who don't remember when we went through the books of the kings,

the reason why they're serving other gods is that they set up the high places because

they feel that if people are faithful at the time they split off from the kingdom of

Judah, if they're faithful to God and go worship in Jerusalem, then they'll eventually

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