April 6

<a href="http://traffic.libsyn.com/thehighroadshow/0977S0406.mp3" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Download</a> <!-- END 453 Download Link --> <p>Hosea 1-2 We are in the Exile Stream starting a new book - Hosea. We are reading from the World English Bible this week. 7streamsmethod.com | #7Streams | @7StreamsMethod | @serenatravis Commentary by Dr. Drake Travis What we read of Hosea the Prophet is found almost solely in this book.  There is precious little written about Hosea elsewhere.  He came on the scene just before Isaiah and Micah, and was younger than Amos.  His work of living and prophesying to the north was right around 760 B.C. - 720 B.C.  For what it's worth, the first stones of the city of Rome were being laid and the first columns and colonnades were being erected as Hosea was beginning his painful years of ministry.  When he began, the northern Kingdom had been split from the south for about 200 years and was at it's height of power and wealth.  During Hosea's lifetime it went from it's height under King Jeroboam II to being decimated as the Assyrian Army ransacked the nation under Israel's King Hoshea. God had sent Elijah, Elisha, Jonah, and Amos to the north. All four had come from the south. Now he was sending Hosea into ministry - he was from the north. So they may have referred to him as "a local". Hosea is addressing the nations rampant problem of adultery. They had worshiped an idol of a calf for two centuries and that had long morphed into a horrendous mess. The population in the north was utterly degraded. Hardly a child, nor a home, nor a marriage was intact. Chastity was not valued or protected.  At the rate they were going, it would not be long before God would "vacuum up" THESE particular people and throw them it into the dustbin of history.</p> <div>Hosea 1 - notice the kings listed here are the same kings listed in Isaiah 1.  From the start, Hosea is ordered to 'do as the locals': have children with a prostitute. SHE will be your wife. God had been true to these people all through their