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Weekly lesson · Week 47

Adult Lesson Plan

November 16–22 · Hosea 1–6; 10–14; Joel

Week 47
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Before You Teach

Teacher Quick Brief

A prep snapshot before the full lesson flow.

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Teacher Quick Brief

What This Week Is About

Hosea preached to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in its last decades before Assyria destroyed it in 722 BC. Joel called Judah to repent after a locust plague. The Lord told Hosea to marry Gomer, who was unfaithful, and later to buy her back, so that Hosea's own marriage showed Israel how it had broken its covenant and how the Lord still offered to redeem it. Both prophets ask for devotion that lives in the heart, and both end with promises: the Lord will "love them freely" (Hosea 14:4), and He will "pour out [His] spirit upon all flesh" (Joel 2:28).

Main Points To Teach

  • The covenant is like a marriage, and the Lord keeps His side after Israel breaks hers. He answers unfaithfulness with a new betrothal (Hosea 2:19) and a promise to "heal their backsliding" (Hosea 14:4).
  • The Lord wants a changed heart behind the outward acts. "I desired mercy, and not sacrifice" (Hosea 6:6); "Rend your heart, and not your garments" (Joel 2:13).
  • The Spirit poured out is part of the Restoration. Peter quoted Joel at Pentecost (Acts 2), and Moroni quoted him to Joseph Smith (Joseph Smith, History 1:41).

What Is Happening In The Scripture Story

In Hosea 1, Hosea marries Gomer, and their three children receive names of judgment: Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah ("not pitied"), and Lo-ammi ("not my people"). In Hosea 2, the Lord speaks as a husband whose wife credits Baal with the grain, wine, and oil He gave her. He hedges her path with thorns, leads her into the wilderness, makes the valley of Achor "a door of hope," and reverses the children's names. In Hosea 3, Hosea buys Gomer back for fifteen pieces of silver and some barley. Chapters 4–6 bring the Lord's charge: no truth, mercy, or knowledge of God in the land, and goodness that disappears "as the early dew." Chapters 10–13 describe Israel as an empty vine that built more altars the richer it grew, and they include the Lord's cry, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" (Hosea 11:8). Hosea 14 gives Israel words to pray and the Lord's answer. Joel describes locusts and drought that stopped the temple offerings, calls a fast, asks for rent hearts, promises to restore "the years that the locust hath eaten," and foresees the Spirit poured out.

Doctrine to have in your pocket

The Hebrew idea behind "lovingkindness" in Hosea 2:19 is hesed: loyal love that keeps a covenant even after the other side has broken it. When "love them freely" (Hosea 14:4) comes up, hesed explains it: the love is a gift Israel has not earned.

Bethel means "house of God," and Jeroboam I put a golden calf there. Hosea calls it Beth-aven, "house of wickedness" or "house of nothing" (Hosea 4:15; 10:5). Hosea's name comes from the Hebrew root for salvation, the same root as Joshua and Jesus.

A cross-reference from the Book of Mormon: "As often as my people repent will I forgive them their trespasses against me" (Mosiah 26:30). For the Spirit, President Russell M. Nelson taught: "In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost" ("Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives," April 2018).

Why It Matters For Adults

Adults know what broken trust costs, whether in a marriage, a friendship, or a family. Hosea lets the class talk about the Lord's love in those terms. Adults also know how easy it is to keep up the outward habits of church while the heart drifts. Both prophets give honest, hopeful language for coming back.

Get them talking

Class activity and discussion options

Pick the activity and two or three questions. This is a menu, not a list to run in order.

Class activity

Which verse would you pray?

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Write three phrases on the board: "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously" (Hosea 14:2), "Turn unto the Lord your God" (Joel 2:13), and "It is time to seek the Lord" (Hosea 10:12). Ask each person to choose silently the one that comes closest to a prayer they would offer this week. Give them 60 seconds to write a sentence about why. Then have them turn to a neighbor and share as much or as little as they want. Invite two or three people to tell the class which phrase they chose and what drew them to it. Hosea 14:2 is a prayer the Lord handed to Israel ahead of time, so this activity leads into the lesson's main point.

Discussion questions

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Why would the Lord choose a painful marriage as the picture of His covenant, when He could have chosen a king and his subjects?

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Why would the Lord choose a painful marriage as the picture of His covenant, when He could have chosen a king and his subjects?

Israel credited Baal with the rain and the harvest. What good things in your life are easy to credit to something other than God?

Is it harder to forgive someone who hurt you once, or to keep loving someone who keeps wandering?

What is a sacrifice you offer every week that could become empty without your noticing?

Joel says the Spirit is "poured out." Why do so many faithful people feel they get only drops?

Full Lesson Flow

Teaching Outline

Use the sections below as a menu. Swap cards and activities to keep the class interactive.

Opening Connection

Hard question (default) Imagine someone who has been betrayed by a spouse, more than once. Most of us would tell that person they are free to walk away, and we would be right. Then in Hosea 3:1 the Lord tells Hosea to go and love his unfaithful wife again, "according to the love of the Lord toward the children of Israel." Ask the class: what does it tell us about God that He describes His love for us with the one choice most of us would never ask a friend to make?

Story hook A man buys back his own wife. Hosea 3:2 records the price: fifteen pieces of silver and some barley. Gomer had left him, and she was in some kind of bondage or debt when he paid for her. The Lord told Hosea that this marriage was a message to all of Israel, so every person in the Northern Kingdom was meant to see themselves standing where Gomer stood.

Surprising detail Archaeologists found jars at Kuntillet ʿAjrud, dated to the 8th century BC, with the words "I bless you by Yahweh of Samaria and his Asherah." Israelites who wrote those words had not given up on the Lord. They had added other gods beside Him. Hosea calls that adultery, because a covenant like marriage has room for one partner.

Scripture Exploration

Paths

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The Lord betroths Israel again (Hosea 2:14–23)

Read Hosea 2:8 first, where the Lord says Israel "did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil." Baal was the Canaanite storm god, and people believed he brought the rains that grew those crops. So Israel thanked the wrong god for the harvest. Then read the turn in the chapter:

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

Ask: what do you notice about where the Lord takes her? The wilderness is where Israel first came to know Him after Egypt. He takes her back to the beginning of their relationship. He also promises to make "the valley of Achor for a door of hope" (Hosea 2:15). Achor was where Achan's sin brought trouble on Israel in Joshua's day (Joshua 7), so a place remembered for disaster becomes an entrance.

Then read verse 19:

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

The verb is betroth. A betrothal is how a marriage begins, so the Lord is offering Israel a fresh start with Him. In verse 23 He reverses the children's names: "not my people" becomes "my people," and "not pitied" receives mercy. Ask the class which of those reversals they would most want spoken over their own life.

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The Lord betroths Israel again (Hosea 2:14–23)

Read Hosea 2:8 first, where the Lord says Israel "did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil." Baal was the Canaanite storm god, and people believed he brought the rains that grew those crops. So Israel thanked the wrong god for the harvest. Then read the turn in the chapter:

Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably unto her.

Ask: what do you notice about where the Lord takes her? The wilderness is where Israel first came to know Him after Egypt. He takes her back to the beginning of their relationship. He also promises to make "the valley of Achor for a door of hope" (Hosea 2:15). Achor was where Achan's sin brought trouble on Israel in Joshua's day (Joshua 7), so a place remembered for disaster becomes an entrance.

Then read verse 19:

And I will betroth thee unto me for ever; yea, I will betroth thee unto me in righteousness, and in judgment, and in lovingkindness, and in mercies.

The verb is betroth. A betrothal is how a marriage begins, so the Lord is offering Israel a fresh start with Him. In verse 23 He reverses the children's names: "not my people" becomes "my people," and "not pitied" receives mercy. Ask the class which of those reversals they would most want spoken over their own life.

(25-minute beat): The heart behind the offering (Hosea 6:4–6; Joel 2:12–13)

Read Hosea 6:6:

For I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings.

Israel was still offering sacrifices. The Lord says their goodness was "as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away" (Hosea 6:4). Dew is real, but by midmorning it is gone. Lehi hoped Laman would be "like unto this river, continually running" (1 Nephi 2:9), and that is the opposite picture. Jesus quoted Hosea 6:6 twice, once to people who criticized Him for eating with sinners (Matthew 9:10–13).

Then read Joel 2:13: "Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the Lord your God: for he is gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness." Tearing your clothes was the public sign of grief. Ask: what is the difference between showing that you are sorry and being changed? Keep this to one reading and one question if time is short.

"How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" (Hosea 11)

The Lord remembers teaching Israel to walk as a child and drawing him "with bands of love" (Hosea 11:4). Then He cries, "How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?" (Hosea 11:8). Ephraim, the largest northern tribe, stands for the whole kingdom. Ask what it means that the Lord describes Himself as a parent who cannot let go.

Doctrinal Discussion

Paths

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The Lord's covenant love keeps reaching for us

The Lord's love in Hosea is hesed, a loyal love that keeps a covenant after the other side has broken it. Hosea 14 shows how it works. Israel is given words to pray, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously" (Hosea 14:2), and the Lord answers, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely" (Hosea 14:4). "Freely" means Israel did not buy this love. Hosea paid for Gomer; Israel did not pay for herself. This points to Jesus Christ, who says in Hosea 13:4 that "there is no saviour beside me," and who promises, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave" (Hosea 13:14).

Questions:

  • Why do people who have wandered often find it harder to accept "love them freely" than to accept a list of conditions?
  • The Lord hedged Israel's path with thorns (Hosea 2:6). Have you seen a hard season turn out to be the Lord calling you back?

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The Lord's covenant love keeps reaching for us

The Lord's love in Hosea is hesed, a loyal love that keeps a covenant after the other side has broken it. Hosea 14 shows how it works. Israel is given words to pray, "Take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously" (Hosea 14:2), and the Lord answers, "I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely" (Hosea 14:4). "Freely" means Israel did not buy this love. Hosea paid for Gomer; Israel did not pay for herself. This points to Jesus Christ, who says in Hosea 13:4 that "there is no saviour beside me," and who promises, "I will ransom them from the power of the grave" (Hosea 13:14).

Questions:

  • Why do people who have wandered often find it harder to accept "love them freely" than to accept a list of conditions?
  • The Lord hedged Israel's path with thorns (Hosea 2:6). Have you seen a hard season turn out to be the Lord calling you back?

The Spirit poured out on all flesh (Joel 2:28–29)

Joel's promise includes sons and daughters, old and young, and servants. Peter saw it begin at Pentecost, and Moroni told Joseph Smith it would soon be fulfilled. President Russell M. Nelson taught, "In coming days, it will not be possible to survive spiritually without the guiding, directing, comforting, and constant influence of the Holy Ghost" ("Revelation for the Church, Revelation for Our Lives," April 2018). Elder David A. Bednar explained why many of us miss that influence: "We seem to believe that the Holy Ghost is dramatic and big and sudden, when it's still and small and incremental over time" (evening with a General Authority, Feb. 7, 2020). So the outpouring usually arrives as steady daily guidance.

Questions:

  • Elder Bednar said "you don't have to be perfect." Why do we hold ourselves to a higher bar for revelation than the Lord does?
  • Where in an ordinary week does the Spirit tend to speak to you?

Restoring the years the locust ate (Joel 2:25)

Locusts and drought had stopped the grain and drink offerings, so temple worship had stopped too. The Lord promised to restore "the years that the locust hath eaten." Ask: what lost years does a person bring to the Savior when they repent?

Practical Application

Activity options

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Home and family

A mother has a grown son who left the Church and keeps making choices that hurt the family. She feels tired of being the one who always reaches out. Hosea 11:8 gives her words for that ache, and Hosea 14:4 shows how the Lord treats His own wandering children. Ask: what would it look like this week to love someone "according to the love of the Lord," while still being honest about the hurt?

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Home and family

A mother has a grown son who left the Church and keeps making choices that hurt the family. She feels tired of being the one who always reaches out. Hosea 11:8 gives her words for that ache, and Hosea 14:4 shows how the Lord treats His own wandering children. Ask: what would it look like this week to love someone "according to the love of the Lord," while still being honest about the hurt?

Quiet doubt

A longtime member attends every week, holds a calling, and pays tithing, but privately feels like dew that disappears by Monday. Hosea 6:4 describes that feeling, and Joel 2:13 answers it with a God who is "slow to anger, and of great kindness." Ask: what one small, inward act could turn a weekly habit back into a meeting with the Lord?

Closing

Hosea and Joel describe a covenant people who drifted from the Lord, and a Lord who kept His covenant, called them back, bought them back, and promised His Spirit to all of them. Through Jesus Christ, the only Savior (Hosea 13:4), the same invitation stands for every person in the room. This week, use the words of Hosea 14:2 in one prayer, and then watch for the small, steady ways the Lord answers.

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