Prepare your mind and heart to be taught by the Holy Ghost. Remove any distractions that could interrupt your learning experience.
Begin your study with prayer.
Sometimes we lose hope when we commit sin or face other challenges. Where can someone who is struggling to find hope go for help?
Elder Jeffrey R. Holland of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles provided this message of hope to all who may feel broken and beyond saving. You can read the text for this video here: “Broken Things to Mend,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2006, 70–71.
Point of No Return
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once taught about an important decision pilots must make on long flights. How does he relate this concept to a false belief that those who sin sometimes have? You can read the text for this video here: “Point of Safe Return,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 99.
Elder Dieter F. Uchtdorf of the Quorum of the Twelve Apostles once taught about an important decision pilots must make on long flights. How does he relate this concept to a false belief that those who sin sometimes have?
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Dieter F. Uchtdorf
“[Airplane] flights over huge oceans, crossing extensive deserts, and connecting continents need careful planning to ensure a safe arrival at the planned destination. Some of these nonstop flights can last up to 14 hours and cover almost 9,000 miles.
“There is an important decision point during such long flights commonly known as the point of safe return. Up to this point the aircraft has enough fuel to turn around and return safely to the airport of departure. Having passed the point of safe return, the captain has lost this option and has to continue on. That is why this point is often referred to as the point of no return. …
“… Satan wants us to think that when we have sinned we have gone past a ‘point of no return’—that it is too late to change our course” (Dieter F. Uchtdorf, “Point of Safe Return,” Ensign or Liahona, May 2007, 99).
As you study the book of Hosea, look for principles that can help us turn to the Lord when we have sinned and feel that we may have gone past a point of no return.
Hosea was a prophet in the Northern Kingdom of Israel who prophesied before the Israelites were carried away captive by the Assyrians. At that time the Northern Kingdom of Israel had formed alliances with other nations, and many Israelites were practicing idolatry and participating in rituals that violated God’s law of chastity.
The book of Hosea begins with the Lord giving Hosea an unusual command.
Read Hosea 1:2–3, looking for what the Lord commanded Hosea to do.
The Lord commanded Hosea to marry a woman who had committed “whoredoms,” or sexual sins. Her name was Gomer. The Lord used this marriage to symbolically teach the Israelites about His covenant relationship with them. As you continue to study the book of Hosea, remember that in this account Hosea represents Jesus Christ and Gomer represents the Israelites.
1. Why do you think marriage is a good symbol for the covenant relationship between Jesus Christ and the Israelites?
We read in Hosea 1:4–2:4 that Hosea and Gomer had three children. The names of the children represented the consequences that the Israelites would suffer because of their sins (see Hosea 1:4–9). Through Hosea, the Lord also explained the consequences that Gomer would suffer because of her actions.
Read Hosea 2:5, looking for what Gomer did after her marriage to Hosea.
What feelings might Hosea have had after learning about Gomer’s actions?
How can Hosea’s experience with Gomer help you understand how the Lord might feel when you break your covenants with Him by sinning?
From Hosea 2:6–13 we can identify the truth that if we violate our covenants with the Lord, we will suffer negative consequences.
Hosea 2:7 portrays symbolically that the consequences the Israelites suffered would help them return to the Lord. We then read in Hosea 2:14–23 that the Lord proclaimed that the house of Israel would return to Him in the last days and that He would reestablish His covenant with them.
Read Hosea 2:19–20, looking for words that describe how the Lord would reestablish His covenant with Israel. The word betroth in verse 19 refers to a binding commitment to be married. In this case, it is a symbol of the Lord’s desire to reestablish His covenant with Israel and bind His people to Him.
We learn from Hosea 3:1–3 that if Gomer would forsake her sins and remain faithful to her marriage covenant with Hosea, then Hosea would forgive Gomer and continue to care for her in spite of her previous sins.
2. How is what Hosea did for Gomer similar to what the Lord does for all of us?
The Lord’s Mercy
From the story of Hosea and Gomer we can identify the truth that if we will repent and remain faithful to the covenants we have made with the Lord, then He will receive us and forgive our sins.
Read the following statement by President Henry B. Eyring of the First Presidency. What did he learn about the Lord as he taught a seminary class about the book of Hosea?
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Henry B. Eyring
“I had a new feeling about what it means to make a covenant with the Lord. All my life I had heard explanations of covenants as being like a contract, an agreement where one person agrees to do something and the other agrees to do something else in return.
“For more reasons than I can explain, during those days teaching Hosea, I felt something new, something more powerful. This was not a story about a business deal between partners. … This was a love story. This was a story of a marriage covenant bound by love, by steadfast love. What I felt then, and it has increased over the years, was that the Lord, with whom I am blessed to have made covenants, loves me, and you … with a steadfastness about which I continually marvel and which I want with all my heart to emulate” (Henry B. Eyring, “Covenants and Sacrifice” [address given at the Church Educational System Symposium on the Old Testament, Aug. 15, 1995], 2).
3. Imagine that you have a friend who feels that he or she has sinned so much that he or she cannot return to the Lord. Write a letter to this friend (one to three paragraphs long). In this letter, use the principles you have learned from Hosea to encourage your friend and to help your friend know what to do to return to the Lord. Include in the letter an explanation of how Jesus Christ responds to those who repent and return to Him.
As recorded in Hosea 4–11, Hosea counseled the Israelites to return to the Lord and serve Him. Hosea 12–13 records that Hosea explained that the Lord uses prophets to guide His people. Hosea 13 also recounts that Hosea taught that through the Savior, all people will overcome physical death. We read in Hosea 13–14 that Hosea taught the Israelites that their disobedience to the Lord would cause their destruction. However, Hosea also offered the Israelites a message of hope by teaching that in the last days, the Lord would “heal them [of their] backsliding” (Hosea 14:4), or apostasy, when they return to Him.
Read Hosea 13:4, 14 and 14:4, 9, looking for the message of hope these verses provide.
The Lord wants and is willing to bring all who have strayed back to Him. There is always a point of safe return for those who sincerely repent. We can repent and return to the Lord.
In your Notes on LDS.org or in your personal journal, record your answers to these questions:
When have I experienced the Lord’s mercy and His love for me?
How have I felt the Lord inviting me to return to Him when I have sinned and been unfaithful to Him?
Be sure to act on any promptings you receive to repent and return to the Lord.
