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How Shall I Give Thee Up?

Through a prophet’s broken marriage, the Lord showed how far His covenant love will go to bring His people home

  • 📖 Adult Sunday School
  • Week 47
  • 📅 Sunday, November 22, 2026
💡 The big idea

The Lord’s covenant love is faithful even when we are not: He grieves when we wander, seeks us in the wilderness, buys us back, and whenever we turn to Him with our whole heart, He heals, loves us freely, and restores what we thought was lost.

I can turn back to the Lord with my whole heart, trust that He loves me freely, and draw others toward Him with bands of love.

Study it yourself firstRead Hosea 1–6; 10–14; Joel in Gospel LibraryCome, Follow Me manualOpen this week (Hosea 1–6; 10–14; Joel)
Know the chapters

Hosea preached in the northern kingdom of Israel in the decades before Assyria destroyed it in 722 BC. He began in the prosperous reign of Jeroboam II, as Hosea 1:1 says. Israel was comfortable and religiously mixed. People worshipped the Lord and Baal side by side. They credited Baal, a fertility god, for the rain and harvests. Hosea’s central image is a marriage. The Lord made a covenant with Israel like a husband with a bride, and Israel was unfaithful. The book calls Israel by the name of its leading tribe, Ephraim. It speaks to Judah in the south as well.

This lesson centers on Hosea 1–3. The Lord asked Hosea to marry Gomer, who would be unfaithful. Their children’s names announced Israel’s broken covenant. In 1:3–9 they’re Jezreel, Lo-ruhamah and Lo-ammi. Lo-ruhamah means “not pitied.” Lo-ammi means “not my people.” But in 1:10 the Lord promises that “not my people” will be called “the sons of the living God.” In 2:14–15 He’ll lead her into the wilderness and “speak comfortably unto her.” The valley of Achor means trouble. He’ll make it “a door of hope.” In 3:1–2, Hosea buys his wife back for fifteen pieces of silver and some barley. It’s a picture of the Redeemer paying to bring back what was His. Paul and Peter both saw Hosea 2:23 fulfilled in the gospel. See Romans 9:25–26 and 1 Peter 2:10.

The rest of the block keeps coming back to that love. In 11:1, “When Israel was a child, then I loved him.” In 11:4, “I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love.” In 11:8, “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” In 13:14, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave.” Paul echoes that about the Resurrection in 1 Corinthians 15:55. Finally, in 14:4, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” Joel’s date is uncertain. He describes a terrible locust plague. In Joel 2:13 he calls people to “rend your heart, and not your garments.” In 2:25 the Lord promises, “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten.” Moroni quoted Joel 2:28–32 to Joseph Smith in 1823. He said it would soon be fulfilled. That’s Joseph Smith—History 1:41.

Twenty-five minutes goes fast. Walk through Hosea 1–3 in six short readings: 1:2–3, 1:9–10, 2:6–8, 2:14–15, 2:19–23 and 3:1–3. Bridge the gaps in a sentence. Then study 14:4 and spend the discussion in Hosea 11. Joel 2 is a short bonus. The outpouring of the Spirit in Joel 2:28 is in the extras.

Only have 5 minutes?

Read Hosea 1–3 in six short readings: 1:2–3, 1:9–10, 2:6–8, 2:14–15, 2:19–23 and 3:1–3. Ask one question after each. Open by asking the difference between being dragged and being drawn. Read Hosea 14:4 and ask what “love them freely” means. Spend the most time on Hosea 11. Close by inviting everyone to turn back to the Lord in one specific way.

What to bring2 items

Tick what you have. Forgot something? Every step that needs a supply has a no-supplies version in the plan below.

Before class

  1. Read Hosea 1–3 once, then Hosea 11 and 14. Watch for 1:10, 2:14–15, 2:23, 11:4, 11:8 and 14:4. They carry the lesson.
  2. Think of your honest answer to “Who drew me back toward the Lord, and how?” If the room is quiet, you’ll go first.

Discussion tips

  • Handle Hosea’s marriage with care. Someone in the room may have been betrayed by a spouse. Say plainly that it’s a picture of the Lord’s faithfulness to Israel. It’s not a rule that anyone must stay in an unfaithful or abusive relationship. Keep the focus on the Lord’s love, not Gomer’s sins.
  • Quiet class? Hosea 11:1–4 is tender and easy to picture. Read it and wait a little longer than feels comfortable. Then share your own answer first.
  • One voice filling every pause? Thank them warmly, then say, “Let’s hear from someone who hasn’t had a chance yet,” and wait.
  • Parents of children who’ve left the Church may feel Hosea 11 deeply. Let them. You don’t need to promise outcomes. You can testify that the Lord loves their children at least as fiercely as they do.
  • Visitors or new members? Explain in a sentence that Hosea uses marriage as a picture of a covenant. Never ask anyone to read aloud without checking first.

The 25-minute plan25 min + bonus

Bonus steps are for when you have extra time. Each “On the screen” line is what the class sees on a shared screen in Teach Mode in the Gospel Sparks app; on paper, read it aloud or write it on the board.

1. Hook

Dragged or Drawn

2 min

Opens with the difference between force and love, the heart of how the Lord brings His people home.

  1. SAY“Hosea says the Lord draws His people ‘with cords of a man, with bands of love.’”
  2. Ask, “What’s the difference between being dragged somewhere and being drawn?”
  3. Take two or three answers. Then ask, “Who drew you back toward the Lord at some point?” Follow-up: “How did they do it?”
  4. SAY“Today we’ll see how far the Lord Himself will go to draw His people home.”

On the screen: 🪢 What’s the difference between being dragged and being drawn?

2. Story

Hosea 1–3 in Six Short Readings

11 min

Walks through Hosea’s marriage a few verses at a time, from painful names to a door of hope to a wife bought back, with one question at each stop.

  1. SAY“Hosea’s own marriage became the Lord’s message. It’s a hard story, so watch His faithfulness, not Gomer’s sins. We’ll take it in six short readings.”
  2. Show one scene at a time and give its one-line setup. The Lord speaks in nearly every passage, so you read them.
  3. After each reading, ask the scene’s question and take two or three answers. Keep each stop under two minutes.
  4. After the last reading, let the quiet sit for a few seconds.

On the screen: 💍 Hosea 1–3: a prophet’s marriage becomes a message of covenant love · Six short readings: 1:2–3 · 1:9–10 · 2:6–8 · 2:14–15 · 2:19–23 · 3:1–3

No supplies? Do this instead

Instead of: The shared screen (TV or device) with Teach Mode open

  1. SAY“Hosea’s own marriage became the Lord’s message. We’ll take it in six short readings.”
  2. Read 1:2–3, 1:9–10, 2:6–8, 2:14–15, 2:19–23 and 3:1–3 yourself. Give each setup in your own words first.
  3. After each reading, ask the scene’s question aloud and take two or three answers. Keep each stop under two minutes.
3. Scripture

Love Them Freely

3 min

Studies Hosea 14:4 closely so class members hear that the Lord heals and loves freely those who turn to Him.

  1. SAY“Hosea’s book ends with an invitation to come home.”
  2. Read Hosea 14:1–4 while the class follows. Verse 4 is the Lord’s promise.
  3. Ask, “What are they asked to bring?” Then ask, “What does the Lord promise?” Draw it out. They bring words and a turned heart. He gives healing and free love.
  4. Ask, “What does ‘love them freely’ mean to someone who feels they’ve used up their chances?”
  5. Share Elder Jeffrey R. Holland’s words from “From general conference” below.

On the screen: ❤️‍🩹 I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely. · Hosea 14:4

4. Talk it over

How Shall I Give Thee Up?

6 min

Helps adults feel the Lord’s parental love in Hosea 11 and let it shape how they treat those who wander.

  1. SAY“In Hosea 11 the Lord speaks like a parent. Listen for how He feels.”
  2. Read Hosea 11:1–4, then 11:8–9.
  3. Pick two or three questions. Ask one, wait, then ask its follow-up before you move on.
  4. Count to seven before you rescue a silence. If needed, share your own experience first.
💬 Ask the class
  • Verse 3 pictures a parent holding a toddler by the arms as the child learns to walk. What does that image tell you about how the Lord sees you? Follow-up: How has He taught you to walk?
  • Verse 3 also says, “they knew not that I healed them.” When have you realized only later that the Lord had been helping you? Follow-up: What helps you notice sooner?
  • In verse 8 the Lord says, “mine heart is turned within me.” What does it mean to you that God feels this deeply about His people? Follow-up: How does that change the way you pray?
  • Many of us know this ache. Someone we love walks away. How can the Lord’s way with Israel shape how we treat them? Follow-up: What bands of love drew you back, or someone you love?

On the screen: 👣 How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? · Hosea 11:1–4, 8–9

5. Testimony

Bands of Love

3 min

Ends with testimony of Jesus Christ, who paid the price to bring us home, and one simple invitation.

  1. SAY“Hosea bought his wife back, and the Savior paid for us. Would one or two of you share how the Lord has drawn you back or restored something?”
  2. Bear a short testimony. Jesus Christ paid the price to bring us home. He ransoms us from the grave, as Hosea 13:14 says. He loves freely.
  3. Invite: “This week, turn back to the Lord in one specific way. And draw one person closer, with bands of love, not pressure.”

On the screen: 🪢 I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love. · Hosea 11:4 · This week: turn back one step. Draw one person closer.

6. Talk it over

Rend Your Heart

4 minBONUS

Uses Joel 2 to show what real turning looks like, and the Lord’s promise to restore what was lost.

  1. SAY“Joel saw a locust plague strip the land bare, wave after wave.”
  2. Read Joel 2:12–13 and 2:25 yourself. The Lord is speaking.
  3. Explain that tearing your clothes was an outward sign of grief. Ask one or two questions, then close on time.
💬 Ask the class
  • What is the difference between rending our garments and rending our hearts? Follow-up: What might the “garments” version of repentance look like today?
  • What years or losses have you seen the Lord restore, sometimes in unexpected ways? Follow-up: What did you have to give Him first?
  • Joel says the Lord is “slow to anger, and of great kindness.” How does believing that make it easier to turn back? Follow-up: Who helped you believe it?

On the screen: 💔 Rend your heart, and not your garments, and turn unto the LORD your God. · Joel 2:12–13, 25

Read it together

A Marriage That Became a Message

Hosea 1:2–3; Hosea 1:9–10; Hosea 2:6–8; Hosea 2:14–15; Hosea 2:19–23; Hosea 3:1–3 ↗

Scenes

  1. 💍 A marriage that becomes a message

    Verse 1 sets the scene. Jeroboam the Second is king. The days are prosperous, but Israel is drifting. They worship the Lord and Baal side by side. Let’s read Hosea 1, verses 2 and 3. Notice the reason the Lord gives. The land has been “departing from the LORD.”

    💬 Ask: Why did the Lord teach covenant faithfulness through a marriage, rather than a law or a warning?

  2. 👶 “Ye are the sons of the living God”

    In verses 4 to 8, their first children are named Jezreel and Lo-ruhamah. That second name means “not pitied.” Now read verses 9 and 10. Notice the turn. In the very place they were called “not my people,” they’ll be called sons of the living God.

    💬 Ask: The Lord’s last word on His people isn’t the name they earned. What does that mean to you?

  3. 🌾 She did not know who fed her

    In chapter 2, verses 1 to 5, the Lord pleads like a betrayed husband. His wife chases lovers. She believes they give her bread and water, wool and oil. Now read verses 6 to 8. Notice what she never realized: “I gave her corn, and wine, and oil.”

    💬 Ask: What do we sometimes credit for blessings that really come from the Lord? Follow-up: What helps us see the Giver?

  4. 🚪 A door of hope

    In verses 9 to 13, the Lord warns He’ll take back the grain and the wine. He’ll end her feasts. We expect the final blow. Instead, read verses 14 and 15. Achor means trouble. And He makes it “a door of hope.”

    💬 Ask: When has a valley of trouble in your life become a door of hope?

  5. 💞 “Thou art my people”

    In verses 16 to 18, she’ll call Him Ishi, “my husband.” No longer Baali, “my master.” Now read verses 19 to 23. Count the ways He’ll betroth her. Righteousness. Judgment. Lovingkindness. Mercies. Faithfulness.

    💬 Ask: Verse 23 undoes the painful names of chapter 1. How does the Lord rename us when we come back to Him?

  6. 🪙 Bought back for fifteen pieces of silver

    Now Hosea 3, verses 1 to 3. The Lord tells Hosea to love her again. His love should match “the love of the LORD toward the children of Israel.” And Hosea pays to bring her home. Verses 4 and 5 promise Israel, too, will one day “return, and seek the LORD their God.”

    💬 Ask: Hosea paid a price to bring her home. How does knowing what the Savior paid for you change the way you come back?

Key verse

Hosea 14:4 ↗
“I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely: for mine anger is turned away from him.”
In plain words: When His people turn back, the Lord doesn’t make them earn their way home. He heals what pulled them away and loves them freely, as a gift.

More verses

Hosea 11:8 ↗
“How shall I give thee up, Ephraim? how shall I deliver thee, Israel? how shall I make thee as Admah? how shall I set thee as Zeboim? mine heart is turned within me, my repentings are kindled together.”
In plain words: The Lord speaks like a parent who cannot bring Himself to let His child go. Admah and Zeboim were cities destroyed with Sodom; He cannot bear that for His people.
Hosea 11:4 ↗
“I drew them with cords of a man, with bands of love: and I was to them as they that take off the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them.”
In plain words: The Lord doesn’t drag His people. He draws them gently, lifts their burdens, and feeds them.
Joel 2:13 ↗
“And 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, and repenteth him of the evil.”
In plain words: Tearing your clothes was a sign of sorrow. The Lord wants the real thing: a changed heart. And He is quick to welcome anyone who turns.
Joel 2:25 ↗
“And I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten, the cankerworm, and the caterpiller, and the palmerworm, my great army which I sent among you.”
In plain words: The Lord promises to give back what was stripped away, even years that seemed lost for good.

From general conference

“However late you think you are, however many chances you think you have missed, however many mistakes you feel you have made or talents you think you don’t have, or however far from home and family and God you feel you have traveled, I testify that you have not traveled beyond the reach of divine love.”

— Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, “The Laborers in the Vineyard,” April 2012

Share in Love Them Freely, after the class finds what the Lord promises in Hosea 14:4.

Read the talk ↗

Songs

  • Israel, Israel, God Is Calling Hymns, no. 7

    A hymn of the Lord calling His scattered people home, Hosea’s message set to music. Find it ↗

  • I Need Thee Every Hour Hymns, no. 98

    A quiet hymn of turning to the Lord with the whole heart. Find it ↗

This week’s invitation

Bands of Love

This week, turn back to the Lord in one specific way. It might be a prayer you’ve avoided, a habit you’ve let slip, or a sin you’re ready to bring Him. Then draw one person closer with bands of love, not pressure. Try a visit, an invitation or a kind word with no strings.

Take it home

In Sunday School we read how the Lord used Hosea’s marriage to show His faithful love for Israel. He loved Israel even when Israel wandered. In Hosea 14:4 He promised, “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely.” At home, read Hosea 11:1–4 together. Think of a parent teaching a toddler to walk. Talk about how Heavenly Father and Jesus Christ help us like that.

📝 After class

What worked? Who needs a check-in this week? Jot it here on a printed copy, or in the app’s private class notes.

Got extra time?

☁️ Goodness Like a Morning Cloud · 4 min

  1. Read Hosea 6:4–6. Israel’s goodness was “as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away.”
  2. Read Matthew 9:13. Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6, “I will have mercy, and not sacrifice.”
  3. Ask, “What helps our goodness last past the morning?”

🌱 Break Up Your Fallow Ground · 3 min

  1. Read Hosea 10:12. Fallow ground is land left unplowed, hard and unready for seed.
  2. Ask, “What part of your spiritual life has gone fallow?” Follow-up: “What would breaking it up look like this week?”

🌅 O Grave, Where Is Thy Victory? · 3 min

  1. Read Hosea 13:14, “I will ransom them from the power of the grave.”
  2. Read 1 Corinthians 15:55–57. Paul echoes Hosea in his testimony of the Resurrection.
  3. Ask, “How does the Savior’s victory over the grave change how we face loss?”

🕊️ Your Sons and Your Daughters · 5 min

  1. Read Joel 2:28–32. Then read Acts 2:16–18, where Peter quotes Joel on the day of Pentecost.
  2. Read Joseph Smith—History 1:41. Moroni quotes the same passage in 1823 and says it will soon be fulfilled.
  3. Ask, “Where have you seen the Spirit poured out on ordinary people in your ward or family?”

Sources

Scripture quotations are from the King James Version, the Bible used by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Tap or click a reference to open it in Gospel Library. Start with the official Come, Follow Me manual; these ideas are here to help it come alive.

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