Return unto the Lord

Hosea’s marriage becomes a living parable. He marries Gomer, who proves unfaithful, and their children carry names that announce Israel’s broken covenant, including Lo-ruhamah, “not pitied,” and Lo-ammi, “not my people” (1:6–9). Yet the Lord immediately promises that those called “not my people” will be called “the sons of the living God” (1:10). Israel, like the unfaithful wife, “did not know” that the Lord was the one who gave her grain, wine and oil (2:8). So He will “allure her” into the wilderness, speak tenderly, and turn the valley of Achor, meaning trouble, into “a door of hope” (2:14–15). Finally Hosea pays fifteen pieces of silver and some barley to bring his wife home (3:2). Redemption has a price, and the Redeemer pays it.

🔗 Cross-references

• 1 Peter 2:10 ↗Peter tells Gentile believers they were once “not a people” but now are the people of God, echoing Hosea.
• Romans 9:25–26 ↗Paul quotes Hosea to show that God calls “my people” those who were not His people.
• 1 Corinthians 6:20 ↗“Ye are bought with a price,” the Savior’s redemption pictured in Hosea 3.

Chapter 4 opens with the Lord’s “controversy” with His people: there is “no truth, nor mercy, nor knowledge of God in the land” (4:1), and “My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge” (4:6). The knowledge Hosea means is not information but relationship, the kind of knowing that belongs to a covenant. In chapter 6 the people seem to repent: “Come, and let us return unto the Lord: for he hath torn, and he will heal us” (6:1). But the Lord sees how shallow it is: “your goodness is as a morning cloud, and as the early dew it goeth away” (6:4). What He wants is steady love: “I desired mercy, and not sacrifice; and the knowledge of God more than burnt offerings” (6:6). Jesus quoted that verse twice (Matthew 9:13; 12:7).

🔗 Cross-references

• Matthew 9:13 ↗Jesus quotes Hosea 6:6 when critics object to Him eating with sinners.
• John 17:3 ↗Life eternal is to know the only true God and Jesus Christ, whom He sent.
• Matthew 12:7 ↗Jesus quotes Hosea again, defending His disciples on the Sabbath.

Chapter 10 calls Israel to “break up your fallow ground: for it is time to seek the Lord” (10:12), soil left unplowed so long it has gone hard. Chapter 11 is one of the tenderest passages in the Old Testament. “When Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt” (11:1); Matthew applies that line to the child Jesus coming back from Egypt (Matthew 2:15). The Lord pictures Himself teaching Ephraim to walk, “taking them by their arms,” though “they knew not that I healed them” (11:3). He drew them “with bands of love” (11:4). Then comes a cry from the heart of God: “How shall I give thee up, Ephraim?” (11:8). “For I am God, and not man,” He says (11:9), and His love does not quit.

🔗 Cross-references

• Matthew 2:15 ↗Matthew sees Hosea 11:1 fulfilled when the child Jesus is called out of Egypt.
• Isaiah 49:15–16 ↗The Lord says a mother might forget her child, but He will not forget His people.
• Luke 15:20 ↗The father runs to meet the prodigal son while he is still a great way off.

The last chapters mix warning with promise. “Turn thou to thy God,” Hosea urges, “and wait on thy God continually” (12:6). The Lord reminds Israel, “there is no saviour beside me” (13:4), and then promises the impossible: “I will ransom them from the power of the grave; I will redeem them from death” (13:14), words Paul echoes in his testimony of the Resurrection. Chapter 14 is Hosea’s final invitation. “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God” (14:1). How? “Take with you words, and turn to the Lord” (14:2): honest words of confession and asking. The Lord’s answer is complete: “I will heal their backsliding, I will love them freely” (14:4). He will be like dew to Israel, and they will grow like the lily and the olive tree (14:5–6).

🔗 Cross-references

• 1 Corinthians 15:55–57 ↗Paul echoes Hosea 13:14 and gives thanks for victory over death through Jesus Christ.
• Isaiah 43:11 ↗The Lord declares that beside Him there is no saviour.
• Doctrine and Covenants 58:42–43 ↗The Lord forgives and forgets the sins of those who confess and forsake them.

Joel opens with a disaster. Wave after wave of locusts strips the land: what one swarm leaves, the next eats (1:4). The grain offerings stop, the vines wither, and “joy is withered away from the sons of men” (1:12). Joel tells the people to pass the story down to their children’s children (1:3), then sees the locusts as a warning of “the day of the Lord” (2:1). And then the invitation: “turn ye even to me with all your heart” (2:12), “and rend your heart, and not your garments” (2:13). Tearing one’s clothes was a traditional sign of grief. The Lord wanted the inward version. And He gives the reason to come: He is “gracious and merciful, slow to anger, and of great kindness.”

🔗 Cross-references

• Psalm 51:17 ↗The sacrifices of God are a broken spirit and a contrite heart.
• 3 Nephi 9:20 ↗The risen Savior asks for a broken heart and a contrite spirit in place of burnt offerings.
• Doctrine and Covenants 59:8 ↗The Lord asks for a sacrifice of a broken heart and a contrite spirit in our day.

Once the people turn, the tone changes completely: “Then will the Lord be jealous for his land, and pity his people” (2:18). He sends rain and full harvests and promises, “I will restore to you the years that the locust hath eaten” (2:25), so that “my people shall never be ashamed” (2:26). Then He promises more: “I will pour out my spirit upon all flesh,” on sons and daughters, old and young, servants and handmaids (2:28–29). Peter quoted this on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2:16–18), and Moroni quoted it to Joseph Smith in 1823, saying it was not yet fulfilled but soon would be (Joseph Smith—History 1:41). Chapter 3 ends with “multitudes in the valley of decision” and a promise: “the Lord will be the hope of his people” (3:14, 16).

🔗 Cross-references

• Acts 2:16–18 ↗Peter declares that the outpouring at Pentecost is what Joel foretold.
• Joseph Smith—History 1:41 ↗Moroni quotes Joel 2:28–32 to Joseph Smith and says it will soon be fulfilled.
• Doctrine and Covenants 121:46 ↗The Holy Ghost is promised as a constant companion to those who are faithful.

Return to Hosea’s final chapter, the whole book in miniature. It starts with an invitation, “O Israel, return unto the Lord thy God” (14:1), and gives simple instructions: bring words, turn, ask Him to “take away all iniquity, and receive us graciously” (14:2). The Lord answers with promises of growth. He will be “as the dew unto Israel,” and His people will grow like the lily, spread like the olive tree and revive like grain (14:5–7). Dew comes quietly every morning, the way grace often does. Ephraim finally says, “What have I to do any more with idols?” (14:8). As you take the sacrament today, bring your words, and let Him be the dew.

🔗 Cross-references

• Moroni 10:32 ↗Moroni invites us to come unto Christ and be perfected in Him by His grace.
• Doctrine and Covenants 121:45 ↗The doctrine of the priesthood distills upon the soul as the dews from heaven.
• Luke 15:22–24 ↗The father welcomes the prodigal home with a robe, a ring and a feast.