WEEK 46 [HOSEA 1–6; 10–14; JOEL]

“I Will Love Them Freely”

November 7 – November 13

Link to Notes

CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST DISCLAIMER: This podcast represents my own thoughts and opinions. It is not made, approved or endorsed by Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Any content or creative interpretations, implied or included are solely those of Maria Eckersley ("MeckMom LLC"), and not those of Intellectual Reserve, Inc. or The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Great care has been made to ensure this podcast is in harmony with the overall mission of the Church. Click here to visit the official website of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Welcome back everybody.

This is week 46 of Creative.

Come follow me for the Old Testament, and I hope you're

ready for a few career falls.

This week we have shifted into a new part of the Bible.

This is what they call the minor prophets, which just means

there's a whole bunch of profits.

I think we'll do 12 back to back, and they're a little bit shorter

than some of the profits we've studied so far, and they just have.

Distinct personalities.

This week we're covering Hosea and Joel, and I don't know about you

guys, but I hadn't studied Hosea in depth before this, and I was.

At first, kind of shocked and then intrigued, and then I came too low Hosea.

So a couple things you should know about Hose Jose and Joel.

First Hosea is a prophet to the Northern Kingdom.

We don't have a lot of those prophets, at least we don't

have a lot of those writings.

So this is kind of unique and we've gone back in time like

back to Second King's time.

Josea is a prophet in the North around the same time that Isaiah

is a prophet in the South.

So if that helps you kind of wrap your head around.

What timeframe we're working with.

Uh, his message is similar to Isaiah's in that it's all about, you know,

how they need to set aside idolatry and how there is trouble coming.

Remember, this is right before the scattering, before the 10 tribes are lost.

And I get the feeling that Jose is a bit of a hail Mary pass.

You know, it's this last effort to try and salvage what is

left of that northern kingdom.

And it's, um, it's an interesting way to.

Do it.

I think because it's a Hail Mary pass, the Lord teaches in

a different and distinct way.

Jose's life will basically be an object lesson and we'll watch it play out

and it'll first kind of catch you off guard and then you'll sort of love it.

So I look forward to that one.

Joel is similar in that he has a similar message of to avoid idolatry, but

we have no reference point for Joel.

In fact, it's kind of fascinating.

You know how no man knoweth the Dan or the hour when the savior will

come again for that second coming, Most of Joel's message is about the

time before the second coming, so I think it's kind of cool that the book

of Joel actually has no timeframes.

You don't have a king that's announced or any kind of timestamp on it, so

we don't really know when Joel lived.

We do know that he was a prophet to the south and that he's gonna

try and prepare people for what is coming, but not just in their time.

Also way down the road.

So it's something that we.

Take heart.

In it's messages that Peter used, he quoted Joel also the Angel Morona when

he comes to Joseph Smith will quote Joel, These are pertinent scriptures

that you don't wanna miss, so this is a good week to dive into the notes.

In fact, if you're not part of the course and you're hearing this, instead

of watching it, if you're on the public podcast this week because of

the number of chapters we have, I'm actually gonna add a link to the notes

in the description of the podcast.

So those of you who are coming from elsewhere can at least get your

bearings because you guys, we have a ton of chapters this week and I won't

be able to go very deep in the videos or the podcast, but I went pretty deep

in the notes and give you a lot of quotes from the general authorities

to help you understand this doctrine.

Cuz what I would tell you is, At first glance, this isn't gonna feel like

it applies to you in almost any way.

At least that's how I felt when I first read it, and then when I came

back to it once and twice and a third time, and I feathered in doctrine

that I've learned from just this last conference and ideas I got when

I was teaching in my other calling.

Things started to click together.

I started to see the savior in so many more places in this week's chapters

than I did when I first began.

So in the notes, hopefully you'll get a feel for that, and if it will

help you in your study to see the savior, I hope you open 'em up.

But otherwise, grab your scriptures and let's get started.

You guys.

To be totally honest, the first time I read through these first three

chapters of Josea, I was not a fan.

. I, I studied them briefly in the past, but this is one where I felt

like I needed to go in deeper and.

I just didn't like it.

I don't like what's asked, but I found myself feeling those same

feelings for hose josea that I felt for Abraham, that I even felt for

Nephi when he had to kill Labban.

Like you can see the conflict of commandments and it's a, it's a

hard thing to wrap your head around.

What happens with Hosea is he is asked to take a wife of Hortons.

His whole life will become a metaphor for that.

Basically what Isaiah taught to the Southern Kingdom.

Isaiah taught that in that metaphor of the bridegroom, that Jesus or Jehovah

is the groom, and that the children of Israel are the bride and they are in

this covenant relationship, just like we talked about before with President

Nelson's message about covenants defining relationships, and then it means a tight

bond, and there is simply no tighter bond than this covenant of marriage.

In addition to it typifying that I think it's also something

that every person, no matter.

What rank or file of person you are in Jose's time, You understand this

level of commitment and the betrayal that will come, the pain and the hurt

that would come from the betrayal.

So I, I feel like that's part of the reason why Hosea is

asked to live this kind of life.

I also think it has something to do with Josea being a type of Christ.

But I gotta tell you, this understanding didn't come to me for

the first couple times I read it.

It didn't actually hit me until I was teaching my Ysa class.

And this week we've spoke all about the condescension of Christ and how

he chose to descend to live among.

Mortals so that he could be the savior that we needed him to be.

Not just that he came here, but that he lived like we live, and all that process

of condescension and what it means.

Once I started speaking about that in my ysa class, understandings

about Jose clicked into place, I see him as a type of Christ because he

is basically someone who was asked to do an incredibly hard thing to.

To commit himself to someone who he knew would not be faithful,

someone who he knew was.

Not ready for the commitment, the same way the Savior committed to us and

committed to the children of Israel knowing that we are fallen and that we

will make mistakes, and that he chose to love us anyway and chose to stay with us

anyway, if you watch for that message in the chapters as we weave through them.

I think new ideas will come your way.

At least they did for me.

Uh, but I think they're gonna be unique to each of you.

So I, I would watch for those types of Christ moments as you read

through Jose's story, and hopefully new things will pop into your mind.

In chapter one, you're gonna see him take this wife, her name's Gomer,

and then they'll have three children.

It's not clear whether these are actually Jose's biological children or if she

wanders even at this stage of their marriage, and if these are someone

else's, but the names of the children are indicative of the prophecies that

are coming, that the northern tribes are gonna be scattered, that they're not

gonna be able to have the mercy that they.

Could have had in the past and that they will no longer be called God's children.

All of those things are woven into their names, and it's a pretty powerful message,

especially as you jump into what you find in chapter two in the Hebrew language,

Idolatry and adultery actually drive from that same root word, and you see these.

You know, parallel tracks as you see Jose's story.

Essentially what will happen is his wife will stray.

If you go on the Come Follow Me Manual, it talks about her unfaithfulness

and how he typifies what we see in Christ because he is directed to.

Bring her back.

In fact, chapter two is a bit of an invitation from Lord to come back.

It's hard to see when it's actually Jose is speaking to his wife versus

when it's the Lord speaking to Israel.

But again, I think those metaphors are supposed to blend into each other.

So if you get to points where you can't tell which one is which, I

think that's actually instructive.

Uh, this is in incredibly poignant.

Useful metaphor, and you'll see it bubble to the surface in chapter two.

This is when they're directed to call his people with.

Call them again my people.

So this is almost a reversal of the names that we just heard and talk

about how they will obtain mercy.

And then there's this invitation of how to obtain it.

So in two, it talks about pleading with your mother that she is not my wife.

Remember this is.

There's no covenant anymore.

There's no promise between them.

So he's, the Lord is inviting the children of Israel to make covenants

again and to come back to him.

Let her therefore put away her HTOMs out of her sight, her adulteries from between

her breasts, lest I strip or naked, and set her as in the day that she was born.

That message, I think, is a message of.

, you're gonna go back to how you were.

If you choose not to be a participant in this covenant, in this close

relationship with God, you are exposed.

You are vulnerable.

If you choose not to use the atonement of Jesus Christ, you are.

Vulnerable and exposed, and that's what he's trying to teach them.

They are opening themselves up to danger.

That's scattering and the Assyrians taking over it.

That's gonna be a bloody awful phase for the Jews and it's right

around the corner and Jose is trying to help them understand that.

And does it by talking about these lovers.

So again, when you see those words about adultery, think of idolatry cuz that's

what the children of Israel are doing.

So it talks about this wife who shamefully goes after other lovers.

I, it's interesting, it's in verse five, it says, I will go after my lovers that

give me my bread and my water, my wool, and my flax, my oil, and my drink.

This personification of a woman who is seeking after other

pleasures is really instructive.

I think we all tend to do this at times, right?

Where we know where we should turn and instead we seek after.

Other sources of pleasure, other sources of gratification, and it never yields

the fruit we hope it will, right?

Cuz Edness never was happiness and that's what she learns really quickly.

What I think is really interesting is what you see in six.

It says, therefore, behold, I will hedge up all the way up with thorns and make a

wall that she shall not find her paths.

And I think the Lord oftentimes can.

Prevent our agency, but he certainly will make hedges.

You almost picture like a bowling lane with those bumpers up.

I think we do this as parents all the time where we can see our kids veering down

roads, that we know where they lead and we can't necessarily stop them, especially

as they get to those older teenage years.

But you create a lot of hedges, you, you know, put filters on

their phones and set time limits.

Because you want to create hedges to help them avoid that inevitable end.

And that's what I see in these verses as well.

I love also what you see in seven.

And she shall follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them.

She shall seek them, but shall not find them.

And then she will say, I will go and return to my first husband.

For then it was better with me.

It was better than, than with me.

Now this is, you know, like the prodigal son, but in female form where.

She seeks pleasure and happiness in all the wrong places and

ultimately gets to a point where she realizes she needs to go back.

She didn't find what she was looking for, which is that point that all of us get

to when we go down those wrong roads.

What I love is what you find in eight for, She did not know that I

gave her corn and wine and oil and multiplied your silver, silver, and

gold, which they prepared for bas.

This is.

He's basically trying to teach the children of Israel that during all

this time when they turned away from Jehovah, he was blessing them.

The whole promised land is a great blessing towards them, and

they're taking those blessings, not appreciating the fact that they're

coming from Jehovah and they're actually using them for false gods.

They're turning them into other things to worship, and you hear the Lord.

Frustration with their choices.

It just sounds like a parent to me who provides, you know, if you ever had that

situation where you took your kid's phone away and you're like, I provide you and

I pay for this incredible thing, and then you used it for this, you know, you

just, you can feel that frustration in him and he calls them on it basically.

So in these verses you see his judgment come about to the children of.

And how they forgot the Lord.

So in 13, she went after her lovers, she and forgot me,

say it the Lord, and then 14.

Therefore, behold I will allure her.

I thought this was a fascinating shift in the chapter he offers to.

Gently coax them back to discipleship.

He will speak comfortably to her.

I do think this is the same kind of comfort we read about in Isaiah.

I don't think this means he's gonna talk really nice and

make the doctrine sound good.

I think this is the kind of comfort that, Remember we talked about

Rocky and the coaching that happened with Rocky, that kind of comfort.

that's what he's offering, is I'm gonna come to your aid and

I'm gonna be in your corner.

Despite all the betrayal, I will be in your camp.

Let me help you.

Uh, because he offers this door of hope in 15, and then when you go a

little further, you see that later, much later after the scattering, he

will also patrol them to him again.

These are prophecies about the last day.

It's important because traditionally speaking, when people are this wicked,

In fact, Jesus himself talks about how at this stage they were almost as

bad as they were at the time of Noah.

That's how off course they are.

But he promises not to destroy them.

He's made promises to their fathers, to the patriarchs and the matriarchs

that he will look after their children.

And so he promises that the covenant will return, but it's gonna take some time.

I loved that message that in fact, it's a pervasive message in

almost all the chapters this week.

It's.

Promise of mercy, this promise of forgiveness, and it's gonna hold

the children of Israel steady.

I also think it's powerful.

AC in 20, he says, I will even bet betray the unto me in faithfulness

and thou shalt know the Lord.

The end goal of all of this.

Is not just that the Lord will have his people back, it's that they will know him.

I think that's what President Nelson was trying to teach us when he talked

about a covenant being a relationship.

That our goal with these covenants and honoring our standards and, you know,

keeping the commandments and honoring our temple covenants is a way to come to

know the Lord in an intimate, personal way, and that's what he's promising.

Children of the latter days that will come back to the covenant.

Uh, if you look in 23, you see the promise and I will sow her unto me

in the earth and I will have mercy upon her that had not obtained mercy.

And I will say to them that we're not my people.

That aren't my people.

And they shall say that, aren't my God.

It's gonna be a long time coming.

They're gonna have incredible.

Loss in the meantime, but there is this ultimate message of hope that

there will be a reunion, that that's what the great gathering is all about.

It's us allowing this great reunion to happen and it's prophesied

all the way back in Jose two.

There's another twist in Jose three.

This is where Jose Jose's directed to, to buy his wife back.

She's already.

Been unfaithful to him and gone astray and not appreciated the gifts he was

given or the, the love he extended to her.

She's already done all those things and in chapter three,

he's directed to buy her back.

Makes you think that maybe she, In fact, a lot of the scholars I read

said that she probably was sold into some type of slavery based on her life

choices, and he goes and purchases her back because he purchases.

So little money that it makes you think that she must have been in

a slave type situation and then he brings her home and there's a period

of kind of keeping her away from all those influences she's had and.

And a time of holding back.

Again, I think this is a metaphor for the children of Israel where there will

be a time when they don't have access.

In fact, if you look in the verses, it sort of says that blatantly in four,

that there will be a time where they're without a king, without a prince,

without sacrifice, or without the temple.

They won't have the eph od that pouch that they used to hold the yeman thumb.

They won't have access to revelation like they did in the past.

He's talking about this, the period.

Consequence that happens both in the actual image of goer and

also in the children of Israel.

But then as always, it talks about a return.

So if you end in verse five, it talks about Israel will

return and seek the Lord.

When Israel shifts gears, the relationship is ignited again.

The same way when goer turns to hose josea, that

relationship becomes tight again.

It's this incredible promise.

I think what caught.

in this chapter is this understanding that sometimes we are commanded to

love people who are hard to love.

I, I think all of us have those situations that a big part of our life's goal is to.

Learn to see people the way the savior sees them, so that that difficulty in

love gets easier and easier over time.

Everybody has somebody that's really hard sometimes, a lot of people that are

hard, but when you choose to love them anyway, or you choose to love the Lord

and let him help you learn how to love them, I think you become more Christ-like.

I think for most of us, learning how to love the people that are hard in our life

or learning how to forgive those who have.

Against us in some way.

Those are some of the moments that are the most humbling, most instructive.

There.

There is power in that hard, and I think that's what we're learning

from Jose's story in this chapter that, that we each might be in this

spot where we're commanded to love and forgive in a hard situation.

And when we choose to do it, there's power.

One of the things that's kind of scary about our day is that truth seems sort

of relative in the world we live in, that everybody sort of defines their own

truth and or proclaims that there is no truth, and I feel like chapter four helps

you understand where that road goes.

Basically, that's what's happening with the children of Israel at this point.

If you look in verse one, it says There is no truth.

Nor mercy nor knowledge of God in the land.

I think it's interesting that pairing of those three things, that when there is

no truth, all of a sudden there is no.

Loving kindness.

There is no mercy cuz there's no sin.

It's like those verses in the Book of Mormon and then

there's no knowledge of God.

So these people that once had this profound connection, this Abraham Covenant

with Jehovah have set all of that aside.

In fact, if you look in six that says, my people are destroyed for the

lack of knowledge because that has rejected knowledge, I will reject.

Joseph Smith taught this really clearly that a man can only be saved

according to the knowledge he acquires.

Nobody can be saved in ignorance, so that's what's happening here.

They're setting aside all of it, and verse seven teaches you that they were already

increased, so their accountability.

Is higher.

I think it's the same thing that's happening with us and the standards.

You know, when you look at the, for the strength of the youth, it's teaching

you that your accountability is higher.

A lot of people saw it as like this relaxing of the standards, but I really

don't think that's what the message is.

The message is, I trust you because you know more, and when you know more, you're

accountable to God more profoundly.

So you have some big choices to make and they continually.

Turn back to idols.

You can tell why they do inverse eight, that in some instances their

own teachers and priests of the temple are persuading them to sin.

Things have to be pretty bad to get to the spot, but basically if they sin,

they would have to make a sin offering at the temple, which would give more

meat to the priests who served there.

So the priests who.

There were so corrupt that they were trying to convince people to sit in

order to get more for themselves.

And it reminded me of this conversation I had with my brother-in-law, Troy.

So he runs an urgent care, several of them up in Idaho.

And he was talking about how if he really wanted to boost his business,

he would give out trampolines as a prize to all the families in his city,

, because then business would boom.

And I think it's that same kind of idea that they, they are

manipulating the doctrine of God.

They are manipulating.

They are changing the boundaries and changing the laws in order

to benefit themselves, and that that's a level of wickedness

that God won't tolerate for long.

I also think in this chapter, it's really interesting to see that when

there is no truth, people turn towards.

Other explanations.

They write their own narrative and a lot of it comes in superstition.

So they turn to weird idols.

If you look in 12, their stocks and their staff, those are different kinds of idols.

They sacrifice on mountain tops.

They, they don't abandon this idea that there is a higher power.

They just have warped it so much that it.

Help them anymore.

They have, they've created this counterfeit for what is real

and it just simply can't last.

In fact, as you go th further in the verses, you see that right

now this is impacting the North.

Jose is teaching the northern tribes and they're gonna get scattered really

soon, but a hundred years from now, it's gonna happen in Judah as well.

And so Hosea actually teaches both of those things before

you get to the end of chapter.

A message of backsliding Israel continues into chapter five and you see that they're

having problems at the foundational level.

I think it's really cool how it's phrased.

In verse four, it says, They will not frame their doings to turn unto their God.

For the spirit of horts is in the midst of them and they have not known the Lord.

It at their very core, they're setting up their structure.

In the wrong way.

It reminded me of the conference talk we just heard from, oh,

I can't think of his name.

It's in the notes where he talked about the anti seismic.

You know, he was an engineer and he was talking about how to build anti

seismic structures, and this idea of the doctrines of the gospel provide us

this framework to build a happy life.

Not a perfect, you know, trial free life, but a happy life, and that

we can rely on those doctrines.

Basically, they're building their framework on a whole different set.

Concocted doctrines and therefore they don't have the pieces that they need.

It reminded me of, so when we were fixing our basement or trying to

build our basement, we hired a guy to do the framing and he came

and created all the doors for us.

Cuz I really wanted things to look neat and I, I'm willing to do

some things, but not all things.

And I was so excited to finally get doors on these walls that

we'd been building for a while.

And after he left, the contractor left, we found out that, Door frame

he'd built was a different size.

He didn't build them to the specific size of what like a Home

Depot or a Lowe's would sell.

He just created them based on whatever the opening looked like.

So then we had to order custom doors for every single door twice.

You guys, It's a long story, but it reminded me of this verse cuz I feel like.

When you choose not to use God's framework, you actually double your

cost and double the time and you end up going back to the beginning.

Anyway, we ended up having to rebuild doors to the specifications that we

could get doors for, and it's just this huge backslide, and that's what's

happening with the children of Israel, and it's what happens to us as well

when we turn away from that steady framework that the gospel provides.

There is no structure that can stand, and we'll either learn that in the

framing process or we'll learn it down the road when we try to order the doors.

And I just think there's a lot of parallels in this chapter.

You also see that the result is simple, that he has to withdraw.

God can't be among them when they won't honor his.

Law and especially when they turned to other idols and cheated

on him with these false gods.

So he says in six that he will withdraw himself from them.

When you flip the page over, you see more warnings.

He talks about those who removed bounds.

This is in verse 10.

Really cool turn of phrase cuz Basically what it means is someone who.

Would sneak out and change the boundary lines so that they could steal property

from their neighborhood, basically.

And it reminded me so much of what we hear in the world today, that if

you're unhappy with the boundaries that your religion sets up, you

should just change the boundary line.

You should adjust the goal post.

I feel like that's the message in a lot of people's, you know, talk about religion.

The warning is pretty solid, that if that's the case, then you are

separating yourself from God.

Remember we talked about it a dozen times.

That Satan's goal is not to get you to sin as much as it is to

get you to separate from God.

And when you change the goal posts or change those boundaries, you

open yourself up to that separation.

You go a little bit further and you see the resulting action.

Basically at a certain point in time around verse 13, they look

down and they see their wounds.

They will see how damaged they've become in this process of building

a framework that's a mess.

The same way I got to a point where I realized how bad my door situation

was and how much it was gonna cost, and they can't find any cure.

What happens with the children of Israel is they will look down and.

, all these false gods I've built, they actually can't help me.

They can't cure me.

They can't save me.

It will be a time.

Ache and regret.

And 15 is where you see the Lord's position where he basically says, I

will go and return to my place till they acknowledge their offense and

seek my face in their affliction.

They will seek me early.

This is the same thing that happens with us as parents.

When you have to put a consequence in place and you know your kids are

gonna be mad and they might storm out the door, they might say all kinds

of things, but you know at some.

They're gonna come home because what other option is there?

And I feel like that's what the Lord is saying too.

He is the only way that can save.

He knows they will come home, but in the meantime, he's not gonna chase after them.

He's basically like the father of the prodigal who goes home and he's not.

Grumpy.

I think he's there waiting, watching at the window, hoping the children from

Israel will return soon, uh, because he has great promises in store for

them if they will just seek his face.

Jose doesn't give up easily in verse one, in chapter six, he's inviting them to

come back to the Lord that even though they have been torn and smitten, that

they can be healed if they'll turn to him.

In fact, I love that he says in time in a couple days, you know, meaning, I

don't know how much time's gonna pass that they can be in his sight again.

And then in three then shall we know if we follow on to know the Lord.

It's that press forward endure to the end vibe.

They, they're gonna.

to come to know him and it's gonna be a process.

But Jose believes this can happen.

And I just think it's interesting how he talks about their devotion.

So if you're looking forward, he talks about their.

Their current goodness is like clouds or do, it's it's surface level.

It's something that dissipates it.

It evaporates in front of your eyes, and that's what their

devotions to the Lord are like.

In fact, I love how you can almost hear the Lord's voice when you read

verse six, for I desired mercy and not sacrifice and the knowledge

of God more than burnt offerings.

It reminded me of that story in the New Testament where the Savior goes and he

heals the man who's been, whose legs have been, you know, he's at the pool

of Bethesda and his LE's legs won't function, and he wants that miracle.

And so he comes and he heals him on the Sabbath.

And it's this beautiful miracle that happens that this poor

man has waited decades for.

And all describes, and the Pharisees can see, is that he picked up his

mat on the Sabbath and that that's against the love Moses, and therefore

they can now catch the savior.

It's this.

You almost can hear his words.

In fact, he says this message in the New Testament a few times,

that this is what all those love Moses or rules are all about.

That that order that he's put in place is to help their hearts change.

It's what our covenants and commandments do for us today.

They're supposed to help our hearts change.

It's not this big long list of dos and don'ts.

It's supposed to be something that turns us to.

In fact, if you go on the notes, there's a great talk that talks about sacrifice

and that this idea of sacrifice is not so much giving up, but giving to, you

know, the, the root word of sacrifice means to make something sacred.

So when we give our time or our talents, or even our financial means with tithing

and fast offerings, we're taking those things and we're making them sacred.

That it's a giving to, not a giving up.

And there's a whole bunch more you can learn if you go in.

I gotta hand it to him.

Jose is tenacious in chapter 10.

He's still going strong, inviting the children of Israel to come

back to learn and to repent.

So he talks about them being empty vine in verse one.

I think it's really interesting the way he phrases it.

He says, Israel is an empty vine.

He bringeth forth fruit unto himself.

Isn't that kind of interesting?

Like it's not an empty vine.

It's a vine that they have chosen to consume on their own.

I think it's the same way.

If we take, you know, all those things, we were just asked to sacrifice our time

and our talents and our financial means.

If we take those things unto ourselves instead of offering them

out, we are basically an empty vine.

Because remember, the Abraham Covenant is intended to.

Give them this chosen status so that they can take the light to the world.

It's supposed to be a way for a gateway for everyone to access God's

promises and covenants and blessings.

And when they take those covenants and they hoard them, uh, one, they lose the

blessings and they become this empty vine that's of no use to the Lord.

Where you see that coming to a head is in verse two.

Their heart is divided, and now they shall be found fault.

It sounded like Elijah to me when he was talking about, remember

how he talked about how long will you halt between two opinions?

You have to make a call.

Joel's gonna say this too, about the valley of decision that we have

to make a call because standing there is no neutral in the gospel.

So if you choose to not be on the side of Christ, you are by default.

Working the other direction, and he's warning them about that.

And he talked about how at some point in time, this is around verse

seven, that they will realize their mistake and they will wish that

there were mountains to cover them.

I, I don't know if you've ever been in that spot.

I remember feeling like that as a teenager sometimes when I would make a mistake or

crash my dad's car or something and you just wish you could , you could hide.

And that's how they will feel.

But in an eternal.

, One of my favorite parts is when you flip the page over to 12.

So it says so to yourselves in righteousness, reap in mercy.

Break up your fallow ground for it is time to seek the Lord I,

You just get this motivational pull from josea fallow ground.

I wasn't familiar with that term, so I had to go look that up, and it just means.

Land that has been dormant for a while.

So whether that's intentional because they're rotating crops and they leave, you

know, a field unharvested for a season so that it can get more rich and nourished.

Or if it's just one that's been neglected and now is ready for planting, it's

this idea of come to the Lord and.

Turn things around, like get an upheaval in your soul and

turn things over to the Lord.

It's a shake off the chains kind of verse, and he just is hoping they will

take advantage of it because they can see the results of where they are.

Now.

If you look in 13, you've plowed wickedness, you've reaped iny,

you've eaten the fruit of.

To me, I feel like he's basically saying what we as parents say all the

time, like, you know where this road goes, You know, if your kids have a

friend that's just never really all that kind or tends to turn on them

at the worst moments, you have these conversations with your kids where

you're like, you know how they're gonna treat you, Why do you keep going back?

And I feel like that's what trying to teach them, like, you

know where this road goes, you've already eaten of the fruit of.

Lie, you know that it's hollow and it can't satisfy,

so turn to something better.

Let's toss the fields a little bit.

Sadly, they don't listen, but he keeps trying.

Chapter 11 might be my favorite chapter of this whole week's study, cuz I feel

like the Savior's voice is just all over the place and it's this loving parent.

In fact, it sounds like a loving parent whose child has gone.

Astray bar astray and the way he speaks about his child, despite

the fact that they've gone astray, was really insightful to me.

So if you look in 11, he talks about efram his child, and he, the beginning,

you know, oftentimes when your kids do something hard, you think back on

when they were so sweet and innocent and the happy times you had earlier.

I think that's what's happening with him.

He's thinking back on who they.

Who they were when they began.

So he talks about N three.

I taught E from also to go taking them by their arms, but they

knew not that I healed them.

This is a metaphor of, you know, like a parent who holds onto their toddler's

hands to help them walk, you know?

And then when they fall you comfort them and help them get back up.

That's.

That's the image he's evoking and he talks about drawing them with chords of man,

meaning these are not like what you would use for be burdened, those kind of ropes.

This is gentle coaxing helping this growing up process that the

children of Israel have been through.

It's been this gentle approach and I, at the end, he talks about the yolk.

So he says the custom at this time was that if you had an ox with a big

heavy yoke on, oftentimes the farmer would lift the yolk, not take it

completely off, but lift the weight of it so that the ox could go down and.

Eat the grain that they were trying to feed it.

And I'm sure that the ox has no idea that that burden's

been lifted off its shoulders.

And that's what he's promising he's been doing to the children

of Israel all this time.

So he is thinking back on these memories of what he's given

and what they used to be like.

And his heart is just sorrowing.

It's like those phrases in the New Testament where he says, How often

would I have gathered you like a hen gather through chicks, like he's

just aching for them to come home.

And in seven he drops all metaphor and just does it blatantly.

And my people are bent back sliding from me though they

called them to the most high.

None would exalt them.

And then he talks in eight about how they basically have earned the judgment that

similar cities to Sotto and Gamora got that there was destruction that happened.

But nine is where you see what he chooses to do.

He says, I will not execute the fierceness of mine.

Anchor.

I will not return to destroy you from for I am.

and not man, and I will not enter into the city, meaning he won't come to destroy.

I thought this was so powerful.

The statement of who he is is so clear and not just who he is, but that what

defines him is his ability to choose.

Remember everything we're learning in this life is all about self mastery

and how to choose to be like the savior and to be like our heavenly parents.

And what you see exemplified here is that he is someone who has mastered

the ability to choose to feel emotion and to choose how to react.

That's the meekness we admire about him in the New Testament,

that he has this ultimate power that is under ultimate control.

I just think it's such a powerful image because we tend.

Like men, , we think the Lord sees us like men, and we don't think the same way.

His thoughts are not our thoughts, and I think he's trying to teach us that,

that when he sees us, he doesn't just see us in the mistakes we made today.

He sees us as who we were.

He remembers helping us and guiding us, holding our hands as

we learn to use our agency and he can see us far into the future.

So these mortal mistakes that we.

Are not definitive.

They're not defining who we are in his view.

In his view.

The children of Israel began far in the past when they were just young and

beginning these covenants, and they will extend far into the future when they will

eventually circle back and come home.

That's how he pictures them so he can continually forgive.

I think it's why that that Hosea metaphor works because he can continue to invite.

Backsliding unfaithful wife back home because he doesn't see

her in that moment of mistake.

He sees her as a full person, someone bigger than what we as mortals see, and I

just think there is such profound hope for all of us in that message to never forget

that he doesn't see you as man sees you.

He is God not man.

And I just love that.

Do you remember when Jeremiah warned us not to trust in broken cisterns?

I think Jose has that basic message in verse one.

Ephram Feedeth on wind and followeth after the east wind, and daily

increase with lies and des desolation.

He can see that they are feasting on something that can't last.

It's, you know, like watching your kids eat Twinkies for lunch, they

just can't, can't sustain them.

But for me, one of the most powerful parts of this chapter is when

he talks about how often he has.

Taught them all the different ways and means he has tried to reach out to them.

I think it was cool to me because as a parent, I feel like we do this

all the time where I'm trying to teach my kids in a whole bunch of

different ways with object lessons, with stories, with analogies, so

that they can get the message.

My hope is that at some point, one of these things will click for them and

they'll get the message, and that's I think, what the Lord has been doing

for the children of Israel as well.

Cuz he talks about.

What he's offered them, he's encourages them to turn to God in verse six

and turn to the mercy and judgment.

And then he says, I've spoken by prophets.

I have multiplied visions.

I have used similitudes in the ministry of prophets.

He's talking about all the ways they have been.

Called.

Remember, it's the same thing we saw with right before the flood in Noah's

day, that there was a, a surge of people trying to get them to change.

It's the same thing we see over and over again.

Whenever someone is about to be destroyed or scattered, there is

this surge of profits who are sent out with strong messages to try

to persuade the people to change.

They just don't do it.

But what I think is powerful for me is.

It reminded me of how I am accountable for what my prophet says.

They're being held accountable for all the ways God tried to teach

them, whether they listened or not.

The same way I think we are accountable for what our prophets tried to teach us.

Whether we choose to study the general conference notes or not.

We're accountable for that knowledge that they've tried to give us.

So it kinda motivated me to get back into my conference notes a little

bit more, so you'll see a lot more from this conference in the notes

this week for that very reason.

One of the ways Hosea teaches the people about setting aside their false gauze is

by shining a great big spotlight on what the true God can do that nothing else can.

And that is that he has the power to ransom, to redeem, to resurrect, to save.

And you see it so profoundly in this chapter.

So in 13, he talks about the warnings, about idols, and then about they're.

Tossed around in the whirlwind.

I actually really love this visual.

It's one that's used several times in the Old Testament and in the Book of Mormon.

In fact, Mormon talks about it and he says that it's like being tossed about

on the waves without an anchor, without a sail, or without any means to steer.

The reason I love that visual so much, it's, I feel like this happens

to me when I get casual in my discipleship, and there's been times

in my life where that's been the case.

I find.

Pulled.

You know when a friend or a sister leaves the church and I hear their complaints

or their frustrations and my testimony isn't deep, I find myself pulled.

Same thing happens with social media.

I'll read a post or, and all of a sudden I find myself kind of like,

Oh, maybe there's more to that.

You know, like, because I wasn't rooted, I become vulnerable.

And that's what he's warning them about.

And the way he wants them to root themselves is in a doctrine that is.

Hope filled.

He talks about how there is no savior beside God.

So if you're looking for there shall thou, shall no.

No God but me for there is no Savior beside me.

He warns about them, forgetting him, and then he talks about why you should plant

yourself in this rich, fertile soil.

When you flip the page, you see that he is their only help in

nine and then 14, I will ransom them from the power of the grave.

I will redeem them from death.

Oh, death I will be thy plague.

It's like, oh, death.

Where?

Whereas the sting, you know, that same kind of message, Oh grave,

I shall be the destruction.

This is a promise that you can rest on.

If you can believe in the resurrection, then I feel like the floodgates are

open to believe in almost anything else that the gospel teaches

because nothing is bigger than that.

That is a profound promise.

One of the talks I read, I think it was.

Paul Johnson, It's in the notes.

He talked about a cloud of witnesses and how there were so many people

in the New Testament who witnessed that the Savior was resurrected

and walked among them again.

And then if you add on the people that we, the hundreds that we see in the Book

of Mormon, who witnessed that the savior was resurrected and that he walked among

them and came again, and the many more since that time in latter days, who have

promised that he lives and that they have seen him and that he is resurrect.

If you add up that cloud of witnesses, you've got this thick cloud that is

unshakeable, and if you can believe in that promise, then it opens up a

floodgate to believe everything else, because in comparison, nothing.

Nothing even comes close to that kind of promise.

So not only is it comforting to all of us who have lost or fear losing others

who we love, it is a promise that opens.

Hope for every other point of doctrine, and that is something

that I feel like you can feast on.

So don't take my word for it.

Go in the notes, read that talk.

It has such an incredible message of hope, and I think that's what Jose is trying to

teach in this, you know, this last ditch effort to get the people to change that.

Don't root yourself in idols and vain things that can't hold you.

Let your soul sink deep into the doctrine of a savior who can save, who

can redeem, and who can resurrect that doctrine you can sink into, and it

will hold you in every storm of life.

And, oh, it's so good you guys.

This last chapter of Jose focuses on the latter days and their return.

So there's this invitation from Hosea to turn and to return

back to the Lord or to repent.

And I love the way it's phrased.

If you look at the end of two, it talks about we render the calves of

our lips, and I was like, What is that?

So then I had to study more and learn more that basically this, if you go

in the footnotes, you can find this or in the notes from the course,

but you can see that this is just an imitation to have a broken heart and a

contrite spirit to submit your speech and your actions over to the Lord.

That's what's gonna change things for the children of Israel.

That's how they will come to him when they start.

Turn over their wills to God and see what he can make of their

lives, and I love the promise.

It's in four.

I will heal their backsliding.

I will love them freely, for my anchor is turned away from him.

That is how you know that he is God and not man, that

despite countless generations of backsliding, he promises to restore.

He promises to make whole.

All that was lost in the process when this.

Generation in the latter days comes to him.

He will heal, He will fix.

That's the promise.

He will love them freely.

It's the same thing we saw with Josea and this, you know, unfaithful wife.

He will love her as soon as she comes back.

As soon as she starts to change, he promises that I think.

What we see in hose josea and certainly what we see in the Lord

is that he never stops loving.

The only thing that stops is the blessings.

He will always love the children of Israel.

He will always forgive them.

What he can't do is always bless them unless they turn to him, and

that's the same thing with us.

He, his love for us, I feel like is unending and has always been, but

what he wants to do is love and bless us, and in order for that to happen,

we have to live the commandments.

We have to honor his love.

And I love the promises you see in the rest of the chapter.

In fact, one of the most powerful to me is an eight.

It says, Efram shall say, What have I to do anymore with idols?

I have heard him and observed him, and I am like a green fur tree from me.

Is the fruit found?

This is that next generation.

I think it's so cool cuz Efram is the tribe that's.

Kind of sent to be the gatherers.

So this latter day generation of the tribe of Efram will bring people home.

And the reason they're gonna bring people home is because they've

seen, they've observed and they have become something different.

They have set aside any false tradition and they have.

learned from that master example that we have, and they are evergreen.

They are ready, and they are willing to bring everyone home.

And I just think it's a really beautiful image to end the chapters Froma.

Okay, onto Joel.

You guys, there's just three chapters of Joel that we're studying, but they're

mostly about the latter days before the second coming, the commotion that's

gonna happen in the world, and how we as saints are gonna navigate things.

And what I would tell you is if you just go straight into Joel, You're

gonna struggle a little bit cause this is apocalyptic literature.

This is kind of like reading, you know, John's words in Revelation where not

everything has been fully revealed.

So you can take a lot of guesses, you can read a lot of scholarship, or you can

just go to the gospel topics and read what we do know . So that's what I found the

most helpful to me, is I went into the gospel topics and in some of those related

talks that they offer and learned more about the time before the second coming.

and then went into Joel.

And then I felt like I could sift through what mattered and

what I can set to the side.

And for me, what really mattered is where you learn about how the saints are

supposed to act in all this commotion.

That there will be times of trouble and there will be ways to find peace.

So if you look in three, one of the ways.

Can do.

Our part is to tell our children and their children and their children's children

about the second coming of Christ and then when there is commotion to fast I love.

This is in 14 saying To Fae a fast call a solem assembly together, gather

the elders and all the inhabits of the land into the house of the Lord

your God, and cry unto the Lord.

Don't you love that?

That's the answer to when there is incredible commotion and fear in

the world that we gather together as saints in the temple, and we fast

and we pray and we seek tis, and the implied promise is that we'll get it.

In fact, that's what you hear from the prophets today and in Joel's

day, that that's a prophets job, is to help us know when to move.

And so that's what he's trying to get us to understand.

I think it's a little cryptic in Joel one, but I feel like that's the

message we get from our prophets.

So it's probably the most powerful for us to study today, but it gets a

little deeper as you go into Joel, too.

There's some comfort even in verse one of chapter two cuz it says that

there's gonna be a trumpet blown.

I don't know if this is literal.

I think it probably means the prophets will tell us when

it's time to be in action.

I don't think this is gonna be a secret thing that only a few members

of the church know what's going on.

I think this is the prophet's whole job is to warn us of things that

are coming in to help us rally.

So that's the promise you'll see in too.

You also see some warnings about.

Bad things are gonna get, We tend to think of the days before the second coming as

a day of rejoicing in a day of, you know, there's all the saints and the great

gathering and all the light, but it's important to understand that there will

also be gloom and darkness in the world at that time, and that's what he speaks about

into a day of darkness and a gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness.

As the morning spread on the mountains, there will.

Wars and rumors of wars, and a lot of that happens in Jerusalem.

It's often called the Battle of Armageddon.

Again, you can go on the gospel topics, you can learn a little bit

more, but that's what he's warning about, that there will be this

great battle that is about to ensue.

But I love that most of chapter two is focused on how we navigate it.

So if you look in the verses, so for example, in.

He talks about this, that the Lord is gonna be great and terrible.

We've said that a few times in a few different ways this year, but that he can

be both simultaneously to the righteous.

It will be a great day, and to those who have not been, it will not be a great day.

So you can be great and terrible simultaneously, but what is

powerful to me is how he extends.

In these last days, there is this invitation of mercy and forgiveness.

It's what we saw with Hosea.

It's that same pattern whether you've deserved it or not.

There is this extension of.

Come home, you'll see it in 13 and render your heart and not your garments and turn

unto the Lord your God, Meaning don't just put an outward display of sorrow.

Turn your heart to God and show him that you want to change.

For he is gracious and merciful and slow to anger.

Remember how we talked about that's the nature of God that he can control.

Passionate responses and he can choose to be merciful and gracious.

Just like we saw in the last chapter, he talks about gathering the people together.

You'll wanna watch the footnotes in this chapter for the J s t changes,

cuz there's a few important ones here.

I highlight them all in the notes, so if you go in the

notes, you should get the basics.

But I love his invitation.

He says he's going to pity his people in 18.

And then you see this bestow of gifts and I can't go into each of them, but

he talks about the different ways he.

Help them as they all come home.

He will send them corn in 19 and wine and oil.

He'll push back the enemy in 20.

He'll push back any threat in nature that's going to impede them from growing

and coming back to the promised land.

All that's gonna be taken care of.

He promises a former and a ladder rain.

You can go in the notes and learn more about this, but this is basically

saying, I'm gonna give you the rain at the beginning of the season

to soften the ground and make.

Ready for planting and then I'm gonna water you throughout

the season so that you have the nourishment you need to regrow.

Isn't that visual?

It just sounds like Isaiah to me.

So the former and land rain will come.

He will restore what has been lost, the years of decay that they've had,

and he will restore their dignity.

If you look in 26 and 27, these children of Israel who've been

pushed around and abused by many nations and many peoples will.

Will be protected and will be dignified in the way that he wants them to be.

And that's a pretty impressive promise.

But my favorite is in verse 28, and it'll come to pass afterwards that I

will pour out my spirit upon all flesh.

This is what Morona talks to Joseph Smith about how in these latter days there

will be this outpouring of the spirit and your sons and your daughters will have

visions and people will start to teach.

This is where we are you guys.

This is that phase where because there is an outpouring of his spirit, light

floods, the earth, changes happen.

Doctrine is taught clearly.

That's where it all comes from.

He is the source of all that goodness, and he lets it trickle out

through the saints as he, you know, endows them with power and gifts.

It's just this incredible promise.

I love the idea of pouring out cuz it's not.

A measured out amount.

It is this abundance of his spirit.

And when there is an overflowing abundance of the Lord's spirit,

miracles just come about in its wake.

That's the promise that happens with Zion.

And then he talks about how they will, there will be deliverance.

It'll get a little deeper as we go into chapter three, so let's go there.

Okay.

If your kids love the Avengers movies, you'll love chapter three.

Cause that's what this reminds me of.

I have that written in my margins.

It's like, you know, those final epic battle scenes of any marble movie where

everybody has to come to the table and be ready to like fight the good fight.

And you have to make a decision about which side you're on.

In fact, it's set in a valley of Jeh host Fe, which it's supposed to be

that time right before the Savior comes again in the Jerusalem area there.

It's literally translated to be the valley of decision because all

of us are gonna have to decide.

In fact, hopefully you've decided far before this point in time whose

side you're on, and it's either the Lord's side or anybody else, right?

And that's what's happening here.

He's calling people to prepare the way for this.

Battle.

What's interesting is he calls everyone to prepare.

If you look in 10 and nine, you see that he's calling the

saints to prepare for war.

In fact, it's a total reversal to what we read about the millennium when people

are supposed to beat their plow shares.

Remember that when they're this one, they.

It's a reversal because they're taking their gardening tools

and turning them into weapons.

So it's totally opposite of what we'll see in those thousand years of peace.

But he talks about when he comes that he will be there to judge.

It says plead, but if you look in the footnotes, you can see

that plead and judge are actually kind of synonymous in this.

So there will be a time of judgment, and even though he's called all of

us to help prepare the way he himself will fight the battle, I don't, I

don't exactly know how that plays out, but we know for Isaiah's writings.

He has trodden the wine press alone.

This destruction that needs to happen.

The cleansing that has to happen in the earth is something that

the savior himself will do.

Our job is to prepare the way.

In fact, if you listen to lots of the prophets and apostles lately, they use

that phrase that we're preparing the way for the second coming of the Lord,

and then his job is to come and carry out this initial judgment that will.

And you have to love the way it's phrased in 16, the Lord also shall

roar out of Zion and utter his voice from Jerusalem and the heavens and

the earth shall shake, but the Lord will be the hope of his people and the

strength of the children of Israel.

It's like, you know, it just sounds like the Avengers . It's

got this like, Absolute.

There is no question who's gonna win this battle, but it will be a battle and it

will be a, it will be something that we all rally around that he, he provides

this saving that occurs in 17 so ye shall know that I am the Lord your God.

Dwelling in Z.

Remember, that's what we're hoping for.

That's what he's been asking us to do, Not just in Joel's writings, but

in Hosea's that the whole purpose of all of the commandments and all of the

covenants is to come to know the Lord.

And when we see him fight this incredible battle for us and provide

this safety in this crazy commotion of the world, we will know him.

I just think there's power in that.

And then when you read a little further, you see the outpouring

of blessings that come because he chooses to try this wine press alone.

He chooses to cleanse the earth so that we can have this next phase

of the thousand years of peace.

And that's what you see in 18.

The mountains shall drop down new wine.

The hills shall flow with milk.

All the rivers of jus shall flow with waters and the fountain shall come forth.

If you look in the footnotes, it references the fountain that we talked

about in Ezekiel, the one that comes out of the temple and then heals the dead sea.

That begins because of what happens in this valley of decision, and

for me, it just motivated me to.

Of where I stand like today, I feel like we're all in a valley of decision

and my choices today will help me know where I'm gonna stand on this day.

And I just think it's motivating and.

It makes me so grateful for the savior that we worship, that he is a God, who

is merciful, who forgives, who seeks after us, and who will boldly defend

us in this time of great commotion.