Cast Into the Deep

After listening to Elder Matthew S. Holland in the most recent general conference, my wife commented, “That was Elder Holland 2.0!” Indeed, he gave a powerful talk about getting help from the Savior right in line with the conviction and fervor we are used to in his father Elder Jeffrey R. Holland. The younger Elder Holland spoke of the story of Jonah being swallowed by a great fish, and I love how he related it to us. He said, “Jonah’s story powerfully directs us to Him who can deliver us from those effects. Jonah’s self-sacrifice to save his shipmates is Christlike indeed. And three times when Jesus is pressed for a miraculous sign of His divinity, He thunders that ‘there shall no sign be given … but the sign of Jonas [Jonah],’ declaring that as Jonah was ‘three days and three nights in the whale’s belly; so shall the Son of man be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth.’ As a symbol of the Savior’s sacrificial death and glorious Resurrection, Jonah may be flawed. But this is also what makes his personal witness of and commitment to Jesus Christ, offered in the belly of the whale, so poignant and inspiring.” Jonah surely was in anguish those three days in the great fish, and Elder Holland quoted these words of his account, “I cried by reason of mine affliction unto the Lord … ; out of the belly of hell cried I. … For thou hadst cast me into the deep, in the midst of the seas; and the floods compassed me about: all thy billows and thy waves passed over me. Then I said, I am cast out of thy sight; yet I will look again toward thy holy temple. The waters compassed me about, even to the soul: the depth closed me round about, the weeds were wrapped about my head. I went down to the bottoms of the mountains; … yet hast thou brought up my life from corruption.” I wonder if the Lord wasn’t quoting from Jonah when he said to Joseph Smith in Liberty Jail, “If thou be cast into the deep; if the billowing surge conspire against thee….” The Lord still remembered Jonah those many centuries later and used his story to teach Joseph. Jonah faced the deep belly of a fish and the billowing waves of the sea, and through his repentance and supplication to the Lord, he was delivered. And Joseph too was eventually delivered out of his prison through the power of the Lord.

Jonah and Joseph both looked to the Lord in his time of anguish, and Elder Holland encouraged us to likewise turn to Him for help and support. He quoted these words of Jonah’s prayer to the Lord, “They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy” (Jonah 2:8). He similarly urged us not to forsake our own mercy, which mercy is embodied in Jesus Christ. Through Him we find strength and grace and as we refuse to forsake Him, we will have His mercy. As one scripture affirms, “He is full of mercy” (Doctrine and Covenants 84:102). In a very personal story Elder Holland related, “Though it was many years ago, I can tell you exactly where I was sitting and exactly what I was feeling when, deep in the belly of a personal hell, I discovered this scripture. For anyone today feeling like I did then—that you are cast off, sinking in deepest waters, with seaweed wrapped about your head and oceanic mountains crashing all around you—my plea, inspired by Jonah, is forsake not your own mercy. You have immediate access to divine help and healing despite your human flaws. This awe-inspiring mercy comes in and through Jesus Christ. Because He knows and loves you perfectly, He offers it to you as your ‘own,’ meaning it is perfectly suited to you, designed to relieve your individual agonies and heal your particular pains. So, for heaven’s sake and yours, do not turn your back on that. Accept it. Start by refusing to listen to the ‘lying vanities’ of the adversary, who would tempt you into thinking that relief is found in sailing away from your spiritual responsibilities. Instead, follow the lead of the repentant Jonah. Cry unto God. Turn to the temple. Cling to your covenants. Serve the Lord, His Church, and others with sacrifice and thanksgiving.” Those are certainly words to hang on to as we face the difficult trials of life.

                We usually remember Jonah for forsaking his responsibility and for his reluctance to want to offer grace and forgiveness to the Assyrians. Despite those flaws, we can also remember him for the moment when he sacrificed himself for the good of others (offering to be thrown overboard) and when he pled with the Lord in the anguish of heart. As Elder Holland reminded us, Jonah was specifically named by the Lord as a type of Himself, and that’s perhaps the best way we can remember Him. No matter what our failings are, we can like Jonah reach out to the Savior in our extremities, and He will still come to our aid.