The Voice of Thanksgiving
In the manual: Come, Follow Me lesson 48, “Seek the Lord, and Ye Shall Live,” on Gospel Library
In the United States, today is Thanksgiving. Jonah’s prayer from inside the fish ends with thanks.
Start
The Lord told Jonah to go east to Nineveh. Jonah paid for a ship sailing the other way, to Tarshish (Jonah 1:2–3).
Read Together
Jonah was a prophet in Israel in the days of King Jeroboam II (2 Kings 14:25). Nineveh was a great city of Assyria, Israel’s cruel enemy.
17Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah. And Jonah was in the belly of the fish three days and three nights.
7When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord: and my prayer came in unto thee, into thine holy temple. 8They that observe lying vanities forsake their own mercy. 9But I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving; I will pay that that I have vowed. Salvation is of the Lord.
What It Teaches
When the storm came, the sailors cried to their gods while Jonah slept below deck (Jonah 1:4–6). Once they learned he was running from the Lord, Jonah told them to throw him overboard. The sailors rowed hard to save him first (Jonah 1:12–13).
“Now the Lord had prepared a great fish to swallow up Jonah” (Jonah 1:17). The fish that swallowed Jonah was the Lord’s way of saving him. Jesus later said that his own three days in the tomb would be the sign of Jonah (Matthew 12:40).
Inside the fish, Jonah prayed. “When my soul fainted within me I remembered the Lord” (Jonah 2:7). He gave thanks while he was still in the fish, “I will sacrifice unto thee with the voice of thanksgiving” (Jonah 2:9).
Jonah also said that people who serve false gods “forsake their own mercy” (Jonah 2:8). Elder Matthew S. Holland gave a talk on that verse. “You have immediate access to divine help and healing despite your human flaws. This awe-inspiring mercy comes in and through Jesus Christ.”
Elder Matthew S. Holland, “Forsake Not Your Own Mercy,” General conference, October 2025
Talk About It
Jonah gave thanks while he was still inside the fish. What is something we can thank the Lord for today, even in the middle of something hard?
Take to Church
Jonah prayed from inside the fish and gave thanks before he was rescued. “Salvation is of the Lord,” he said, and the Lord brought him out.