Scripture Daily

Context No. 2207 of 4322 · Tobit

Context · Reflection

Tobit 13:1-18: in context

1And Tobit wrote a prayer for rejoicing, and said, “Blessed is God who lives forever! Blessed is his kingdom! 2For he scourges, and shows mercy. He leads down to the grave, and brings up again. There is no one who will escape his hand. 3Give thanks to him before the Gentiles, all you children of Israel! For he has scattered us among them. 4Declare his greatness, there. Extol him before all the living, because he is our Lord, and God is our Father forever. 5He will scourge us for our iniquities, and will again show mercy, and will gather us out of all the nations among whom you are all scattered. 6If you turn to him with your whole heart and with your whole soul, to do truth before him, then he will turn to you, and won’t hide his face from you. See what he will do with you. Give him thanks with your whole mouth. Bless the Lord of righteousness. Exalt the everlasting King. I give him thanks in the land of my captivity, and show his strength and majesty to a nation of sinners. Turn, you sinners, and do righteousness before him. Who can tell if he will accept you and have mercy on you? 7I exalt my God. My soul exalts the King of heaven, and rejoices in his greatness. 8Let all men speak, and let them give him thanks in Jerusalem. 9O Jerusalem, the holy city, he will scourge you for the works of your sons, and will again have mercy on the sons of the righteous. 10Give thanks to the Lord with goodness, and bless the everlasting King, that his tabernacle may be built in you again with joy, and that he may make glad in you those who are captives, and love in you forever those who are miserable. 11Many nations will come from afar to the name of the Lord God with gifts in their hands, even gifts to the King of heaven. Generations of generations will praise you, and sing songs of rejoicing. 12All those who hate you are cursed. All those who love you forever will be blessed. 13Rejoice and be exceedingly glad for the sons of the righteous; for they will be gathered together and will bless the Lord of the righteous. 14Oh blessed are those who love you. They will rejoice for your peace. Blessed are all those who mourned for all your scourges; because they will rejoice for you when they have seen all your glory. They will be made glad forever. 15Let my soul bless God the great King. 16For Jerusalem will be built with sapphires, emeralds, and precious stones; your walls and towers and battlements with pure gold. 17The streets of Jerusalem will be paved with beryl, carbuncle, and stones of Ophir. 18All her streets will say, “Hallelujah!” and give praise, saying, “Blessed be God, who has exalted you forever!”

In his song of praise, Tobit, an exile among the nations, blesses God who both disciplines and shows mercy. And in the midst of his praise he gives a call to his fellow exiles, sinners scattered for their iniquities. If you turn to him with your whole heart and with your whole soul, to do what is true before him, then he will turn to you, and will not hide his face from you. Turn, you sinners, and do righteousness before him; who knows whether he will accept you and have mercy on you? Tobit calls the scattered to turn back to God, promising that God will turn to them.

The promise Tobit holds out is one of the most encouraging in Scripture: if you turn to God with your whole heart, he will turn to you. There is a reciprocity here, but the initiative and the assurance rest on God's readiness to receive. When we turn to God, wholeheartedly, sincerely, he does not turn away; he turns to us, does not hide his face, receives us. The turning of our hearts back to God is met by his turning toward us. However far we have strayed, however scattered by our sins, the way back is open: turn to him, and he will turn to you. This addresses a fear that can keep us from returning to God. When we have wandered far, sinned greatly, grown distant, we can fear that God will not receive us if we turn back, that our straying has closed the door, that he will hide his face from us. Tobit's promise, echoed throughout Scripture, says otherwise: turn to God with your whole heart, and he will turn to you and not hide his face. God is not reluctant to receive the returning; he responds to those who turn to him, meeting their turning with his own. Draw near to God, James says, and he will draw near to you. Return to me, God says through Zechariah, and I will return to you. The God we return to is one who turns toward us as we turn to him. And this readiness of God to receive the returning is seen most clearly in Christ, in the father of the parable who, while the prodigal was still far off, ran to meet him. God does not wait grudgingly for the returning sinner to grovel; he turns toward those who turn to him, runs to meet them, receives them with joy. Who knows, Tobit says, whether he will have mercy on you; and the answer of the Gospel is that he surely will, for he turns to all who turn to him. This calls us to turn to God, whatever our straying, trusting that he will turn to us. If we have wandered far and fear the door is closed, Tobit's promise opens it: turn to him with your whole heart, and he will turn to you and not hide his face. The way back to God is always open to those who turn, for the God we return to is one who turns toward us as we turn to him, meeting our return with his welcome. Turn to God with your whole heart; and he will turn to you.

When I have wandered far from God and fear that my straying has closed the door, that he will not receive me or will hide his face if I return, can Tobit's promise, if you turn to him with your whole heart, he will turn to you and will not hide his face, together with the God who runs to meet the returning prodigal, assure me that the way back is always open, so that I turn to God with my whole heart, trusting that he turns toward all who turn to him?

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