Scripture Daily

Context No. 2930 of 4322 · Tobit

Context · Reflection

Tobit 8:1-7: in context

1When they had finished their supper, they brought Tobias in to her. 2But as he went, he remembered the words of Raphael, and took the ashes of the incense, and put the heart and the liver of the fish on them, and made smoke with them. 3When the demon smelled that smell, it fled into the uppermost parts of Egypt, and the angel bound him. 4But after they were both shut in together, Tobias rose up from the bed, and said, “Sister, arise, and let’s pray that the Lord may have mercy on us.” 5And Tobias began to say, “Blessed are you, O God of our fathers, and blessed is your holy and glorious name forever. Let the heavens bless you, and all your creatures. 6You made Adam, and gave him Eve his wife for a helper and support. From them came the seed of men. You said, it is not good that the man should be alone. Let’s make him a helper like him. 7And now, O Lord, I take not this my sister for lust, but in truth. Command that I may find mercy and grow old with her.”

On their wedding night, Tobias remembers Raphael's instruction, burns the fish's heart and liver as incense, and the demon that had tormented Sarah is driven away. Then, before anything else, Tobias says to his bride, Sister, arise, and let us pray that the Lord may have mercy on us. And he prays: Blessed are you, God of our fathers. You made Adam and gave him Eve as a helper. I take my sister not out of lust but in truth; grant that we may find mercy and grow old together.

What stands out is that the couple begins their marriage on their knees. Tobias openly refuses lust as the ground of their union and appeals instead to God's own design from the start, it is not good for the man to be alone. He asks not for pleasure but for mercy and a long shared life. Marriage here is received as a gift from God, entered with reverence and prayer, ordered toward faithfulness and a life shared to old age, not toward appetite.

Do I enter and hold my closest commitments with reverence and prayer, seeking faithfulness and a shared life, rather than merely appetite?

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