Scripture Daily

Context No. 3710 of 4322 · Tobit

Context · Reflection

Tobit 11:1-6: in context

1After these things Tobias also went his way, blessing God because he had prospered his journey; and he blessed Raguel and Edna his wife. Then he went on his way until they drew near to Nineveh. 2Raphael said to Tobias, “Don’t you know, brother, how you left your father? 3Let’s run forward before your wife, and prepare the house. 4But take in your hand the bile of the fish.” So they went their way, and the dog went after them. 5Anna sat looking around toward the path for her son. 6She saw him coming, and said to his father, “Behold, your son is coming with the man that went with him!”

As Tobias returns from his long journey, blessing God for prospering his way, the angel Raphael tells him to hurry ahead with the fish's gall that will heal his blind father. And there is a tender picture of a waiting parent: Anna, Tobit's wife, sits watching the road for her son, and when she sees him coming, she runs to tell his father, behold, your son is coming!

It is a scene of homecoming and answered longing. Anna had been waiting anxiously, day after day, scanning the road for the son she feared she might have lost; and now her waiting is rewarded with the joy of seeing him come home. There is a beautiful picture here of a parent's love and a homecoming that echoes through Scripture, echoed later in the father who runs to meet the returning prodigal. And behind it all is God's providence, who had prospered Tobias's journey through the angel and was bringing him safely home with healing in his hands. God watches over the journeys of his people and brings them home; and the joy of homecoming is worth the long watching of the road.

Do I trust that God watches over my journeys and brings his people safely home, and can I wait, like Anna, with hope for the homecomings and healings he is bringing about?

Sources