Context No. 3862 of 4322 · Tobit

Tobit 8:8-12: in context

8She said with him, “Amen.” And they both slept that night. 9Raguel arose, and went and dug a grave, 10saying, “Lest he also should die.” 11And Raguel came into his house, 12and said to Edna his wife, “Send one of the maidservants, and let them see if he is alive. If not, we will bury him, and no man will know it.”

On the wedding night of Tobias and Sarah, Sarah's father Raguel, remembering how seven previous husbands had died, quietly slips out and digs a grave, fearing that this young man too will not survive the night. Then, still fearing disaster, he sends a servant to check, ready to bury Tobias in secret. But the young man is alive; God has heard the prayer of the couple and delivered them.

There is something very human in Raguel's anxious preparation for disaster, and something instructive in how it turned out. He braced himself for calamity, digging a grave in the dark, while God was already answering prayer and giving life. How often our fears run ahead to the grave while God is quietly at work to save. This does not mean nothing bad ever happens, but it does gently rebuke the anxious assumption that disaster is always coming. Sometimes, while we are digging graves in our imagination, God is preparing a deliverance we did not expect.

When I find myself bracing for calamity, do I remember that God may already be at work to deliver, and refuse to let my fears run ahead to a grave he has not dug?

Sources

Tobit 8:9: "Raguel arose, and went and dug a grave, saying, Lest he also should die."
Tobit 8:12: "Send one of the maidservants, and let them see if he is alive. If not, we will bury him."
Tobit 8:8: "She said with him, Amen. And they both slept that night."