Scripture Daily

Context No. 982 of 4322 · Tobit

Context · Reflection

Tobit 7:12-18: in context

12Raguel said, “Take her to yourself from now on according to custom. You are her relative, and she is yours. The merciful God will give all good success to you.” 13And he called his daughter Sarah, and took her by the hand, and gave her to be wife of Tobias, and said, “Behold, take her to yourself after the law of Moses, and lead her away to your father.” And he blessed them. 14He called Edna his wife, then took a book, wrote a contract, and sealed it. 15Then they began to eat. 16And Raguel called his wife Edna, and said to her, “Sister, prepare the other chamber, and bring her in there.” 17She did as he asked her, and brought her in there. She wept, and she received the tears of her daughter, and said to her, 18“Be comforted, my child. May the Lord of heaven and earth give you favor for this your sorrow. Be comforted, my daughter.”

This is the wedding of Tobias and Sarah in the book of Tobit. Sarah's father Raguel takes his daughter by the hand and gives her to Tobias, his kinsman, saying, take her according to the law of Moses. He calls his wife Edna, and they draw up and seal a marriage contract, and the meal begins. Then Raguel has Edna prepare a room and bring Sarah in. As she brings her daughter in, Edna weeps, and comforts her: be comforted, my child; may the Lord of heaven give you joy in place of your sorrow; be comforted, my daughter.

What gives this scene its weight is what Sarah carries into it. She has already lost seven husbands on their wedding nights, and everyone knows it, so this marriage is shadowed by real dread; the tears in the room are not only joy. And in that fraught moment the parents do two things worth holding. They act in faith and order, writing the contract, invoking the law of Moses, going forward with the wedding as if God can be trusted with the outcome, even while the father is secretly digging a grave nearby. And the mother, bringing her frightened daughter to the bridal chamber, does not offer false cheer; she weeps with her and blesses her, be comforted, may the Lord turn your sorrow to joy. It is a picture of walking a loved one through a fearful threshold, not by pretending the fear away but by honest tears and a real blessing entrusted to God. Faith here looks like going ahead with the good thing while weeping over the risk and commending it all to the Lord of heaven.

When I walk someone I love through a frightening threshold, can I offer them Edna's kind of comfort, honest tears and a genuine blessing placed in God's hands, rather than empty reassurance?

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