Well, this fourth lesson is for the final lesson on this Bible study on Tobit is entitled God's Faithful Rejoicing in Exile and that's really the antithesis of lesson two where we began chapter one looking at God's faithful suffering in exile Now they are rejoicing in exile and there is a lot of rejoicing going on a lot of songs of praise blessings are being thrown around everywhere There's blessings here. There's blessings there. There's blessings everywhere. It's really a very It's a section full of joy and praise of God and thanksgiving for God So I think that's the whole the point as we go through this Bible study is God's faithful remnant is suffering I think Raphael wasn't three or as sent to heal the suffering and now they're rejoicing and so that's what we're doing That's the method of the madness if you want to call with that chapters 10 through 14 now We left off in chapter 9 with things being very happy and we're doing a lot of rejoicing also in equitana where Tobias marries his new bride Sarah and they're happy and Tobias survives the night He doesn't die like the rest of them and raguell her father is almost buried to bias He's gonna die and he discovers that that's not the case and he's rejoicing and sings God a song of praise Which is gonna be echoed in Tobit later on here So there was rejoicing in chapter 9 up there and there's also some more healing to be done here for Tobit in chapters 10 11 That's what we're gonna look at right now.
So you're in chapter 10 while Tobias and Sarah and Raphael are there in equitana celebrating this two week long wedding Everyone's getting a little bit distressed and worried and anxious back home So there's a little bit of anxiety to go around off with everybody here in chapter 10 So let's read verse 1 and find out what Tobit and his wife Anna are dealing with it says in verse 1 Now it's father Tobit was counting each day and the days for the journey had expired and they did not arrive He said is it possible that he has been detained or is it possible that Gaba Oh has died and there was no one to give him any money and he was greatly distressed and his wife said to him the Lattice perished his long delay proves it and she began to mourn for him and said am I not distressed my child that I let you Go you who are the light of my eyes and you can underline that right there You are the light of my eyes and Tobit said to her be still stop worrying He as well and she answered him I liked it like they're arguing back and forth He says to her be still and she says no you be still and stop deceiving me My child has perished and she went out every day to the road by which they had left she ate nothing in the daytime And throughout the night she never stopped mourning for her son Tobias until the 14 days of the wedding physe had expired Which Raguel had sworn that he should spend there all right So his parents are both very distressed and dealing with his delay in different ways So Tobit has hope he's telling her be still stop worrying He's well He just he does have hope despite the difficulties at hand But she despair is of his return This is that kind of touches upon the theme that we saw at last lesson that though Tobit is blind physically He has his spiritual eyes the eyes of his soul seem to work really well He sees things with hope with faith with trust and that's not the case unfortunately here with Anna She does not see the situation like her husband does and it's really interesting how they both distress But one really moved to despair and that's actually really important key point here You know when troubles come our way we can be distressed and worried and anxious We should always be fighting to trust God completely where we should have no anxiety about anything Jesus says but despair is a virtue against or sorry despair is a sin against the virtue of hope Where we no longer hope at all and that's that's a problem Well these two parents in their own distress and in Anna's despair really symbolize the people of Israel Here's a quick little quote for you that I pulled from head off that I really liked and it's gonna introduce all the typology That I want to share with you in this lesson that Tobit is a type of Israel There's so much typology in this book I introduced a bunch of it in lesson one And we talked a lot about how in the last lesson Tobias and Sarah our types are kind of a new Adam and new Eve figure But really there's also more typology that Tobit is a sign in the type of Israel Tobias is a sign of Jesus Christ. There's typology everywhere you look in this book. It's absolutely fantastic Well, here's a little quote to kick us off and I'm gonna unpack this as we go along and I'll recap all the typology of Tobias and Jesus at the end Connecting it with Tobit being a sign of Israel So you really can't blink on this because there's there's so much there Alright, so here's this quick little quote the sentence says that's the converted Jews limit that Christ should so long abandon their nation While some hope like Tobit others are in more suspense like his wife End quote and that's a really interesting thing to think about how the people of Israel the time of Christ Then you have hope like Tobit right there's Tobit symbolizes the faithful remnant of Israel the whole that's whole point This point has been my argument all along the faithful remnant of Israel is symbolized by Tobit He has hope whereas others are more in suspense and even despair like his wife And that's a really interesting little thought to kick us off So his parents are distressed his wife disbears Tobias himself over an equitana is concerned for his parents happiness It's just a little verse for you. Let's go back to chapter 10 verse 7 release the second part of verse 7 Is at that time Tobias said to Raghuel send me back for my father and mother have given up hope I've ever seen me again But his father-in-law said to him stay with me and I will send messengers to your father and they will inform you how things are with you And Tobias replied no, send me back to my father So Tobias himself is concerned for his parents happiness and well-being and that's typical of his character He is rockin awesome.
He's solid two thumbs up gold star. He obeys the law. He is faithful to his father and his mother He observes the fourth commandment perfectly. He really is concerned for their welfare much in the same way for remember raph I all told him.
Hey Mary Sarah. She's beautiful. She's righteous. She's everything that you would ever want, right?
And he says yeah, well I have a couple problems I heard that you know all of her husband's dying the bed chamber and I don't want to die But also I don't want to die because I don't want to bring sorrow upon my mother my father So Tobias is always concerned about his parents, which is which is really lovely. It's a really great thing about him So he's concerned about his parents happiness. Excuse me now Tobias is new parents in law Raguel and Edna they're eager for him and their daughter Sarah to stay longer They don't want to let them go but finally they they'll do let them go and there's lots of blessings that are exchanged here Let's read on in verse eight his father-in-law said to him stay with me and I was okay I read that already. Excuse me Tobias in verse nine says no send me back to my father and then raguel in verse 10 Aroes gave him his wife Sarah in half his property and slaves caddling money And when he had blessed them and I really want you to always see how many times the word blessed or blessing is being mentioned here in these last chapters It really does begin in chapter eight when raguel blessed God after he discovered that Tobias survived the night and Five different times or more.
He is talking about God's holy blessings and blessing God So we really are moving into this movement of the story of blessing and rejoicing and so just pay attention to that As you read these last chapters how many times of blessing is being mentioned Anyways verse 11 when he had blessed them he sent them away saying the God of heaven will prosper you my child Are my children before I die? He said also to his daughter honor your father and law and your mother-in-law They are now your parents let me hear a good report of you when he kissed her and said it to Tobias The lord of heaven bring you back safely dear brother and grant me to see your children by my daughter Sarah Then I may rejoice before the lord see I am entrusting my daughter to you do nothing to grieve her In quote I think that's awesome by the way like what parent wouldn't say to the new son-in-law Hey, you better treat my daughter right, you know, I mean It's like the ongoing joke where the father the father of the bride threatens the new son-in-law You better not mess this up man or I'll kill you right? So she's basically saying the same thing do not grieve her She suffered enough and this is actually the whole point where her sufferings are really ending now Her sorrow has turned to joy her suffering has turned to blessing So Sarah herself as we read is told to honor her new parents and ma that reiterates her own righteousness We've said that Tobias is honorable observes the fourth commandment so too does she she is a good child She doesn't want to bring dishonor to her father by suicide If you remember that back in chapter three She wanted to kill herself because of the misfortunes that she was suffering which were indeed very grave and very hard But she didn't want to bring this honor to her father and now she told honor her new parents in law What she does so she's awesome as well a perfect match for Tobias She's blessed by her parents to have many children All right, which is the goal of marriage is procreation and the union of spouses for sure But procreation the beginning of children and the joy and the blessing that comes from that So her blessing is given to her for that aspect. There is an echo I should say of I put this in the notes your point number three You know raguel is blessing his daughter as well as As well as her mom for sure but raguel is blessing her daughter Sarah That's kind of an echo of when laban blesses his daughters at their departure with jacob You might remember that story back in genesis chapter 31 laban kind of reluctantly because he was kind of a he was a trickster himself Very deceitful, whatever we talk about that in the genesis bible study So laban does bless his daughters and sends them off with jacob in the same way kind of raguel here is blessing his daughter Sarah and sending her off with Tobias and there's kind of a connection there So in any case her parents blessing upon her and upon Tobias is very very happy And they're overjoyed.
You can just see that in the text They just want to spend more time with them and they want to see their children And in fact there's a prophecy here where she says the Lord grant me to see your children by my daughter Sarah We're gonna end the bible study on that basic point where after some time passes that prophecy or that prayer is granted to Edna And they will come back Tobias and Sarah will come back to her parents spending time with them and bearing them And they will see for their goodness and their righteousness They will be blessed to see their grandchildren. That's a very beautiful thing to end upon Alright, so that's chapter 10 the anxiety all around and they're now it says in verses 11 and following Verse 1 chapter 11 verse 1 Tobias went on his way praising god because he made his journey of success and he blessed raguel in his wife Edna So yes, everyone's blessing everybody everybody is very very happy and praising god One on their way home now they're they're returning home greatly blessed greatly enriched very very happy And so rafael is going to give Tobias some instructions because there's still more healing to be done You know the last lesson was entitled rafael heals god's faithful in exile Well, there's still more healing to take place it's a little bit of overlap there And we're getting into the crescendo of Tobit's eyes and everything that his blindness symbolizes in a typological fashion So let's read on verse 2 rafael said it Tobias are you not aware brother of how you left your father? Of course, he's aware. I just love the way they talk back.
Are you not aware? Did you not forget whatever are you not aware how you left your father? Let us run ahead of your wife and prepare the house and take the gall of fish with you So they went their way and the dog went along behind them always love the little dog Just trailing behind them so beautiful nice little domestic note there of authenticity. It's just it's a really nice touch Anyways, so rafael is very smart though being an angel that he is he says look when you left your father It was just you me and whatever we carried on our backs which was not much now We're returning with all the slaves and all the cattle and all this wealth and you've got a wife now Everything has gone really really well for you So we better prepare them for this news and by the way bring the gall of the fish and we're gonna take care of that as well So it moves on now to the healing of Tobius or excuse me, I always do that Excuse me, I always mix up Tobius and Tobit So if I mix that up a bigger part in verse 5 Anna was looking intently down the road for her son and she caught sight of them coming and said to his father Behold your son is coming and so is the man who went with him and rafael said it's a Tobias before they approached his father I know the desires will be opened smear the gall of the fish on his eyes and the medicine will cause the white films to fall away And your father will regain his sight and see the light all right So this is the crescendo as we're building it up rafael And we know already like back back in the beginning of the story when Tobius killed that fish and rafael said hey look This is you got to save the innards because it's gonna cast away demons check that's done and gall will heal blindness So gee I wonder what this refers to and here's the point now about really quickly this the gall of the fish healing his blindness This is a miraculous event obviously, but it is also based on natural known remedies in ancient world plenty You can check this out your nation how excited by will plenty writes about how it was known that fish gall would heal blindness I have no idea how they figure that out honestly to me medicine is a great mystery I'm certainly no medical doctor It's amazing to me how in the course of time people figured stuff out what worked what didn't work how this weed will help that ailment etc It's amazing But the gall of the fish was known to help with blindness in one way or another So God is using a natural remedy in a miraculous way That's very much like I would equate it to the plagues without getting too much on a rabbit trail here You know a lot of people will talk about how there's two extremes about the plagues of Egypt either they're all miraculous events and Or on the flip side of the coin or the other side of the pendulum they are all natural events So either either miraculous through and through or their natural events that can be explained by natural phenomena and in reality They're both they are natural events I mean there are such things as locusts and frogs and hail and you know skin diseases and everything that happened in those plagues But they were controlled by God in a miraculous way their intensity their duration They stopped and started when God said and so on and so forth So it's kind of what's going on here as well with this whole fish scenario of Tobias using a material substance to heal in a miraculous way At least the intensity on the duration of which is governed by God So I kind of want to explain that a little bit hopefully that helps and understand it's not just this mythological legendary story It is rooted in a natural science in the ancient world Alright, so now let's read on to see the healing itself.
It's really beautiful The story is fantastic Chapter 11 verse 9 Anna ran to meet them and embrace her son and said I have seen you and noted you can underline that as well there's always in this story of Restoration or you know for the family is being reunited of this concept of seeing again And of course that's important because it's been contrasted with Tobit being unable to see anything Well back in chapter 10 verse 5 Anna had talked about how Tobias was the light of her eyes And now she's saying here in 11 verse 9 I have seen you my child and I'm ready to die There's always this emphasis on sight and that's important when it contrasted with Tobit So she says I've seen you and she's ready to die She's happy she's weaving in verse 10 Tobit got up and came stumbling out through the courtyard door You can underline that as the place is important But his son ran to him with a gall of the fish in his hand and taking him firmly He blew into his eyes and said take courage father with this he applied the medicine on his eyes And next with both of his hands he peeled off the white films from the corner of his eyes And then he saw his son and there's the theme again He saw his son embraced him and he weapons said here is my son the light of my eyes And he said blessed be God blessed be his great name and blessed be his all his holy angels And he is holy name he blessed to threat all the ages though he afflicted me he has had mercy on me Now I see my son Tobius. Oh, that's really good. There's a lot here going on Okay, so this eyesight is restored in the place that it's restored is important It's in the courtyard like I said because that's where he was blinded If you go back to chapter 2 verse 9 and following after he buried the dead guy and was rendered unclean He didn't go back in the house. He was sleeping outside in the courtyard And that's when the bird duty fell into his eyes and he was blinded well now here He is being healed in the same place in the courtyard not with bird dirty obviously with a gall of the fish Okay, then he ironically says and beautifully says in declares Tobius to be the light of his eyes Which is lovely because he was just blinded right and so the light of his eyes is his son That's a very tender thing to say.
It's just like what his mother said back in 10 5 I mentioned it to you again. She says he is the light of my eyes and now the healed Tobus says the exact same thing You are the light of my eyes. I can see you and this causes Tobus to bless God It's actually ironic as well. He says blessed be God blessed be his great name and blessed be all his holy angels What's so ironic about that is Raphael is standing right there Raphael is the one who had been protecting Tobias leading him walking with him giving him the advice about the fish and all of the stuff And he's right there and that's when Tobus says blessed be his only angels It's very much like in chapter 5 if you remember that irony when Tobius and Raphael leave Tobit praise Well, first he says go this has been chapter 5 Verse 16 Just go with this man God who dwells in heaven will prosper away and make his angel attend you And that's like wait a second We the reader know that his angel is attending him right then in there And then at the end of chapter 5 verse 21 Tobit says to his wife Anna a good angel will go with him Well his prayers have already been answered as we pointed out in the last lesson And now the same irony is taking place here when he says blessed be all God's holy angels That includes Raphael who is the mastermind behind all of this.
It's just really awesome All right, so now everyone is celebrating rejoicing and Tobius tells his dad and his mom everything that happened to them He has his wife and let's actually go down to verse 17 chapter 11 verse 17 Tobit gave things before them that God had been merciful to him and when Tobit came near to Sarah his daughter-in-law He blessed her welcome my daughter blessed is God who has brought you to us and blessed are your father and your mother And they are rejoicing with all of his brethren and they rejoiced for another seven-day long feast So a couple of things here first there's more blessings going around I told you like you can highlight and underline how many times the word blessed or blessing It's under the form of blessing is being mentioned. There's so much blessing going on so much rejoicing It's very celebratory. I love it a lot But then I wanted to point out this this another another seven-day long feast So they're parting it up pretty big time here And I remember that a wedding in the ancient world would last for seven days because seven is the number of the covenant And when a man marries a woman they enter into a sacred covenant together So a week-long celebration is very fitting So but what's interesting is that there was a doubling of that feast back in equitana with sarah's parents And now is going to be tripled so to speak It's the third time this happens back home inna vah It's a three-fold wedding celebration and I think that that's intentional for a couple of reasons first and foremost It's a superlative. You know how we say god is holy holy holy Many people would teach you know they didn't have in Hebrew and Hebrew languages superlative like you know good better and best They would just repeat it three times which is true in many cases So holy holy holy god is all holy So I think what's going on here is that this is a superlative wedding It's a it's a feast feast feast Everybody is rejoicing in a superlative way and I think it's really beautiful I also think excuse me I also think that's very typological and I'm going to explain that as we get towards the end of the lesson here There's three-fold wedding celebration what that might refer to As you understand that Tobias is a type of Christ So a little hint there you probably pick up what I'm putting down but I'm just gonna give you some anticipation and some some some suspense As we move forward all right, so a seven day long feast a superlative.
That's awesome All right now I want to see a little bit of typology a little more typology of Tobit himself Because as we introduce in the first lesson there's typology everywhere There is Tobias and Sarah as a new Adam and Eve and that points forward to Jesus and his church We're gonna see more later on but Tobit himself is a type of Israel like I shared with you in the first opening Minutes of this lesson right Tobit has hope Symbolizing those faithful remnant of Israel. Well, here's some more typology of Tobit as a symbol of Israel His exile his faithful suffering and exile His healing from his blindness first to suffering from blindness Then it's healing from blindness all of that is a type of Israel And here is a little quote from your cat-a-cettie bible Which says as much but I want to unpack it with some more details It says quote the storyteller best implies that Tobit represents his people So that his personal plight foreshadows the national plight of Israel as a whole Specifically the suffering and healing experienced by Tobit stand as a sign of hope for the 12 tribes in exile Who await restoration and healing and quote all right? So that theme of hope is really important. So as I said before in chapter 10 Tobit he's distressed You know, he's got some anxiety But he has hope that all is well that is a symbol of the exiled faithful of Israel who while in exile suffering They have hope that God will restore them now.
I wanted to draw some draw some more things out of this specifically About his blindness. He cannot see and then he has given light That is a further detail on the symbolism of Israel who spiritually cannot see because of their idolatry That's why they're hauled off into exile You can check out the first and second Kings Bible study for more details on that But they're they're in distress. They're in darkness and they and they're hoping for the Messiah The mashiach to come and to give them light while they're in darkness now one of the famous Prophecies about this is Isaiah Isaiah had prophesied that the northern tribes of Israel So that's the region of Galilee all right with zebulin and afterl About how naphdally and the other surrounding regions are going to see a great light They were in darkness, but they will see a great light This is this is really exciting to think about how this thing I'm gonna read it once I read it to you're gonna recognize it immediately But if you apply these passages to Tobit as a symbol of Israel, you're gonna kick out a little bit more All right, so the passage that we're looking at there's two of them on a share with you Isaiah chapter 9 verses 1 and 2 says there will be no gloom for her that was in english in the former time He brought him to contempt the land of the land of zebulin and the land of naphdally But in the latter time he will make glorious the way of the sea the land beyond the Jordan Galilee of the nations The people who walked in darkness have seen a great light those who dwelt in the land of deep darkness on them light has shined End quote all right So beautiful passage historically very significant as Syria brought the people of the northern kingdoms specifically the territory of galley Is everyone naphdally into darkness through the conquest right and now the hope will be that light will shine upon them And again keep in mind Tobit is from that very tribe of naphdally all right another passage here That's very similar to it So I wanted to share it with you as Isaiah 35 verse 5 So strengthen the weak hands and make firm the feeble knees say to those who are a fearful heart be strong fear not Behold your god will come with vengeance with the recompense of god He will come and he will save you then the eyes of the blind will be open Okay, and the ears the death unstopped the eyes of the blind shall be opened that after you know All the promises and hopes that they are going to be fulfilled So when is it all going to be fulfilled obviously with Jesus Christ right? Jesus fulfills these prophecies through his whole ministry first This is important in Matthew chapter 4 verse 12 and open up here for you And I'm going to read this in Matthew chapter 4 verse 12 and following Matthew describes how Jesus begins his ministry And it says when he had heard that john had been arrested he withdrew into galley and leaving Nazareth He dwelt in Capernaum by the sea in the territory of zebu and naphdally That was what that was written and spoken by the prophet Isaiah might be fulfilled and he quotes Isaiah chapter 9 Which we just read and from that very day Jesus began to preach repent for the king of heaven is at hand So there's a lot going on here, which you know, I describe in another bible studies Here Jesus begins the proclamation of the restored kingdom precisely where the the northern tribes were first exiled right?
So the restoration begins where the deportation began and I talk about that in other contexts But what's interesting here is that Jesus brings light to the territory of zebu and naphdally and galley fulfilling Isaiah In the same way Tobias brings his father light and Tobias is a symbol of Jesus I'm going to argue throughout the rest of this lesson Tobias is a type of Jesus Christ who brings light to Tobit which symbolizes the people of Israel All right, I hope that makes sense. Okay, in the same way Jesus He heals the blind of course This is a big part of his ministry in Matthew chapter 11 He quotes the Isaiah 35 passage to the disciples of John the Baptist So John the Baptist wants his own disciples to start following Jesus and basically sends them to Jesus You know to discover Jesus for themselves and essentially Jesus Let me say this in chapter 11 of Matthew here chapter 11 of Matthew The disciples of John come to him and say are you he who is to come or shall we look for another and Jesus says go tell John what you hear and see The blind receive their light the lame walk lepers of clans etc Lesso reference to Isaiah 35 So in other words, it's just a repetition of the same major point here The prophecies of Isaiah that light will come to those who walk in darkness is being fulfilled by Jesus And Tobit is from that very try because Tobit is a symbol of the people of Israel And Tobius is a symbol of Jesus giving his father light And I'm gonna I'm gonna bring all this into full circle at the end of the lesson You'll see one more little connection here with the gospels is that Tobius representing Jesus heals his father Tobit Representing the people of Israel, right? We specifically with material substance We talked before in the last lesson how that's very sacramental for sure that sacramental But that's what Jesus did as well in John chapter 9. You'll remember that Jesus healed the blind man by spitting in the mud making mud Smearing on his spitting of the dirt making mud smearing on his eyes and then he had light I think for sure 100 percent I am convinced that when Jesus heals the man with the with the mud There is a callback there's an echo to how Tobius heals Tobit because Jesus is bringing light to the eyes the spiritual eyes for the people And this is why Jesus is all the time by the way the gospels let him who is is to see see Jesus is calm.
He's the position who's come to heal those who are burdened by sin and who are blinded by their own sin It's fantastic I hope all this is making sense here and I'll continue to develop this theme as we go through the story of Tobit being a type of Israel and Jesus being symbolized by Tobius All right, excellent. Hey, this is Doc Neck Thank you so much for listening to this course sample if you enjoyed it and want to listen to the entire lesson Please become a student over at scripture and tradition calm where you can listen to this entire course But also all the other courses that we have available in the S&T audio library where you can listen to them on demand However, and whenever you want so thank you so much. God bless you and keep studying your Bible