Well, listen to of this Bible spin until God's faithful suffering and exile and that's really if you remember from the lesson syllabus That's what I'm trying to do is keep the parallel that the pattern going for God's remnant in exile is faithful run in exile Well, we're first starting with his faithful suffering and exile Which at the very end will be God's faithful rejoicing and exile and so that's what the title is I'm gonna tackle chapters one through three and see the beginning of Tobit's life first in Israel before he was exiled into Nineveh will look at that in his suffering and Sarah suffering and we're in a high point on how God is gonna take care of that So chapters one through three. I will say really quickly This isn't before I forget this is in the first person singular So Tobit is writing this down as Raphael told him to do in chapter 12 verse 20 So certainly you could probably argue very safely that this is his memoirs of some kind at least chapters one through three And the rest of it is gonna be based on other written and oral traditions We talk about all that in the first lesson introductory remarks. Hopefully you enjoyed that lesson So without any further ado, let's just dive straight here into chapter one verse one Oh one quick little side dress side digression there not really what I've also included in your notes for this lesson He's a little chart you're gonna find at the end of it I'll put together for you just a little description of who these Assyrian kings are because as we start reading chapter one You're gonna see this King exiled me then things going great under that king and then that king persecuted me And I was restored under that king so it's pretty difficult sometimes to keep all that straight So I gave you a little chart You have the Assyrian kings in the left their names their reigns and next to it I put down the significant historical events both regarding Israel in their exile Which really took place in two two two waves two primary waves in 732 and finally in 722 BC And so I got those notes for you as well as really what's happening here with Tobit So that chart's gonna be very helpful I hope as we go through these very strange names And then also you have a map and I've circled on this map highlighted for you Nineveh Which is where Tobit and his family live and then also Ekvapana Which is where Sarah's family lives and that's where Tobai is later on is gonna meet her and then the rest of the story unfolds So that map will be very helpful for you as you look at the Assyrian Empire and then also you got your chart So now without any further ado let's look at chapter one the verse one I would like to probably read all the way to verse nine It will come back to her to the notes and look at what's going on So in the notes this is Roman numeral one Tobit's history of fidelity in Israel as well as an exile And so the first part is going to be what we're gonna read right now chapter one versus one through nine Tobit's life during the final years of the northern kingdom when things were not looking so good And we have a lot of really cool overlap with the study on first and second Kings I always really love that when you study scripture you can see how the prophets and historical books and other books as well They overlap so nicely and interweave so nicely for one book to shed light on another book And that's certainly true what's happening here Tobit shed so much light on what's going on in exile While the northern kingdom is exiled but also the same time the southern kingdom is going strong with Hezekiah and all this stuff So let's just now keep let's just read chapter one verse one the book of the acts of Tobit the son of Toba El the son of Anan El The son of Adul El the son of Gaval the descendants of Aziel of the tribe of Naphthili who in the days of shaman King of the Assyrians was taken into captivity from Thisbee which is to the south of Kadesh Naphthili and Gali above Asher I told it walked in the ways of truth and righteousness all the days of my life I performed many acts of charity to my brethren and countrymen who went with me to the land of the Assyrians to Nineveh Now when I was in my own country in the land of Israel while I was still a young man the whole tribe of Naphthili my forefather Deser to the house of Jerusalem This was the place which had been chosen from among all the tribes of Israel Where all the tribes should sacrifice and where the temple of the dwelling of the most high was consecrated and established for all generations forever All the tribes that joined in apostasy used to sacrifice to the calf of all and so did the house of Naphthili My forefather but I alone went often to Jerusalem for the feasts as is ordained for all Israel by an everlasting decree Taking the first fruits and the tithes of my produce in the first shearings I would give these to the priests to the sons of Aaron on the altar of all my produce I would give a tenth to the sons of Levi who ministered to Jerusalem a second tent I would sell and I would go and spend the proceeds each year at Jerusalem the third tenth I would give to those to whom it was my duty as Deborah my father's mother had commanded me for I was left an orphan by my father When I became a man I married Anna a member of our family and by her I became the father of Tobias Alright, that's a really good little autobiography here How he explains again in the first person singular about his life and right now we're talking about the years the final years in the northern kingdom He was a young man so that could be in his 20s 30s I don't exactly know a young man what age that would be but certainly strong strapping just traveling down to Jerusalem for all the Required feasts now Let's look at some of these things a little bit one by one looking at this autobiography first He was born to the tribe of Naphthili which is in the northwest area of the Sea of Galilee You could check out pretty much any map at the back of any Bible people are very familiar with where Galilee is with the ministry of Jesus So he's a naphthalite so that's actually really important by the way He's not a Jew the word Jew is specific for descendants or members citizens of the tribe of Judah or the kingdom of Judah So really it's after the return from exile the return from Babylonian captivity which according to the chronology and the history of Toba That hasn't happened yet right because down south in the southern kingdom They're still in the reign of Hezekiah and then his evil son Manassana goes on from there So he is not a Jew he isn't Israelite from the specifically from the tribe of Naphthili So just really quickly to get that little clarification there people too often Mistakenly use the words Jew to apply to a member of another tribe and that's actually false So all Jews are Israelites But not all Israelites are Jews if you're picking up what I'm putting down some Israelites are from Naphtali or Asher or Gad or Dan or so on and so forth So he's from the tribe of Naphthili and he was exiled by King Shaman as her and you can consult your little chart that I gave you here Sometimes if between 722 and 7 sorry between 732 excuse me and 722 BC somewhere in that decade probably He was brought to the capital city of Nineveh which you can see here on the map now Nineveh is a very famous city capital city of Assyria and it's famous for Jonah as well Jonah the great prophet who was swallowed by the massive fish. Everyone knows his story Well at one particular point he does go is if you know the story he does go back to Nineveh and preaches He didn't want to preach to Nineveh first because he wanted them destroyed He wanted to see them to be burnt as a burnt like a crispy piece of toast because Assyria was the north's arch enemy And it would make him all too happy to see Assyria be burnt to a crisp And that's why he ran away because he's a patriot time So eventually the story goes on he gets to Nineveh in it's a massive city and Jonah chapter 3 verse 3 He describes how it was an exceedingly great city three days journey in breadth That's how big the city was so you're walking for three days from from side to side from end to end That is that is a massively large city and that's where Tobit was exile to and so Tobit even before his exile He as he explains here in verses 3 and following he was faithful to God his entire life even in the promised land even in the northern kingdom of Israel Which are the ten tribes you go back and check out my Bible study on first and second Kings into a ten part series Where I go through all the stuff on how the kingdom split I'm gonna give some highlights here really quickly because Tobit mentions them But really you can think of the northern kingdom in exile already They're an exile from God and from Jerusalem and from the David King They split certainly with something brought by God but not the religious split as we're gonna discuss in a minute So even I like to think of Tobit growing up in the northern kingdom already in exile from Jerusalem though He's faithful to Jerusalem.
It's really the northern kingdom as a whole that is an exile from Jerusalem not so much Tobit because he's faithful So he's doing everything that he's supposed to do He is part of what we call a faithful remnant in Israel while the northern kingdom had apostasized in Jeroboam's idolatry And that's what Tobit is mentioning here If you know the story or you need a refresher we're gonna talk about all that now So one particular point I read to you how he says the whole tribe of now for the My father deserted the house of Jerusalem This was the place that had been chosen from all the tribes of Israel That word place is significant because if you go back to Deuteronomy chapter 12 over and over again Moses says that when you get into the land and settle Into it God is going to select the place where he is to set his name And that's where all the Israelites would come and journey to the place which ultimately was to be revealed Jerusalem as you will know And they're gonna build a temple under Solomon And this is the place where God dwells amongst his people in the temple in the holy of holies and so on and so forth Israel was not supposed to worship at all the various altars spread around the land because they were so prone to idolatry Even though they say I'm gonna worship Yahweh here on this altar at the shrine or whatever They're really going to end up worshiping the various gods of the pagans that surrounded them And that's exactly what happened if you study the history of Israel All right, so Tobit here is faithful to Deuteronomy chapter 12 He goes to the place that Moses had said would be explicitly revealed which had been revealed through David and Solomon and the rest of it And so he describes how everyone had apostatized they left the house of Jerusalem and they went to sacrifice to the calf of Baal Now this is the store I'll explain just briefly here by way of reminder And if you're not familiar with it, it's not fresh for you Then definitely go check out that Bible study on First and Second Kings So what happens is after Solomon dies his son Jeroboam is a nincompoop a total idiot and through a variety of different reasons He makes the northern kingdom split from him. They want to have no part with the house of David because it's it's abusive and it's Tyranical and they're just they're sick and tired of it So they leave and when they leave they put Jeroboam as their king so Rehoboam is in the south I know it's confusing sounds very similar like Rick and Nick, you know, but it's Jeroboam up north Rehoboam down south and Jeroboam up north even though God promised him all these blessings and gave him a surety is that he would have an established a dynasty and have Everything that he could ever want is a king all he needed to do was be faithful obey the law of Moses worship God And that's exactly what he didn't do so his religious apostasy, which I teach in the other course It's really a religious divorce from God. That's why I explain how the northern kingdom is really in exile from this point on The concept of exile is really really important throughout all the scripture. Anyway, I digressing a little bit So what does Jeroboam do?
Well, he establishes his own anti-religion I really like to think of Jeroboam and other figures as an anti-Christ figure a type of an anti-Christ That's in that certainly true of Jeroboam We talk a lot in scripture about there are figures and signs and types of Jesus and that is certainly true But there are also lots of signs and figures and types of the anti-Jesus Christ and this is what when the anti-Christ eventually comes And I hope he's not here yet, but if he eventually comes down the line, there's gonna be a lot of similarities between Jeroboam and this anti-Christ figure Especially in the establishment of an anti-religion. Alright, so what happens in first Kings chapter 12 I do want to read this for you the references here in your notes But I'm gonna start in first Kings chapter 12 verse 26 Jeroboam said in his heart now the kingdom will turn back to the house of David if this people go up to offer sacrifices in the house Lord Jerusalem Then the heart of the people will turn again to their Lord to Raya-bonking of Judah and they will kill me in return to Raya-bonking of Judah So he's motivated out of fear even though God promised him everything that he could want his fear caused him to sin very very very greatly Because he didn't want his people to go down to Jerusalem and worship out of the temple and he thought he would lose his power So what does he do in verse 28? He took counsel and made two calves of gold This is what Toby is referring to two calves of gold He said of the people you have gone up to Jerusalem long enough behold your God's Israel who brought you up out of the land of Egypt And he said one in Bethel and he put in Dan and this became a sin for the people went to one in Bethel and the other One as far as Dan He also made houses on high places appointed priests from among all the people who were not a Levites and Jeroboam appointed a feast on the 15th day of the eighth month like the feast that was in Judah He offered sacrifices upon the altar So he didn't Bethel sacrificing to the calves that he had made And he placed in Bethel the priests of the high place of G. And made he went up to the altar etc.
So you get the point here This is the religious apostasy apostasy idolatry that Toby is referring to so from Jeroboam He's Jeroboam the first really all the way for 200 years until the destruction of the northern kingdom in 732 and 722 Because this happens by the way around 930 BC So you're looking at almost exactly 200 years there every single king there after there were 20 kings of the north They all persisted in what is called the sin of Jeroboam and then many kings brought even worse than on top of that But they're worshiping these golden calves there's so many echoes with Exodus I just encourage you to go check out that other Bible study to review it if it's not fresh for you But he said it's on anti-religion and he also tried to prevent many people from going down south to worship But there was the faithful remnant of which Tobit was a part so he says you know I'm actually I'm just here with you here a second chronicles 11 verse 16 which says as much Second chronicles 11 16 says those who had set their hearts to seek the Lord God of Israel came after them from all the tribes of Israel To Jerusalem to sacrifice the Lord to the God of their fathers. So that's a beautiful thing There are some people in there's a minority. There's a remnant that still went down to Jerusalem They rejected the false gods of these golden calves Jeroboam's religion and they were faithful to God Tobit's one of them now Tobit says I'm the only one left of the whole house of Napoli honestly What this reminds me of is the story of Elijah if you remember the story of Elijah and again go back I will study and check it out Elijah flees for his life after this great Contest of champions a Theomaki divine Smackdown is what I call it at Mount Carmel And he runs away and he's got a little bit of a pity party He's like I want to die Lord kill me and I'm the only one left of I'm the only last prophet left and God says to him He's at Mount Sinai chill out man I've got seven thousand other people who have not been the needs of all so seven thousand could be a literal number Which I have no problem believing but it also is certainly symbolic where it's seven times a thousand it's covenant times the epitome of perfection ten times ten times ten so in other words God still has a Minority right but still a faithful remnant of many Israelites who have not worship all so relax Elijah Well, I kind of feel a little bit that might be what's going on here Tobit says I'm the only one that's continued to go down to Jerusalem and all my tribe abandoned God Well, the majority certainly did but I can imagine God saying to Tobit like he said a Raphael I have seven sorry so I said it to me like he said Elijah a bigger part and I have seven thousand other faithful People who have not been the need all right, so that's really interesting now still in the while living in the northern kingdom during the difficult years Tobit's grandmother raised him. I really like this I think this is a no-modge to all great grandparents who help to raise their grandchildren in the faith parents are the primary Educators of their children that's true the grandparents have a very important crucial supportive role in that as their ancestors I mean the ancestors think of a you know ten generations ago, but still nevertheless that the grandparents that is awesome and Tobit's grandmother Whose name is Deborah?
You caught that raised him very very well Something happened to Tobit Tobit's dad and he was an orphan so he still got to be raised by his grandmother And he taught him to be meticulous about caring for the poor giving ties and that's exactly what he's describing here So I just really like that if you're a grandparent keep up the good work Help to help to raise those kids in the faith your grandchildren in the faith and think it'll be blessed for it I think very much so all right So Tobit is also faithful and you know I keep saying Tobit is faithful all the time and that's gonna be a motif for his whole life He is the faithful remnant he exemplifies He's the role model of the faithful remnant of God always worshiping him in good times and bad while living in the land living outside The land etc And so one of the ways in which he shows fidelity in this instance is marrying a woman within the covenant family of God It's one of the big themes as I explained in lesson one marrying within the covenant family of God because Moses would say back into Deuteronomy 7 I'm gonna flip back there really quickly Deuteronomy says this and Deuteronomy 7 Joshua reiterates this Samuel reiterates it It goes into Ezra Nehemiah It's mentioned many many times do not intermarry with the with the pagans because what's gonna happen is they're gonna be a thorn in your side And you're gonna end up worshiping their gods and you're gonna fall away So here's a couple of verses from Deuteronomy 7 and in point of that argument all right Let's see here Chapter 7 verse 1 when the Lord your God brings you into the land which you're entering to take possession of and clears away many nations Before you the Hittai's gurgishites and rights can I it's paradise termites all the rest of them all the rest of the It's seven nations greater and mightier than yourselves and when the Lord your God gives them over to you And you defeat them then you must utterly destroy them and you shall make no covenant with them show them no mercy You shall not make marriages with them giving your daughters to their sons or taking their daughters for your sons Why because they would turn away your sons from all from following me to serve other gods and it goes on for the rest of the chapter To talk about how they're gonna become a snaere to you have to be very very very careful And our Bible study on Geronamu talk about this spiritually speaking This is the near occasion of sin that we all need to be aware of so all right back to the back of Tobit Tobit is faithful yet again He obeys the Mosaic law the words of Moses and so many people after him and he marries within his covenant family He's blessed with this great son is we're going to see in the next two lessons Tobias So Tobias is good Tobit is good his wife Anna They're all there's just a really great solid family Remember the theme of goodness by the way Tobit and his father and Tobias It's always our motif on the theme that God is good All right God is my God is my good and so on and so forth never forget how names shed light on the plot of the story And we're gonna see that for sure with Sarah and her father and Raphael so hang tight as far as that's concerned Alrighty great So that is Tobit's life during the final years in Northern Kingdom now Let's look at Tobit's life while in exile and let's go down to chapter one verse 10 Hey, this is Dr. Nick 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