Tobit's Confidence in the Future

Looking at 17th and 18th century paintings, you will sometimes find the theme of two young men and a dog. One of the young men has wings while the other, on his instruction, dissects a huge fish. It is the beautiful legend of Tobias and Raphael from the book of Tobit of the Old Testament. Tobit, Tobias' father, is a pious, god-fearing man, but he lives in exile, in a world hostile to his religion. Tobit relentlessly does the right thing. At night he buries the dead bodies of his deceased compatriots, although the Babylonians have strictly forbidden this. Tobit continues to do his faithful duty every night, but one day he finds himself in a completely desperate situation. A bird drops faeces on his eyes and Tobit goes completely blind. But Tobit does not lose hope; he has a strong confidence in the future and believes in the repair of the irreparable.

Tobit knows he still owns a treasure, hidden in a faraway land. Tobias has to go get that treasure with the first stranger that looks suitable to him. Tobit believes in divine Providence, and that first best stranger turns out to be a God-appointed archangel named Raphael. Raphael will guide and protect young Tobias on his perilous journey. While blessing his son for his journey, Tobit insists to him on the golden rule: “What you do not want to be done to you, don’t do that to another!”. To my knowledge it is the only place in the Bible where the golden rule is stated explicitly. The story ends well and Tobit is even cured of his blindness (see the beautiful painting by Bernardo Strozzi).

A world that denies God feels cold and hopeless. This story teaches us how we can survive and stay full of hope for a better future. In other words, trusting in God's Providence and in a better future, against all odds, is self-affirming, even when you hit the bottom of the sea. This is the only way to stay steadfast on the thin grey line between the feasible and the unfeasible.

Picture: Renata Sedmakova / Shutterstock.com, painting by J. Van de Kerhove, St.-Jakobskerk, Bruges.