Tobit 14: Knowing and Believing
Tuesday, September 23, 2025
For I know and believe that whatever God has said will be fulfilled and will come true; not a single word of the prophecies will fail.
As I read this verse I wonder again why it is that we refuse to believe the prophets among us. It is a sign of faith to believe that for which we have no absolute evidence but I am interested in the wording of this verse. Tobit says that he not only believes in the word of God through these prophecies but he knows them to be true. Perhaps this is because of the wonders God has worked in his life – the wonders that arrive after much suffering.
Paul tells the Corinthians (1 Corinthians 1) that faith rests not in man’s wisdom but in God’s power. We know that this means we cannot earn faith in any way. It is given freely by God as a gift and in fact God uses the foolish of the world to instruct the wise – if the wise will listen. God chooses the lowly to inform the exalted – if the strong have time for the lowly. The weak instruct the strong and the fearful speak to the fearless – if the strong and fearless do not steam roller those who hesitate. Our ears must be open and willing to receive the message from God when it arrives. And God’s message is always about inversion so it makes sense – in God’s time and way – that the joy of faith will come through suffering. This is significant. It is the answer to the continual questions we say we cannot answer. The answers are right before us, they are swirling about our ears. We must choose to examine them and heed them.
Tobit has met and overcome huge obstacles in his life not by patiently waiting out his suffering in blind obedience as we said yesterday. Rather, Tobit actively waits for the revelation God will ultimately provide. Tobit trusts and knows that this information will arrive. Which it does. Along with a great reward.
In this last chapter of Tobit we find verses useful to us but only after we have read the entire story of healing and blessing. Only after we have waded through the pain will we be able to fully comprehend and feel the joy Tobit feels. Only then will we know, as Tobit knows, the power of God.
God will again have mercy on them, and God will bring them back . . . and they will rebuild in splendor . . . they will return from exile . . . and the whole world will be converted and worship God in truth. We may read these verses and think that Tobit has allowed his imagination to get the best of him when he makes such a positive projection into the future based on such a bleak past, and we would be wrong. If we believe that Tobit is too hopeful, we must read the story for as many times as it takes for us to see our own lives through the paradigm we are presented here. And then we will have one more task . . .
So now, my children, I command you, serve God faithfully and do what is pleasing in his sight. Your children are also to be commanded to do what is right and to give alms, and to be mindful of God and to bless his name at all times with sincerity and with all their strength.
Only in this way will we too, know and believe that what God promises God will complete. Only then will we know and believe that God’s prophecies will not fail.
A re-post from August 29, 2011.
Images from: https://www.artera.ae/artworks/1478cf93-c288-4a22-b288-b1cca5183967
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