Tobias and the Angel on the Road to Media

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It is evening, in the old city of Nineveh, and a blind man is sitting by a wall, feeling a little foolish.

He is a good man. Everybody says so. He has spent his whole life doing good, and some of it at real risk, and in return for it he has gone blind from the droppings of sparrows that fell into his eyes while he was sleeping outside. That is what the book says. I did not make it up, and I would not dare.

And tonight he has decided something. He is going to send his son on a long road, to a faraway place, to collect some money that has been waiting there for years. He does not know it, but the son will not walk alone. There will be a dog, and there will be a guide, and the guide will be more than he seems.

But we're getting ahead of ourselves.

Hello, and welcome to Saints by Candlelight, stories of saints, angels and patriarchs from the Catholic and Orthodox traditions, told for bedtime. These episodes are written by an AI and read by a synthetic voice, and they try very hard to be faithful. Tonight's story is from the book of Tobit, which Catholic and Orthodox Christians read as Scripture, and we will tell it straight, as it is written. The weather, the dust of the road, the dog's thoughts and a few small words between a father and his son are our own invention, told in the spirit of the original, and we will tell you at the end which parts those were. So get comfortable. Dim the lights. And let's begin.

First, who is this man?

His name is Tobit. He belongs to the tribe of Naphtali, in the north of the land of Israel, and he was carried off as a young man, with his wife Anna and his little boy, when the king of Assyria conquered the northern kingdom and took its people far from home. So the family lives now in Nineveh, a great city by the river Tigris, a long way from the hills where Tobit grew up.

Now, in exile, a lot of people lose heart. They stop keeping the old customs, because who is going to know? Tobit does not. The book tells us that when everyone else in his family went to eat the food of the Assyrians, Tobit would not. He kept the law he had been taught. He gave his food to the hungry, and clothes to the naked, and when he saw a body of one of his own people lying outside the city wall, thrown there by the king's orders, he went out after dark and buried it.

That was dangerous. The king was angry about it, and for a while Tobit had to hide, and his goods were taken. But he went on. And one night, after burying a body, he was tired, and he lay down by a wall in his own courtyard with his face uncovered, and he fell asleep, and the sparrows in the wall above him let fall their warm droppings into his open eyes. And white films grew over them, and he went blind.

I would like to say one thing about this, because it is the part that most troubles people. Tobit does what is right and is struck with blindness. The book does not explain it away. The book tells us that his neighbours mocked him: where is your goodness now, they said? And his wife Anna goes out to work, weaving cloth for other people's money, and at one point in their sorrow the two of them say sharp words to each other, as people do who are frightened and tired. The book does not hide that either. Tobit, in the end, prays. He asks God not for his sight, but for a peaceful death. He is a man at the end of his strength, and the book lets us see it.

And, on that very same day, in another city far away, a young woman is praying too.

Her name is Sarah, and she lives in Ecbatana, in the land of Media, in the house of her father Raguel, who is a relation of Tobit's. Sarah has a trouble of her own. She has been married seven times, and each time, on the wedding night, her husband has died before the marriage began. The book says that a wicked spirit named Asmodeus was the cause. We will not say any more about him tonight than the book does, which is that he was there, that he was wicked, and that he was no match for what was coming.

Sarah's maids, who have not been kind to her, say that she has killed her husbands, and she is so ashamed that she thinks of ending her life. But she does not. She thinks of her father, who would be left to bear the shame of it, and she goes up to the room on the roof, and she opens the window, and she prays. And the book says, in one sentence I think is among the most beautiful in all of Scripture, that the prayers of the two of them were heard in the presence of the glory of the great God, and Raphael was sent to heal them both.

Sent. I will say that again. The two people on opposite sides of the world, who have never met, who do not know that the other one is praying, are heard at the same moment, and an angel is sent to both.

Back in Nineveh, Tobit has decided he is going to die, and so he calls his son.

The son is Tobias, and he is a good young man, and he is in the room when his father speaks to him. Tobit gives him what he calls his instructions. They are what a father says when he thinks he may not have much longer. Honour your mother all the days of your life. Do not turn your face from any poor man, and God will not turn his face from you. Give from what you have, even if it is little. Marry within your family. Pay a worker his wages on the same day, and do not keep them back until the morning. And here is the line the whole world has heard of since: "What you hate, do not do to anyone." And then, last of all: bless the Lord at all times.

And then Tobit remembers the money.

Years ago, when times were better, he left ten talents of silver with a man named Gabael, who lives in Rages, in the country of Media, and it has been sitting there ever since. The way is long. It would take a man something like two weeks on the road, up through the mountains, with all that can go wrong on the way. But Tobit is blind, and Anna is not young, and they are poor, and the money is theirs. So Tobit says to Tobias: go and get it. And here is the bond Gabael signed. Find yourself a man you can trust to go with you, and we will pay him.

Tobias says he will go. And he asks only: father, I do not know the way. How shall I get there?

So Tobias goes out into the street to look for a companion.

And there, standing in front of him, is a young man, dressed for travelling, with his belt tied up. The book says Tobias did not know he was an angel of God. He asks him: where do you come from, young man? And the stranger says: from the people of Israel, your relatives, and I have come here to work. Tobias asks: do you know the way to Media? And the stranger says: I do, indeed. I have been there many times. I have stayed with Gabael himself, in Rages.

It is the most natural conversation in the world. Tobias takes him home to meet his father, and the old man, who cannot see him, asks him his name and his family. And the young man says his name is Azariah, and that he is the son of Ananias, a great man of the family. Now, "Azariah" means "the Lord helps." And I will leave you to think about that for a moment.

Tobit says: welcome, brother. And he agrees the wages, a drachma a day and his keep, and he gives them his blessing. "A good angel will go with you," Tobit says to his son. He does not know how true it is.

Anna is in tears, and she says: why have you sent my child away? Is he not the staff of our old age? And Tobit says to her, very gently, "Do not worry. A good angel will go with him. His journey will be a success, and he will come back to us safe and well." And the book says she stopped crying.

So they set out, the two young men, and the dog went with them.

I hope you do not mind that I have been looking forward to the dog. It is only a small mention. The book says: "The young man's dog went out with them." And that is all. It is one of the very few dogs in the whole of Scripture that is a pet, and not a thing to be feared, or fed to the pigs, and I have always liked it. We will say that the dog trotted along behind, and stopped to sniff at every wall, and was thought by Tobias to be the best company on the road. That part is our own.

They walk for a day, and in the evening they come to the bank of the river Tigris, and they camp there. And Tobias goes down to wash his feet.

And as he is washing, a great fish leaps up out of the water, and it opens its mouth, and it looks as though it might swallow his foot.

Tobias cries out. And Azariah says to him: catch it, and do not let it go. And Tobias seizes the fish and drags it up onto the bank. And then Azariah says something that must have seemed very odd: cut it open, and take out the gall, the heart and the liver, and keep them safe. Throw away the rest.

So Tobias does. They roast some of the fish and eat it on the road. And as they walk on, Tobias asks, quite sensibly: what are the heart and liver and gall good for? And Azariah tells him. If you burn the heart and liver as incense in front of anyone troubled by an evil spirit, the spirit will flee. And the gall, he says, is for anointing the eyes of a man with white films on them, and it will heal him.

Notice that. Tobias has not even reached Media, and he has already been given the cure for his father's eyes, and he does not know it.

Now they go on for days, up into the hills. The land gets cooler as they climb, and there is dust in the air, and the evenings turn chilly. I imagine the dog sleeping with its back against Tobias's legs.

When they get near Ecbatana, Azariah says: tonight, we will stay at the house of Raguel. He is a relation of yours. He has a daughter named Sarah, and she is his only child, and you have the right to marry her, if she is willing. Tobias is startled. He has heard about Sarah. He says: I have heard that she has had seven husbands, and that each one died. I am my father's only son, and I am afraid. If I die, my parents will mourn me into the grave, and they have no other child to bury them.

And Azariah says: remember what your father said to you. Take her. Do not be afraid. And when you go into the room, take the heart and the liver of the fish and put them on the embers of the incense. The smell will drive the spirit away. And before you lie down, you are both to stand up and pray, and ask the Lord of heaven for mercy and for safety. Do not be afraid. She was set apart for you before the world began. You will save her, and she will go with you, and you will have children by her.

And Tobias, the book says, loved her already, and his heart was joined to hers.

So they come to the house of Raguel, and Raguel runs out to meet them. He looks at Tobias and says, to his wife Edna: how like my cousin Tobit this young man is! And he asks after Tobit, and when he hears that his old friend has gone blind, he weeps.

There is a feast prepared. But Tobias says: I will not eat or drink here until you have settled my request. And Raguel, who has seen seven young men go into that room and not come out, is afraid for this one. He hesitates, and the book says so. But he says: take her. You are her relative. She is yours by right. The Lord of heaven will guide you both.

So the marriage is made, and the contract is written and sealed. Then they eat. And then, in the evening, Raguel takes Tobias to the room.

What Raguel does not know is that, when they were in there alone, Tobias put the heart and the liver on the embers, and the smell rose, and the spirit smelled it, and fled up to the farthest parts of Egypt. And the angel went after it, and bound it there.

And then Tobias and Sarah stood together, and Tobias said to her: sister, get up. Let us pray that the Lord will have mercy on us. And he began to say: "Blessed are you, O God of our fathers. Let the heavens bless you, and all your creatures. You made Adam, and you made Eve his wife to be his helper and support, and from the two of them the human race has come. You said: it is not good for the man to be alone. Let us make a helper like him. And now, Lord, I am taking this kinswoman of mine, not out of lust, but with sincerity. Be kind to her and to me, and let us grow old together." And Sarah said, "Amen." And they slept through the night.

Meanwhile, in the house, Raguel is doing something I find both comic and very moving. He has got up in the middle of the night, and he has gathered his servants, and they are digging a grave.

He thinks: I will just have it ready. I will say he has been taken ill in the night, and it will be quick, and no one will have to see. He sends a maid to look in at the door. And she comes back and says: they are asleep. They are both well.

And Raguel blesses God. He says: Blessed are you, O God, with every pure and holy blessing. Let your holy ones and all your creatures bless you for ever. Blessed are you, for you have made me glad. What I feared has not happened. You have dealt with us according to your great mercy. And then he tells the servants to fill in the grave before the morning. And, to make quite sure there is a proper celebration, he tells Tobias he must stay not for the usual week, but for two. A wedding feast for fourteen days.

And that is where the road splits.

Tobias cannot leave, because he has promised to stay for the wedding. But the money in Rages still needs to be fetched. So Tobias sends Azariah to Gabael, with the bond and a pair of servants and camels. And the angel goes, and finds Gabael, and presents the bond, and the money is handed over, sealed in its bags, just as it was left. And then Azariah brings Gabael back with him, all the way to the wedding, so that Gabael can bless the new husband and wife.

Think about that for a moment. The angel is sent by God, to heal and to guard and to guide, and while he's about it he runs a small errand in the next town to collect a debt. He does not disdain it. He does the small thing too.

And back in Nineveh, a mother is standing at the end of the road every day, looking for her son. She says: my child is dead. Why else is he late? And Tobit, patient, says: be quiet, he is well. But each day, Anna goes out and watches the road. And the book says that she sat on a lookout on the top of a hill, to watch the road, to see if she could see him.

At last, the fourteen days are over, and Raguel gives Tobias half of everything he owns, and says goodbye to his daughter. "Honour your parents-in-law," he says to Sarah, "for from now on they are your parents. Go in peace, my daughter. May I hear good news of you as long as I live." And they set out for home.

And on the road home, nearing Nineveh, Azariah says to Tobias: let us go ahead of the others, you and I. And bring the gall of the fish. And the dog, the book says, ran along behind them.

Meanwhile, Anna is sitting on her hill. And she sees them coming, a long way off. And she runs down to tell her husband: here he is! Your son is coming!

And Tobit gets up. He cannot see. He stumbles, and he goes out through the courtyard gate, holding out his hands, to meet them. And Tobias runs up to him, and takes hold of his father, and he says: take courage, father. And he smears the gall onto his father's eyes, and waits a moment, and then he takes hold of the white films at the corners of his eyes and peels them off.

And Tobit sees his son.

He throws himself on Tobias's neck, and weeps, and he says: "I see you, my son, the light of my eyes!" And then he says, "Blessed be God, and blessed be his great name, and blessed be all his holy angels." And they all weep together. And Sarah arrives, with the servants and the camels and the flocks, and the whole household of Nineveh goes out to meet her, and Tobit goes out in front, walking quite briskly, the book says, and not stumbling at all.

Now we come to the last part, which is the part that I think the whole book has been leading to.

Tobit calls his son and says: we must pay this man. He's done so much. What shall we give him? Half of all we have brought back? He took the money, and the bride, and the cure, and he kept us all from harm. And Tobias says: father, it would be fair to give him half.

So they call the stranger aside. And he says to them, quietly: "Bless God, and give thanks to him before all the living, for what he has done for you. It is good to praise God and to exalt his name. Do not be slow to give him thanks. It is good to guard the secret of a king, but it is honourable to reveal the works of God. Prayer with fasting is good, and so is alms with righteousness. A little with righteousness is better than much with wrongdoing. It is better to give alms than to store up gold. For almsgiving saves from death, and purges away every sin."

And then, without raising his voice, he tells them. "When you and Sarah prayed, I brought the memorial of your prayer before the Holy One. And when you buried the dead, I was with you. And when you got up from your table without tasting your dinner to go and bury the dead, I was sent to try you. And now God has sent me to heal you and your daughter-in-law Sarah. I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand ready and enter before the glory of the Lord."

The book says the two of them were shaken. They fell on their faces, and were afraid.

And Raphael says: "Do not be afraid. Peace be with you. Bless God for ever. As for me, when I was with you, I was not with you out of any favour of mine, but by the will of God. Bless him every day, and sing his praises. You thought you saw me eat, but I did not eat anything. It was a vision you saw. And now, give thanks to God, for I am going up to him who sent me. Write down all that has happened to you."

And with that, he went up. And they could no longer see him. They lay on their faces for three hours, blessing God. And when they got up, they could not see him anymore.

And Tobit sings a long song of praise, and the book gives it to us, and I will not read the whole of it. It begins: "Blessed be God who lives for ever, and blessed be his kingdom." It speaks of a God who afflicts and has mercy, who leads down to the grave and brings up again, and from whose hand no one can escape. It speaks of the city of Jerusalem, that will be built of sapphire and emerald and precious stones, and the gates of it will sing songs of joy.

Tobit lived another many years, and he saw his grandchildren, and when he was dying he told Tobias to leave Nineveh, because the city would be destroyed, as the prophets had said, and to go to Media. And Tobias did, after he had buried his parents with honour. He lived to a great age, and he heard of the fall of Nineveh before he died, and he rejoiced.

And that is where the book ends.

I would like to say one thing about how the Church has loved this story.

When Tobit says to Anna, "a good angel will go with him," Christians have heard in it one of the oldest pictures of what we call the guardian angel. The Catechism of the Catholic Church says that from its beginning to its end, human life is surrounded by the watchful care and intercession of the angels, and that beside every believer stands an angel as protector and shepherd. It does not say that we can see them, or that they will always take the dangers away, and neither does the book. Tobit goes blind, Sarah's husbands die, and the road is long. What the book says is that in the middle of all that, prayers are heard, and someone is sent. In the Orthodox Church too, a prayer for a guardian angel is said every morning and every night. Children are taught it very young, and I think this is the story they are being taught it from.

And notice how the angel behaves. Raphael does not make a show. He does not carry a sword or shine in the dark. He walks, and carries bags, and tells a young man to wash his feet, and he is mistaken for a hired hand. And when at last he is thanked, he does not take the thanks. He sends it straight on: bless God, he says, for it was by God's will that I was with you. That is what angels do in every story in which they appear. They point away from themselves.

Now. Notes for the curious.

Everything in tonight's story that is about Tobit, Anna, Tobias, Sarah, Raguel, Edna, Gabael and Raphael comes from the book of Tobit: the burial of the dead, the blindness, the two prayers on the same day, the dog, the fish, the incense, the prayer in the wedding room, the grave Raguel dug, the money, the healing and the revealing. The words of the blessing in the wedding room, Raphael's words at the end and Tobit's song are taken from the book, in plain paraphrase, and not word for word.

What we invented is the weather, the dust of the road, the thoughts of the dog and a few small words between a father and his son. None of it changes what happens or what it means.

A few details are worth being careful about. First, the book of Tobit is Scripture for Catholic and Orthodox Christians, but Protestant Bibles generally place it in the Apocrypha or leave it out, so if you read it in a Bible at home, you may need the right edition. Second, scholars do not agree about how much of the book is history and how much is a told tale in the style of the time, and the Church, in receiving it as Scripture, does not require that you settle the question. Third, the angel's claim to be "one of the seven" is a line in the book, and it is echoed in the book of Revelation, but we have not tried to say anything about the number beyond what the text says. Fourth, the angel says he did not eat, and "it was a vision you saw," which is how the book explains the angel's meals. Angels are not people who have died, and they do not have bodies the way we do. They are servants and messengers of God, made by him, and Raphael's name, which means "God heals," tells you what he was sent to do.

The Church has long loved this book, and in the Catholic tradition the wedding prayer of Tobias is one of the readings offered for a marriage. We have not told you more than we are sure of about that.

That's the story of Tobias and the angel for tonight. If you would like to remember the archangel Raphael in your prayers, the Catholic Church keeps his feast on the twenty-ninth of September, together with Michael and Gabriel, and the Orthodox Church honours all the archangels on the eighth of November. Thank you for listening to Saints by Candlelight. If you enjoyed it, share it with someone who could use a gentle story at the end of a long day.

And here is a blessing, taken from the words of the book. May you always have someone to go with you on the road, whether you see them or not. May what you fear never happen, and may what you need arrive on time. May you find, in the end, that your prayer was heard on the very day that you prayed it, and that someone was sent. And may you sleep tonight with a dog at your feet, if you have one, and with the peace of a house in which no grave has been dug.

Goodnight, and God bless.

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