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But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness Gal 5:22 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Wednesday, August 20, 2025
Today's Passage : Today's Passage:The Wedding Night BibleVerse:Tobit 8:1-17(DP Bible) "Then dinner was over, they brought Tobias into the wedding chamber. And remembering the words of Raphael, he took the heart and liver of the fish in with him, and put them on the coals of the wedding incense. Smoke poured forth, and the demon Asmodeus was repulsed by the odor and fled to Upper Egypt. And lest he ever return, Raphael pursued him there, and bound him hand and foot. And after that, the two being shut in together, Tobias rose from the bed and said to Sara, “My love, get up, let us pray to God for our deliverance. ”And they prayed, and Tobias said: The Jewish Bride Rembrandt The Jewish Bride Rembrandt “Blessed are you, O God of our fathers, and blessed is your holy and glorious name for ever; Let the heavens bless you, and all your creatures. You made Adam, and gave him Eve his wife to be his help and support: of them came mankind: you have said, ‘It is not good that man should be alone; let us make for him a partner like himself.’ And now, O Lord, I do not take my sister in lust, but in honor; therefore I pray you will ordain that we may become old together.” And Sara said with him, “Amen,” and they returned to the bed. In the meanwhile, Raguel arose, and went and dug a grave, for fear that Tobias would die and they would be ridiculed. When he came back into the house, he sent one of the maids to see to spy into the chamber, so that if Tobias had died they could bury him without anyone knowing about it. But the maid found them both alive, sleeping. When she told Raguel, he burst into a hymn of thanks: “Blessed are you, O God, with every holy and pure blessing! Let all your chosen ones praise you; let them bless you forever! Blessed are you, who have made me glad, for you have brought my fears to nothing. but have dealt with us according to your great mercy. Blessed are you, for you were merciful toward our only child and the only child of Tobit. Grant them mercy and deliverance, Master, and fill their lives with happiness.” Then Raguel instructed his servants to fill the grave. They held a wedding feast for fourteen days, as Raguel had sworn to do if the marriage succeeded. And he swore to give them a full half of his goods, and the rest when he and Edna be dead. [And Tobias swore to stay for the full time of the feast.] " Message:
We see, in the happy outcome of Tobias’ marriage, a prophecy for a happy outcome for the Jews held captive in Babylon.
The heart and liver of the fish might be considered to symbolize the hearts and minds of the Hebrews, which are sacrificed to rededicate the faithful of Israel to Yahweh. (Ancients in the Middle East believed that the human mind resided in the liver!) And the evil demon, representing the gods of the pagans, are driven away from the land where the Hebrews are held captive and also from Canaan, the land of their birthright, all the way to pagan Egypt, where they belong. And they will never return, for God’s own messenger binds them there.
Archangel Michael slaying demon
Smoke with odors of incense and smoke with odors of roasting meat were pleasing to Yahweh, which might be part of the reason it was so repulsive to the demon. Both types of sacrifice are prescribed in the Mosaic law. On the Day of Atonement, for example, the only day anyone entered the Holy of Holies, the High Priest would carry in a shovel of coals with incense to fill the room with fragrant smoke. (Leviticus 16:12-13)
The fundamental purpose of a burnt offering was to send smoke, fragrant with the odor of roasted meat, up towards God; the Hebrew term translated “burnt offering,” in fact, literally means “goes up in smoke,” and the importance of the fragrance is mentioned at least 40 times in the Old Testament. (E.g. Leviticus 1:8-9)
In fact, Paul compared Jesus to a fragrant offering: “Christ also loved you and gave Himself up for us, an offering and a sacrifice to God as a fragrant aroma.” (Ephesians 5:2) So we might see the burning of incense and meat as a symbolic return to sacrifices ordained by God in the law; and even if it is not directly allegorical, the Hebrew reader would at least get some sense of a proper sacrifice, pleasing to God.
If Sara’s eighth husband should suffer the same fate as the first seven, Raguel wants to hide it from the neighbors. We once again are treated to some comic relief; and by now, the entire matter of digging graves has become (grimly) humorous, especially since this grave will not be filled. We even have a stock comic character, the spying maid, to check out the activity in the wedding chamber.
Meditation : “I do not occupy myself with things too great and too marvelous for me.” Prayer : Heavenly Father, there are people praying with me, right now, whom I will never meet. I don’t know their names, or what country they live in, or what they may look like, but I will know their souls, for we are brothers and sisters in Christ. I pray that we might be united in the Holy Spirit, and that I will know and feel the kinship and love, in my spirit, of those who share these prayers with me. Amen. |
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