Books Jesus Read

196

Books Jesus Read

accomplish something amazing, and you, my lord, will not fail to achieve your purpose!” His ultimate purpose, Judith knows, is to glorify God—if need be, with his death! Judith does not bruise the head of the serpent (Gen 3:15) but decapitates it as a more convincing proof of her victory. Thus, she becomes a living testimony to courageous faith and spiritual discipline that overcomes the world. Learn fromTobit’s Example Tobit cannot pass by an uncovered dead body without ministering to it. That makes him a kind of Good Samaritan of the Apocrypha (Luke 10:30–35). His ministry of burying the dead costs him his sight but wins him the ministrations of an angel of the Lord. 5 Sarah, who shares the stage with Tobit, is provoked by her rivals in a manner reminiscent of Hannah in 1 Samuel 1. Tobit and Sarah are suffering servants of the Lord who overcome their suicidal desires and consequently discover God’s provision in response to their intersecting prayers, the answer to which displays God’s remarkable providence. For, “we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose” (Rom 8:28). It is the very weaving together of the life stories of those who share faith, ancestry, and a common fate, that so clearly displays the spirituality of Jews like Tobit, and not merely his allegiance to the law of Moses. Following Tobit’s example, and in the face of demonic opposition

5 Tobit’s act of providing covering for dead bodies may remind readers of Noah’s curse on his son Ham, who exposed his father’s nakedness, and his blessing on Shem and Japheth, who covered it (Gen 9:20–27).