Raphael Disguised Himself and the Cure Was Already in the Fish

The Stranger at the Gate

Nobody told Tobiyyah that his travel companion was an angel.

He was setting out from Nineveh on a journey to Media to collect a debt his blind father had deposited with a man named Gabael in the city of Rages. He needed a guide who knew the road. A man appeared. He gave his name as Azariah, said he was familiar with the route, agreed to the hire. Tobiyyah's father Tobit questioned him carefully about his lineage before the journey began. The stranger answered with calm particularity. He was lying about his name and his nature, but there was nothing false in his answers about where the road led and what the journey required.

The Fish and the Cure Packed in Advance

The first day, before they had gone far from Nineveh, a great fish leaped from the Tigris River and tried to swallow Tobiyyah's foot. Azariah told him to catch it and cut out the heart, liver, and gall. "Put them aside. They will be useful." Tobiyyah did this without knowing why. The rest of the fish they salted and took with them for food.

Azariah told him, as they traveled, that the smoke of the burning heart and liver will drive away any demon or evil spirit. And the gall, he said, will open the eyes of a man whose eyes are clouded by white films. Tobiyyah listened. He was carrying remedies for two people whose conditions he did not yet know he would be treating. One of them was waiting in Ecbatana. One of them was at home in Nineveh, blind, not expecting a cure.

Sarah of Ecbatana

In Ecbatana lived Reuel and his daughter Sarah. She had been married seven times. Each husband had died on the wedding night, killed by the demon Asmodeus before the marriage could be completed. Her parents were afraid for any man who came to her. When Azariah told Tobiyyah that Sarah was his kinswoman under the law of Moses, and that he must marry her, Tobiyyah's fear was reasonable. He had heard the rumors. "Six men are dead already," he said. "Her parents have only one daughter. If I die too, I will kill my father with grief."

Azariah was not offering reassurance out of ignorance. He already knew how the night would end. He told Tobiyyah to burn the fish organs in the wedding chamber before anything else. The smoke would drive Asmodeus out. And it did. The demon fled to the remotest parts of Egypt, where Raphael later bound him.

The Errand Run While the Wedding Feast Continued

While Tobiyyah and Sarah married and the fourteen-day feast went forward, Azariah slipped away to Rages and collected Gabael's debt, the talent of silver Tobit had deposited there years before. He brought Gabael back for the celebration. He retrieved the money, attended the wedding, kept everything moving. He was running a mission with multiple objectives simultaneously, and none of the people around him understood the scope of what was being managed on their behalf.

The Revelation After the Work Was Done

Only when everything was resolved did the angel speak plainly. Tobiyyah had healed his father's blindness with the fish gall, smearing it on the closed eyes and peeling away the white films. Tobit had wept with relief, had seen his son's face for the first time in years. When Tobiyyah and Tobit tried to pay their guide, Azariah refused. He told them to bless God. Then he said: "I am Raphael, one of the seven angels who stand in the presence of God's glory."

The announcement came after every task was completed. The demon was bound. The blindness was healed. The silver was recovered. The marriage was consummated. The name was spoken last, because names announce what work has already been done.