Another great story of virtue and chastity found in the Old Testament Scripture is the story of the holy youth Tobias in The Book of Tobias or Tobit. Not surprisingly, this book is sadly missing from most protestant “bible” versions. Sad to say, being controlled by the devil and impurity, it is not hard to understand why the devil was allowed to fool the protestants to reject this biblical book since they are such fierce enemies of all sexual purity and morality.
The Book of Tobias describes how the holy youth Tobias was commanded by almighty God through the Archangel Raphael to never perform the marital act for the sake of lust and that he shall be “moved rather for love of children than for lust, that in the seed of Abraham” he “mayest obtain a blessing in children”. Tobias, who was a holy, chaste and virtuous person of course consented to this admonishment by the Holy Angel Raphael and answered God in his prayer, saying to Him that: “not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only for the love of posterity [children], in which thy name may be blessed for ever and ever”, thus showing us a great and edifying example of marital purity, and the necessity for all to perform the marital act for the sole purpose of procreation of children and the love of God, if they want to perfectly please Our Lord rather than their own fleshly lusts and desires.
Tobias
6:22; 8:9 “And when the third night is past, [after praying to
God for three days in chastity] thou shalt take the virgin with the
fear of the Lord, moved rather for love of children than for lust,
that in the seed of Abraham thou mayest obtain a blessing
in children… [Tobias said:] And now, Lord, thou knowest,
that not for fleshly lust do I take my sister to wife, but only
for the love of posterity, in which thy name may be blessed
for ever and ever.”
Tobias
6:16-17 “Then the angel Raphael said to him [Tobias]: Hear me,
and I will show thee who they are, over whom the devil can prevail.
For they who in such manner receive matrimony, as to shut out God
from themselves, and from their mind, and to give themselves to their
lust, as the horse and mule, which have not understanding, over them
the devil hath power.”
The holy youth Tobias approached his bride Sara after three days of prayer and chastity, not for fleshly lust but only for the love of posterity, having been instructed by the Archangel Raphael that to engage in the marital act he shall “be moved rather for love of children than for lust” so “that in the seed of Abraham thou mayest obtain a blessing in children”. Our Lord’s words about “the seed of Abraham” refers to those who are going to be saved from Hell by Christ’s redemptive blood since God solemnly revealed in the New Testament Scripture that “if you be Christ’s, then are you the seed of Abraham, heirs according to the promise.” (Galatians 3:29) The “blessing in children” obviously refers to an abundant blessing of offspring blessed by God for those who perform the marital act for the sole motive of procreation rather than the satisfaction of their sexual lust.
The practice of observing chastity for three days after one gets married as the Holy Bible and the Church have always told us to follow, is something that God’s Holy Word considers to be vitally important, and that is why every couple should follow this biblical advice of praying together or individually in chastity, purity and holiness for three days before consummating their marriage. In truth, after they have consummated their marriage, they should also continue this practice of prayer for three days before they perform every marital act since Our Lord Jesus Christ Himself commanded “that we ought always to pray, and not to faint” (Luke 18:1). Our Lord’s words in the Bible are not to be followed only once, but should be practiced every day even until death in order to increase grace and virtuous living.
Our
Lord spoke to Tobias through the Archangel Raphael, saying:
“But thou [Tobias] when thou shalt take her, go into the
chamber, and
for three
days keep thyself continent from her, and give thyself to nothing
else
but to prayers with her.
… But the second night thou shalt be admitted into the society
of the holy Patriarchs. And the third night thou shalt obtain a
blessing that sound children may be born of you. And
when the third night is
past, thou shalt take the virgin with the fear of the Lord, moved
rather for love of children than for lust, that in the seed of
Abraham thou mayst obtain a blessing in children.”
(Tobias 6:18, 20-22)
It is indeed very sad to see that no one today, whether married or unmarried seem to care anything about these promises and wonderful, virtuous deeds of chastity and purity and that so few people actually try to practice any of these virtuous deeds we have just seen and read about, that will produce these remarkable and wondrous graces from Our Lord and which He promised He would bless a virtuous couple and their offspring with. One would think that even a worldly or ungodly couple would appreciate the grace of receiving a child that is sound and without deformity and that they—if they believed in God or were aware of these promises—would act in accordance to the words of the Holy Scripture; but now neither “Catholics” or so-called Christians nor any else of the world seem to care anything about these words of our Lord that promises the inestimable grace and blessing of receiving a sound child free from all birth deformities or defects, and the honor of being admitted “into the society of the holy Patriarchs”.
The words in the Book of Tobit also shows us that spouses must remember their bond with the Lord first and foremost and that the fleshly or physical part of the marriage must always come secondhand.
By practicing this highly and virtuous act of abstaining from marital relations for three days, the devil’s might and power over married couples is undoubtedly thwarted and diminished. Holy Scripture thus advice spouses to be “joined to God” for three days in prayer before performing the marital act. Not only that, but spouses should always fervently pray to God before every marital act in the future and ask Him to protect them from falling into sin, and also after the marital act in order to ask Our Lord to forgive them if they committed any sin during the act of marriage. This is the safe road of the fear of God that every righteous man or woman should follow if they wish to enter Heaven.
St.
Augustine, On Marriage and Concupiscence, A.D. 419: “Whosoever
possesses his vessel (that is, his wife) with this intention of
heart, [that is, for the procreation of children] certainly does not
possess her in the "disease of desire," as the Gentiles
which know not God, but in sanctification and honor, as believers who
hope in God. A man turns to use the evil of concupiscence, and is not
overcome by it, when he bridles and restrains its rage, as it works
in inordinate and indecorous motions; and never relaxes his hold upon
it except when intent on offspring, and then controls and applies it
to the carnal generation of children to be spiritually regenerated,
not to the subjection of the spirit to the flesh in a sordid
servitude. That the holy fathers of olden times after Abraham, and
before him, to whom God gave His testimony that "they pleased
Him," thus used their wives, no one who is a Christian ought to
doubt, since it was permitted to certain individuals among them to
have a plurality of wives, where the reason was for the
multiplication of their offspring, not the desire of varying
gratification.” (Book 1, Chapter 9 - This Disease of
Concupiscence in Marriage is Not to Be a Matter of Will, But of
Necessity [for the Procreation of Children])
God’s
Holy Word is clear. Spouses are to engage in the marital act moved
rather for love of children than for lust. They are also to practice
chastity from time to time (Ecclesiastes 3:5; 1 Corinthians 7:5).By the grace of God, let us not live like pagans or heathens anymore who only searches for ways to please their flesh and the world and others, but let us rather strive to please God our heavenly Father and our spiritual nature; and that is also why we all, (whether married or unmarried) who have resurrected with Christ from the dead, and from our old sinful nature, must leave every form of carnality and impurity behind, instead looking up and embrace Our Lord in the purity of the heart and of the body, longing for what is above, and for high and spiritual things. “This then I say and testify in the Lord: That henceforward you walk not as also the Gentiles walk in the vanity of their mind, having their understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is in them, because of the blindness of their hearts. Who despairing, have given themselves up to lasciviousness, unto the working of all uncleanness, unto covetousness. But you have not so learned Christ.” (Ephesians 4:17-20)
Contrary to the world today, Saint Augustine, writing On the Good of Widowhood in about A.D. 414, describes the pure mindset of the Holy Jews and Patriarchs during the Old Testament era, telling us how they would willingly have chosen a life of perpetual chastity rather than the marital life had it been known to them that children could be had in another way than through sexual intercourse: “Forsooth different in the times of the Prophets was the dispensation of holy females, whom obedience, not lust, forced to marry, for the propagation of the people of God, that in them Prophets of Christ might be sent beforehand; whereas the People itself also, by those things which in figure happened among them, whether in the case of those who knew, or in the case of those who knew not those things, was nothing else than a Prophet of Christ, of whom should be born the Flesh also of Christ... Whence also holy women were kindled, not by lust of sensual intercourse, but by piety of bearing; so that we most rightly believe of them that they would not have sought sensual intercourse, in case a family could have come by any other means. And to the husbands was allowed the use of several wives living; and that the cause of this was not lust of the flesh, but forethought of begetting, is shown by the fact, that, as it was lawful for holy men to have several wives living, it was not likewise lawful for holy women to have intercourse with several husbands living; in that they would be by so much the baser, by how much the more they sought what would not add to their fruitfulness.” (St. Augustine, On the Good of Widowhood, Section 10)
