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Context No. 2863 of 4322 · Judith

Context · Reflection

Judith 8:9-24: in context

9She heard the evil words of the people against the governor, because they fainted for lack of water; and Judith heard all the words that Ozias spoke to them, how he swore to them that he would deliver the city to the Assyrians after five days. 10So she sent her maid, who was over all things that she had, to summon Ozias, Chabris, and Charmis, the elders of her city. 11They came to her, and she said to them, “Hear me now, O you rulers of the inhabitants of Bethulia! For your word that you have spoken before the people this day is not right. You have set the oath which you have pronounced between God and you, and have promised to deliver the city to our enemies, unless within these days the Lord turns to help you. 12Now who are you that you have tested God this day, and stand in the place of God among the children of men? 13Now try the Lord Almighty, and you will never know anything. 14For you will not find the depth of the heart of man, and you will not perceive the things that he thinks. How will you search out God, who has made all these things, and know his mind, and comprehend his purpose? No, my kindred, don’t provoke the Lord our God to anger! 15For if he has not decided to help us within these five days, he has power to defend us in such time as he will, or to destroy us before the face of our enemies. 16But don’t you pledge the counsels of the Lord our God! For God is not like a human being, that he should be threatened, neither is he like a son of man, that he should be won over by pleading. 17Therefore let’s wait for the salvation that comes from him, and call upon him to help us. He will hear our voice, if it pleases him. 18For there arose none in our age, neither is there any of us today, tribe, or kindred, or family, or city, which worship gods made with hands, as it was in the former days; 19for which cause our fathers were given to the sword, and for plunder, and fell with a great destruction before our enemies. 20But we know no other god beside him. Therefore we hope that he will not despise us, nor any of our race. 21For if we are captured, all Judea will be captured and our sanctuary will be plundered; and he will require our blood for profaning it. 22The slaughter of our kindred, the captivity of the land, and the desolation of our inheritance, he will bring on our heads among the Gentiles, wherever we will be in bondage. We will be an offense and a reproach to those who take us for a possession. 23For our bondage will not be ordered to favor; but the Lord our God will turn it to dishonor. 24And now, kindred, let’s show an example to our kindred, because their soul depends on us, and the sanctuary, the house, and the altar depend on us.

Bethulia is dying of thirst under siege, and its elders, worn down, have sworn to surrender the city to the Assyrians in five days if God has not rescued them by then. Judith, a devout widow, summons the elders and rebukes them without flinching. Who are you, she asks, to put God to the test, to set a deadline on God and stand in his place among men?

Her rebuke is bracing theology. You cannot fathom the human heart, she says, much less the mind of God who made all things; do not try to bind his counsels with an ultimatum. God is not a man to be threatened, nor a mortal to be won over by pressure. Real faith, she insists, waits for the salvation that comes from him and keeps calling on him, trusting his freedom to act in his own time, or not, without laying down terms. She had reduced nothing; the elders had reduced faith to a five-day deadline, and she calls them back to hope without conditions.

Have I given God a deadline, a "by this date or I quit," when faith is called to wait on his salvation without conditions?

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