Context No. 4086 of 4322 · Judith

Judith 13:11-20: in context

11Judith said afar off to the watchmen at the gates, “Open, open the gate, now. God is with us, even our God, to show his power yet in Israel, and his might against the enemy, as he has done even this day.” 12It came to pass, when the men of her city heard her voice, they made haste to go down to the gate of their city, and they called together the elders of the city. 13They all ran together, both small and great, for it seemed unbelievable to them that she had come. They opened the gate and received them, making a fire to give light, and surrounded them. 14She said to them with a loud voice, “Praise God! Praise him! Praise God, who has not taken away his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand tonight!” 15Then she took the head out of the bag and showed it, and said to them, “Behold, the head of Holofernes, the chief captain of the army of Asshur, and behold, the canopy under which he laid in his drunkenness. The Lord struck him by the hand of a woman. 16And as the Lord lives, who preserved me in my way that I went, my countenance deceived him to his destruction, and he didn’t commit sin with me, to defile and shame me.” 17All the people were exceedingly amazed, and bowed themselves, and worshiped God, and said with one accord, “Blessed are you, O our God, who have this day humiliated the enemies of your people.” 18Ozias said to her, “Blessed are you, daughter, in the sight of the Most High God, above all the women upon the earth; and blessed is the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth, who directed you to cut off the head of the prince of our enemies. 19For your hope will not depart from the heart of men that remember the strength of God forever. 20May God turn these things to you for a perpetual praise, to visit you with good things, because you didn’t spare your life by reason of the affliction of our race, but prevented our ruin, walking a straight way before our God.” And all the people said, “Amen! Amen!”

Judith returns to her besieged city with news of an astonishing deliverance: the enemy commander who had threatened them has been struck down, and their salvation has come, not through a great army, but by the hand of one woman who risked her life for her people. And the people's response is to praise God: blessed be God, who has not withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel.

They recognize that the victory was God's doing, accomplished through an unlikely instrument. Two things stand out. God delivered his people through the weak and unexpected. Not a great warrior but a widow, going alone into danger, was the means God used to save a whole city. God delights to work through the humble and the unlikely, so that the glory goes clearly to him. And the people's instinct was right: they gave the praise to God, not to Judith. Though the deliverance came by her hand, they blessed God, who had shown his mercy and worked the victory. The right response to any such rescue is to give God the praise, recognizing his hand behind the human instrument he used.

Do I recognize that God often works his deliverance through the weak and unlikely rather than the strong, and do I give him the praise for what he accomplishes, even when it comes through a human instrument?

Sources

Judith 13:14: "Praise God! Praise him!... who has not taken away his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand tonight!"
Judith 13:18: "Blessed are you, daughter, in the sight of the Most High God, above all the women upon the earth; and blessed is the Lord God, who created the heavens and the earth."
Judith 13:15: "The Lord struck him by the hand of a woman."