Judith 3:6-10: a reflection

6He came down toward the sea coast, he and his army, and set garrisons in the high cities, and took out of them chosen men for allies. 7They received him, they and all the country round about them, with garlands and dances and timbrels. 8He cast down all their borders, and cut down their sacred groves. It had been given to him to destroy all the gods of the land, that all the nations would worship Nebuchadnezzar only, and that all their tongues and their tribes would call upon him as a god. 9Then he came toward Esdraelon near to Dotaea, which is opposite the great ridge of Judea. 10He encamped between Geba and Scythopolis. He was there a whole month, that he might gather together all the baggage of his army.

Holofernes sweeps through the coastlands, and the nations submit to him, welcoming him with garlands and dances and celebration. And his commission is chilling: he destroys their local gods so that all peoples would worship Nebuchadnezzar alone, and every tongue would call upon him as a god. A human king demands the worship due only to God, and nation after nation goes along with it, trading their allegiance for survival and welcoming their conqueror with festivities.

Notice how readily the nations capitulate. Faced with an army and a demand to treat a human ruler as divine, they do not resist; they garland him, dance for him, accept the blasphemous claim, because it is safer, easier, than defiance. The exaltation of human rule to the place of God, and the crowd's willingness to bow to it, is an old story, and a recurring one. People will give their ultimate allegiance to whatever seems to hold their fate, especially when resistance is costly.

That temptation is not confined to ancient tyrants claiming godhood. There is always something, a ruler, a nation, an ideology, a person, that presses for the ultimate allegiance, the trust, the reverence, that belongs to God alone, and always the pressure to go along for the sake of safety or belonging. The faithful are those who reserve their worship for God, who will not call any human ruler god, however large it looms or however costly it is to refuse. Give your ultimate allegiance to God alone. Do not garland what claims the worship that is his.

Lord, the nations bowed to a human king demanding to be worshiped as a god, trading their allegiance for safety. Keep me from giving to any human ruler, any nation, ideology, or person, the ultimate trust and reverence that belong to you alone. When it is costly to refuse, make me faithful. You alone are God; you alone shall have my worship.