Judith 7:6-15: a reflection

6But on the second day Holofernes led out all his cavalry in the sight of the children of Israel which were in Bethulia, 7viewed the ascents to their city, and searched out the springs of the waters, seized upon them, and set garrisons of men of war over them. Then he departed back to his people. 8All the rulers of the children of Esau, all the leaders of the people of Moab, and the captains of the sea coast came to him and said, 9“Let our lord now hear a word, that there not be losses in your army. 10For this people of the children of Israel do not trust in their spears, but in the height of the mountains wherein they dwell, for it is not easy to come up to the tops of their mountains. 11And now, my lord, don’t fight against them as men fight who join battle, and there will not so much as one man of your people perish. 12Remain in your camp, and keep every man of your army safe. Let your servants get possession of the water spring, which flows from the foot of the mountain, 13because all the inhabitants of Bethulia get their water from there. Then thirst will kill them, and they will give up their city. Then we and our people will go up to the tops of the mountains that are near, and will camp upon them, to watch that not one man gets out of the city. 14They will be consumed with famine—they, their wives, and their children. Before the sword comes against them they will be laid low in the streets where they dwell. 15And you will pay them back with evil, because they rebelled, and didn’t meet your face in peace.”

The enemy commander Holofernes, unwilling to lose men in a direct assault on the fortified town, receives a piece of ruthless advice. His allies point out that the people of Bethulia depend entirely on a spring at the foot of their mountain for water. Seize the spring, they say, and cut them off; do not fight them, simply let thirst and famine do the work. Weakened and desperate, they will surrender or perish without a battle. It is a cold, calculated plan to starve a whole town into ruin.

For the people of Bethulia, this meant facing a slow, dreadful crisis with their most basic resource cut off. The passage sets up a situation of near-hopelessness: surrounded, their water gone, no army coming to relieve them, only the prospect of thirst and death. It is the kind of pressure that tests faith to its limit, when the ordinary means of survival are taken away and there seems to be no way out. This is the dark valley into which God's deliverance would eventually come.

There are seasons when it can feel as though your basic sources of strength have been cut off, when the well you relied on has been seized and no relief is in sight. Bethulia's crisis reminds you that God's people sometimes face exactly such extremity. But the larger story is one of deliverance from an impossible situation, in God's time and by his hand. When your resources are cut off and there seems no way through, do not despair. The God who delivered a besieged town when all seemed lost is able to make a way where you can see none.

Lord, sometimes it feels as though my basic sources of strength have been cut off and no relief is in sight. In such extremity, keep me from despair. Remind me that your people have faced impossible sieges before, and that you delivered them when all seemed lost. Make a way for me where I can see none, and let me trust you when my own wells run dry. Amen.