Judith 2:21-28: a reflection

21And they departed out of Nineveh three days’ journey toward the plain of Bectileth, and encamped from Bectileth near the mountain which is at the left hand of the Upper Cilicia. 22And he took all his army, his footmen, horsemen, and chariots, and went away from there into the hill country, 23and destroyed Put and Lud, and plundered all the children of Rasses and the children of Ishmael, which were along the wilderness to the south of the land of the Chellians. 24And he went over Euphrates, and went through Mesopotamia, and broke down all the high cities that were upon the river Arbonai, until you come to the sea. 25And he took possession of the borders of Cilicia, and killed all who resisted him, and came to the borders of Japheth, which were toward the south, opposite Arabia. 26He surrounded all the children of Midian, and set their tents on fire, and plundered their sheepfolds. 27He went down into the plain of Damascus in the days of wheat harvest, and set all their fields on fire, and utterly destroyed their flocks and herds, plundered their cities, laid their plains waste, and struck all their young men with the edge of the sword. 28And the fear and the dread of him fell upon those who lived on the sea coast, upon those who were in Sidon and Tyre, those who lived in Sur and Ocina, and all who lived in Jemnaan. Those who lived in Azotus and Ascalon feared him exceedingly.

The book of Judith opens by building up the terror of Holofernes and his vast army. They march out from Nineveh and sweep across the region, destroying cities, burning fields, plundering, killing all who resist, until, the text says, the fear and dread of him fell on all the peoples, and even distant coastlands trembled. It is a portrait of seemingly invincible, unstoppable force, a terror before which everyone quakes. And the reader is meant to feel it: here is a force nothing can withstand.

But notice how the story is set up. This overwhelming, terror-inspiring force is being established precisely so that its downfall, at the hand of one unlikely widow, will show all the more clearly that God, not armies, holds the outcome. The dread that fell on the nations was real, and the army was genuinely fearsome. Yet all of it, the whole intimidating machine, was destined to be brought down through a means no one would have predicted. The seemingly invincible was not invincible at all.

There is perspective here for the things that inspire dread in us, the forces that seem unstoppable, before which we are tempted to quake. What looks invincible, before which everyone trembles, is not beyond God's reach or immune to his overturning. The story deliberately builds up an unstoppable terror in order to show it toppled by God through the weak. Do not be ruled by dread of what seems overwhelming. God has a way of bringing down the seemingly invincible, often through the most unlikely means. What makes the nations tremble is still under his hand.

Lord, Holofernes' army spread terror until all the peoples trembled, seemingly invincible, and yet it was destined to be brought down through one unlikely widow. When I am tempted to quake before forces that seem unstoppable, remind me that what looks invincible is not beyond your reach or immune to your overturning. You have a way of bringing down the seemingly invincible, often through the weak and unlikely. Help me not be ruled by dread, but to trust that what makes the nations tremble is still under your hand.