Judith 6:1-9: a reflection

1And when the disturbance of the men that were around the council had ceased, Holofernes the chief captain of the army of Asshur said to Achior and to all the children of Moab before all the people of the foreigners: 2“And who are you, Achior, and the mercenaries of Ephraim, that you have prophesied among us as today, and have said that we should not make war with the race of Israel, because their God will defend them? And who is God but Nebuchadnezzar? 3He will send forth his might, and will destroy them from the face of the earth, and their God will not deliver them; but we his servants will strike them as one man. They will not sustain the might of our cavalry. 4For with them we will burn them up. Their mountains will be drunken with their blood. Their plains will be filled with their dead bodies. Their footsteps will not stand before us, but they will surely perish, says King Nebuchadnezzar, lord of all the earth; for he said, ‘The words that I have spoken will not be in vain.’ 5But you, Achior, hireling of Ammon, who have spoken these words in the day of your iniquity, will see my face no more from this day, until I am avenged of the race of those that came out of Egypt. 6And then the sword of my army, and the multitude of those who serve me, will pass through your sides, and you will fall among their slain when I return. 7Then my servants will bring you back into the hill country, and will set you in one of the cities by the passes. 8You will not perish until you are destroyed with them. 9And if you hope in your heart that they will not be taken, don’t let your countenance fall. I have spoken it, and none of my words will fall to the ground.”

Holofernes, the arrogant commander of a vast army, responds to a warning that Israel's God will defend them with a boast of staggering pride: And who is God but Nebuchadnezzar? To him, the king he serves is the only god worth naming, and human force the only real power in the world. He is certain that Israel and their God are nothing before him, that his army cannot be resisted, and that his own word will not fall to the ground. He has made a man, and human strength, into his god.

Notice the shape of his arrogance: he exalts human strength to the place of God. Who is God but Nebuchadnezzar? For Holofernes, there is no higher authority than the king and the army; the living God is dismissed as nothing. It is the ancient pride that puts human strength, human rulers, human force in the place that belongs to God alone, and that grows certain nothing can stand against it. And, as the story will show, such pride comes before a fall.

That arrogance is not confined to ancient generals. Whenever human strength, whether a ruler, a nation, wealth, or our own ability, is exalted to the place of God, treated as the ultimate authority against which nothing can stand, the same idolatry is at work. And Scripture is consistent: such pride is heading for a fall, for the living God is not mocked, and human strength is not god. Do not be dazzled or intimidated by human strength that exalts itself as if it were ultimate. Who is God but the LORD? Human force is not god, however it boasts; the living God alone is God, and before him every proud strength will finally bow.

Lord, Holofernes boasted, who is God but Nebuchadnezzar? exalting a human king and human strength to the place that belongs to you alone, certain nothing could stand against him. Keep me from that idolatry, from being dazzled or intimidated by human strength, whether rulers, nations, wealth, or my own ability, as if it were ultimate. You alone are God; human force, however it boasts, is not. Help me fear you rather than the proud powers that exalt themselves, and to trust that before you every arrogant strength will finally bow. Who is God but you, Lord? Let me give that place to you alone.