Judith 7:16-22: a reflection

16Their words were pleasing in the sight of Holofernes and in the sight of all his servants; and he ordered them to do as they had spoken. 17And the army of the children of Ammon moved, and with them five thousand of the children of Asshur, and they encamped in the valley. They seized the waters and the springs of the waters of the children of Israel. 18The children of Esau went up with the children of Ammon, and encamped in the hill country near Dothaim. They sent some of them toward the south, and toward the east, near Ekrebel, which is near Chusi, that is upon the brook Mochmur. The rest of the army of the Assyrians encamped in the plain, and covered all the face of the land. Their tents and baggage were pitched upon it in a great crowd. They were an exceedingly great multitude. 19The children of Israel cried to the Lord their God, for their spirit fainted; for all their enemies had surrounded them. There was no way to escape out from among them. 20All the army of Asshur remained around them, their footmen and their chariots and their horsemen, for thirty-four days. All their vessels of water ran dry for all the inhabitants of Bethulia. 21The cisterns were emptied, and they had no water to drink their fill for one day; for they rationed drink by measure. 22Their young children were discouraged. The women and the young men fainted for thirst. They fell down in the streets of the city, and in the passages of the gates. There was no longer any strength in them.

The people of Bethulia are besieged by an overwhelming enemy army that surrounds them completely and seizes their springs of water. Day after day the siege drags on, the cisterns run dry, and the people, rationing water by the cupful, grow faint. Their children are discouraged, their young men and women collapse from thirst in the streets. They are at the utter end of their strength, surrounded, out of water, with no way of escape. It is a picture of complete extremity, the point where every human resource has failed.

Notice the depth of their extremity. They had reached the end of everything, no water, no strength, no escape, no human hope. This is the desperate place where nothing they can do will save them, where all their resources are exhausted and there is simply no way out. And it is precisely there, in that place of utter helplessness, that they cry out to God, and, in the story that follows, that God brings an unlikely deliverance.

That is often the shape of God's deliverances. God frequently works most clearly when we have come to the utter end of ourselves, when every human resource has failed and there is no way out that we can see. The place of complete extremity, where we can do nothing, is precisely where God's deliverance is often revealed, so that the rescue is clearly his, not ours. When you reach the end of yourself, surrounded, out of resources, with no way out that you can see, do not despair. It is often exactly there, where you can do nothing, that God acts. Cry out to him from your extremity, and trust that the God who delivers is not limited by the exhaustion of your resources. When there is no way out, God can make one.

Lord, the people of Bethulia were besieged and surrounded, their water gone, their strength failing, with no way of escape, at the utter end of themselves, and it was there that they cried out to you. When I reach the end of myself, surrounded by troubles, out of resources, with no way out that I can see, keep me from despair. You often work most clearly when every human resource has failed, so that the rescue is clearly yours, not mine. Help me cry out to you from my extremity, trusting that you are not limited by the exhaustion of my strength. When there is no way out, you can make one. Meet me at the end of myself, and let your deliverance be revealed where I can do nothing. I trust you, even when there is no way out.