Judith 10 – Judith
removes her sackcloth, washes and dresses herself up in all her best clothes,
jewelry and perfumes. She looks beautiful. She goes to the town gates and there
finds the town leaders, Uzziah, Chabris and Charmis. She tells them they should
leave the town gate open so she can come and go. And then she takes off toward
enemy lines.
As she comes down through the valley, a unit of the Assyrian
army seizes her and asks her which side she is on and where she is going. She
tells them she is “a daughter of the Hebrews” and says she is “fleeing from
them since they will soon be your prey” (10:12). She tells them she is on her
way to see Holofernes “to give him trustworthy information” (10:12). They take
her to his tent. She attracts a lot of attention; people think she is beautiful
and actually admire the Hebrews as a people for having women as impressive as
she is.
She finally arrives at Holofernes’ tent. He is resting
“under a canopy of purple and gold studded with emeralds and precious stones”
(10:21). While they are stunned by
her beauty she falls “on her face and did homage to him” (10:23).
Judith 11 –
Holofernes assures her that she will not be harmed. He would not hurt anyone
who is obedient to his “lord” Nebuchadnezzar. “Even now, if your nation of
mountain dwellers had not insulted me, I would not have raised a spear against
them. This was their fault, not mine” (11:2-3). She likewise assures him that
she “will speak no word of a lie in my lord’s [he thinks she is referring to
him, but she is really referring here to God] presence tonight” (11:6) and
assures him that if he follows her advice “God will bring your work to a
successful conclusion” (11:6).
She assures him that while what Achior said is true - that
the Jews will not be defeated unless they are unfaithful to “their lord” - they
HAVE become unfaithful – eating things they’ve been forbidden to eat. She
promises she will go out every night and pray that God will let her know when
they have sinned. Holofernes is so pleased, he tells her if things turn out as
she says, her god will be his god and she will make her home in the palace of
the King.
Hebrews 11 – “Only faith can
guarantee the blessings that we hope for, or prove the existence of the
realities that at present remain unseen” (11:1). It is by faith that we explain
the origin of all that we see; “It is by faith that we understand that the world
was created by one word from God, so that no apparent cause can account for the
things we can see” (11:3).
It
is by faith that all who were part of our salvation narrative lived: Abel,
Enoch, Noah, Abraham, Sarah, Isaac, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, Gideon, Barak,
Samson, Jephthah, David, Samuel and the prophets. “All these died in faith,
before receiving any of the things that had been promised, but they saw them in
the far distance and welcomed them, recognizing that they were only strangers
and nomads on earth” (11:13).
They
were the heroes of faith we look too, but they did not attain what was promised
them. As faithful as they were, they could not “reach perfection except with
us” (11:40), through the resurrection Christ experienced.
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