Been too long

Gosh, I never knew how hard it is to both Pastor and blog at the same time. I'll try to do better! Busy season is upon us here at Houghs Neck Congregational Church. I'm in the midst of a Bible Study covering Women in the Bible. Last week, we looked at women heroes of the Old Testament. Among them is Judith, someone I never really studied at all. I didn't even know her story until now. Judith is in the "Apocrypha" a set of books included in the Roman Catholic Bible, but not the Protestant one. Actually, Judith doesn't even make it in the Jewish holy scriptures. Yet I wish she was! Her story was well know, especially in Medieval and Reaissance times, when many artists painted pictures from her story, and composers wrote oratorios about her. The two paintings below, by Caravaggio and Artemisia Gentileschi are just a few of the many masterpieces made of this story. It seems like artists, and perhaps everyone else during these times, loved portraying and viewing the central gruesome part of the story.

Let me just fill you in on the story, and then, please - read it yourself! Judith is a rich widow living in a small town outside of Jerusalem. A foreign army is ready to invade and all the men are up in arms, worrying about what to do. The army is laying seige to the town, and they are running out of water. They give God 5 days to do something or else they'll give up and become slaves (probably). Judith has none of it. She tells them she has a plan, and goes out, with her maid to the enemy. Judith is quite clever and deceitful. She actually prays to God to give her enough deceit to defeat the enemy. In those days, cleverness, trickery and deceitfulness was a positive trait, especially if you do it to further God's purposes, or save your people.

Anyway, she gets into the enemy camp, decked out in her finest, wearing the best jewelry, perfume, etc. She gets the army comfortable with her presence. For three nights, she goes out with her maid for a walk. The general of the army is attracted to her, and wants to seduce her. He plans a final banquet with only her. She gets him drunk on his wine, while drinking her own watered down wine. He falls asleep in a drunken stupor. She gets his sword, and, in two blows, whacks off his head. Her maid places it in a bag with the food they bought.

She returns to town with the head of the general. Now, she has total control over the whole situation. She instructs them to put the generals head on a pole outside the walls of the city. The enemy realizes what has happened to their general. They are devastated. Judith orders Israel to attack, and they do, routing the enemy and sending them on their way.

Judith is praised by all as a savior. She then goes back to her life, living to a rip old age of 105.

Judith is in a line of femal heroes in the Bible, such as Deborah, Jael and Esther. In a time when women were valued mostly by how many male children they could have, these women show another type of value - a heroism that does not depend on her bearing children to be of value. They never bought into the culture's expectations of women. They just stayed faithful to what God was calling them to do, which, in this instance, involved cutting off enemy heads and leading armies into battle.