The Bible in a Year (with Fr. Mike Schmitz) - Day 251: Judith and Holofernes (2023)

Episode Date: September 8, 2023

In our reading of Jeremiah today, Fr. Mike highlights Ishmael’s insurrection against Gedaliah and Jeremiah’s response. We also read about the defeat of Holofernes and the praise of Judith for her courage and virtue. Today’s readings are Jeremiah 41-42, Judith 12-14, and Proverbs 17:13-16. For the complete reading plan, visit ascensionpress.com/bibleinayear. Please note: The Bible contains adult themes that may not be suitable for children - parental discretion is advised.

Hi, my name is Father Mike Schmitz, and you're listening to the Bible in a Year podcast, where we encounter God's voice and live life through the lens of Scripture. The Bible in a Year podcast is brought to you by Ascension. Using the Great Adventure Bible timeline, we'll read all the way from Genesis to Revelation, discovering how the story of salvation unfolds and how we fit into that story today. It is day 251. We're reading five chapters today, Jeremiah 41 and 42, reading Judith 12, 13, and 14, as well as Proverbs chapter 17, verses 13 through 16. As always, the Bible

translation I'm reading from is the Revised Standard Version, Second Catholic Nation. I'm using the Great Adventure Bible from Ascension. If you want to download or get, acquire, have in your possession the Bible in a Year reading plan, you can visit ascensionpress.com slash Bible in a Year. You can also subscribe to this podcast and receive daily episodes and updates and all the good things that would be at your disposal. If only, if only on day 251, you would subscribe to this podcast and all would be right with this world. But alas, I know some of you, some of you will refuse and that I have to be at peace with. Nonetheless, for all of us subscribed or not subscribed, it is still day 251 and we are reading Jeremiah 41 and 42, Judith 12, 13 and 14, Proverbs 17 verses 13 through 16.

The book of the prophet Jeremiah chapter 41 41, Insurrection against Gedaliah. In the seventh month, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, son of Elishema of the royal family, one of the chief officers of the king, came with ten men to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, at Mizpah. As they ate bread together there at Mizpah, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and the ten men with him, rose up and struck down Gedaliah the son of Ahikam son of Shaphan with the sword and killed him whom the king of Babylon had appointed governor in the land. Ishmael also slew all the Jews who were with Gedaliah at Mizpah and the Chaldean

soldiers who happened to be there. On the day after the murder of Gedaliah before anyone knew of it 80 men arrived from Shechem and Shiloh and Samaria with their beards shaved and their clothes torn and their bodies gashed, bringing cereal offerings and incense to present at the temple of the Lord. And Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, came out from Mizpah to meet them, weeping as he came. As he met them, he said to them, Come in to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. When they came into the city, Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, and the men with him slew them and cast them into a cistern. But there were ten men among them who said to Ishmael, Do not kill us, for we have stores of wheat, barley, oil, and honey hidden in the fields.

So he refrained and did not kill them with their companions. Now the cistern into which Ishmael cast all the bodies of the men whom he had slain was the largest cistern which King Asa had made for defense against Baasha, king of Israel. Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, filled it with the slain. Then Ishmael took captive all the rest of the people who were in Mizpah, the king's daughters, and all the people who were left at Mizpah, whom Nebuzaradan, the captain of the guard, had committed to Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam. Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, took them captive and set out to cross over to the Ammonites.

Johanan and Ishmael But when Johanan, the son of Kariah, and all the leaders of the forces with him, heard of all the evil which Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had done, they took all their men and went to fight against Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah. They came upon him at the great pool, which is in Gibeon. And when all the people who were with Ishmael saw Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the leaders of the forces with him, they rejoiced. So all the people whom Ishmael had carried away captive from Mizpah turned about and came back and went to

Johanan, the son of Korea. But Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, escaped from Johanan with eight men and went to the Ammonites. Then Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the leaders of the forces with him, took all the rest of the people whom Ishmael, the son of Nethaniah, had carried away captive from Mizpah after he had slain Gedaliah, the son of Ahikam, soldiers, women, children, and eunuchs, whom Johanan brought back from Gibeon. And they went and stayed at Geruth-Chimham near Bethlehem, intending to go to Egypt because of the Chaldeans, for they were afraid of them, because Ishmael the son of Nethaniah had slain Gedaliah the son of Ahikam, whom the king of Babylon had made governor over the land. Chapter 42. Jeremiah advises survivors not to go to Egypt.

Then all the commanders of the forces and Johanan the son son of Korea, and Azariah, the son of Hoshiah, and all the people from the least to the greatest, came near and said to Jeremiah the prophet, Let our supplication come before you and pray to the Lord your God for us, for all this remnant, for we are left but a few of many as your eyes see us, that the Lord your God may show us the way we should go and the thing that we should do. Jeremiah the prophet said to them, I have heard you. Behold, I will pray to the Lord your God according to your request, and whatever the Lord answers you, I will tell you. I will keep nothing back from you. Then they said to Jeremiah, may the Lord be a true and faithful witness against us

if we do not act according to all the word with which the Lord your God sends you to us. Whether it is good or evil, we will obey the voice of the Lord our God to whom we are sending you, that it may be well with us when we obey the voice of the Lord our God. At the end of ten days, the word of the Lord came to Jeremiah. Then he summoned Johanan, the son of Korea, and all the commanders of the forces who were with him, and all the people from the least to the greatest, and said to them, Thus says the Lord, the God of Israel, to whom you sent me to present your supplication before him. If you will remain in this land, then I will build you up and not pull you down.

I will plant you and not pluck you up, for I repent of the evil which I did build you up and not pull you down. I will plant you and not pluck you up. For I repent of the evil which I did to you. Do not fear the king of Babylon, of whom you are afraid. Do not fear him, says the Lord. For I am with you to save you and to deliver you from his hand. I will grant you mercy, that he may have mercy on you and let you remain in your own land. But if you say, we will not remain in this land, disobeying the voice of the Lord your God and saying, no, we will go to the land of Egypt,

where we shall not see war or hear the sound of the trumpet or be hungry for bread, and we will dwell there. Then hear the word of the Lord, O remnant of Judah. Thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel. If you set your faces to enter Egypt and go to live there, then the sword which you fear shall overtake you there in the land of Egypt. And the famine of which you are afraid shall follow hard after you to Egypt. And there you shall die.

All the men who set their faces to go to Egypt to live there shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence. They shall have no remnant or survivor from the evil which I will bring upon them. For thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, as my anger and my wrath were poured out on the inhabitants of Jerusalem, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. him, so my wrath will be poured out on you when you go to Egypt. You shall become an execration, a horror, a curse, and a taunt. You shall see this place no more. The Lord has said to you, O remnant of Judah, do not go to Egypt. Know for a certainty that I have warned you this day, that you have gone astray at the cost of your lives. For you sent me to the Lord your God,

saying, Pray for us to the Lord our God, and whatever the Lord our God says, declare to us, 1 Peter chapter 1, verse 1. that you shall die by the sword, by famine, and by pestilence in the place where you desire to go to live. The book of Judith, chapter 12. Judith as a guest of Holofernes. Then he commanded them to bring her in where his silver dishes were kept and ordered them to set a table for her with some of his own food and to serve her with his own wine. But Judith said, I cannot eat it, lest it be an offense, but I will be provided from the things I have brought with me. Holofernes said to her, If your supply runs out, where can we get more like it for you? For none of your people is here with us. Judith replied, As your soul lives, my lord, your servant will not use up the things I have with me before the Lord carries out by my hand what he has determined to do. Then the servants

of Holofernes brought her into the tent, and she slept until midnight. Along toward the morning watch she arose and sent to Holofernes and said, Let my lord now command that your servant be permitted to go out and pray. So Holofernes commanded his guards not to hinder her, and she remained in the camp for three days, and went out each night to the valley of Bethuliah, and bathed at the spring in the camp. When she came up from the spring, she prayed the Lord God of Israel to direct her way for the raising up of her people. So she returned clean, and stayed in the tent until she ate her food toward evening. Judith attends Holofernes' banquet. On the fourth day, Holofernes held a banquet for his slaves only

and did not invite any of his officers. And he said to Bagoas, the eunuch who had charge of all his personal affairs, Go now and persuade the Hebrew woman who is in your care to join us and eat and drink with us. For it will be a disgrace if we let such a woman go without enjoying her company. For if we do not embrace her, she will laugh at us. So Bagoas went out from the presence of Holofernes and approached her and said, This beautiful maidservant will please come to my Lord and be honored in his presence

and drink wine and be merry with us and become today like one of the daughters of the Assyrians who serve in the house of Nebuchadnezzar. And Judith said, Who am I to refuse my lord? Surely whatever pleases him I will do at once, and it will be a joy to me until the day of my death. So she got up, and arrayed herself in all her woman's finery, and her maid went, and spread on the ground for her before Holofernes the soft fleeces which she had received from Bagoas for her daily use, so that she might recline on them when she ate. Then Judith came in and lay down, and Holofernes' heart was ravished with her, and he was moved with great desire to possess her, for he had been waiting for an opportunity to deceive her ever since the day he first saw her. So Holofernes said to her, Drink now, and be merry with us. Judith said, I will drink

now, my lord, because my life means more to me today than in all the days since I was born. Then she took, and ate, and drank before him what her maid had prepared. And Holofernes was greatly pleased with her, and drank a great quantity of wine, much more than he had ever drunk in any one day since he was born. Chapter 13. Judith beheads Holofernes. When evening came, his slaves quickly withdrew, and the Goas closed the tent from outside and shut out the attendants from his master's presence. And they went to bed, for they all were weary because the banquet had lasted long. So Judith was left alone in the tent with Holofernes stretched out on his bed, for he was overcome with wine. Now Judith had told her maid to stand outside the bedchamber and to wait for her to come out, as she did every day, for she said she would be going out for her

prayers. And she had said the same thing to Bagoas. So everyone went out, and no one, either small or great, was left in the bedchamber. Then Judith, standing beside his bed, said in her heart, O Lord, God of all might, look in this hour upon the work of my hands for the exaltation of Jerusalem. For now is the time to help your inheritance and to carry out my undertaking for the destruction of the enemies who have risen up against us. She went up to the post at the head of the bed above Holofernes' head and took down his sword that hung there. She came close to his bed and took hold of the hair of his head and said, Give me strength this day, O Lord God of Israel.

And she struck his neck twice with all her might and severed his head from his body. Then she tumbled his body off the bed and pulled down the canopy from the posts. After a moment, she went out and gave Holofernes' head to her maid who placed it in her food bag. Then the two of them went out together as they were accustomed to go for prayer, and they passed through the camp and circled around the valley and went up the mountain to Bethaliah and came to its gates. Judith called out from afar to the watchman at the gates, and came to its gates. Judith called out from afar to the watchmen at the gates,

Open, open the gate. God, our God, is still with us to show his power in Israel and his strength against our enemies, even as he has done this day. Judith returns to her people. When the men of her city heard her voice, they hurried down to the city gate and called together the elders of the city.

They all ran together, both small and great, for it was unbelievable that she had returned. They opened the gate and admitted them, and they kindled a fire for light and gathered around them. Then she said to them with a loud voice, Praise God! O praise him! Praise God, who has not withdrawn his mercy from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very night. from the house of Israel, but has destroyed our enemies by my hand this very night. Then she took the head out of the bag and showed it to them and said, See, here is the head of Holofernes, the commander of the Assyrian army, and here is the canopy beneath which he lay in his drunken stupor.

The Lord has struck him down by the hand of a woman. As the Lord lives, who has protected me in the way I went, it was my face that tricked him to his destruction, and yet he committed no act of sin with me to defile and shame me. All the people were greatly astonished and bowed down and worshipped God and said with one accord, Blessed are you, our God, who have brought into contempt this day the enemies of your people. And Uzziah said to her, O daughter, you are blessed by the most high God above all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to strike the head of the leader of our enemies. Your hope will never

depart from the hearts of men as they remember the power of God. May God grant this to be a perpetual honor to you. And may he visit you with blessings because you did not spare your own life when our nation was brought low, but have avenged our ruin, walking in the straight path before our God. And all the people said, so be it, so be it. Chapter 14, Judith's Council. Then Judith said to them,

listen to me, my brethren, and take this head and hang it upon the parapet of your wall. And as soon as morning comes and the sun rises, let every valiant man take his weapons and go out of the city and set a captain over them, as if you were going down to the plain against the Assyrian outposts. Only do not go down. Then they will seize their arms and go into the camp and rouse the officers of the Assyrian army, and they will rush into the tent of Helophranes and will not find him. Then fear will come over them, and they will flee before you, and you and all who live within the borders of Israel shall pursue them and cut them down as they flee.

But before you do all this, bring Achior the Ammonite to me, and let him see and recognize the man who despised the house of Israel and sent him to us as if to his death. So they summoned Achior from the house of Uzziah. And when he came and saw the head of Holofernes in the hand of one of the men at the gathering of the people, he fell down on his face and his spirit failed him. And when they raised him up, he fell at Judith's feet and knelt before her and said, Blessed are you in every tent

of Judah, in every nation, those who hear your name will be alarmed. Now tell me what you have done during these days. Then Judith described to him in the presence of the people all that she had done from the day she left until the moment of her speaking to them. And when she had finished, the people raised a great shout and made a joyful noise in their city. And when Achior saw all that the God of Israel had done, he believed firmly in God and was circumcised and joined the house of Israel, remaining so to this day. Helophranes's death is discovered. As soon as it was dawn, they hung the head of Helophranes on the wall, and every man took his weapons, and they went out in companies to the passes in the mountains. And when the Assyrians saw them,

they sent word to their commanders, and they went to the generals and the captains and to all their officers. So they came to Helophranes' tent and said to the steward in charge of all his personal affairs, Wake up, our lord, for the slaves have been so bold as to come down against us to give battle in order to be destroyed completely. So Bagoas went in and knocked at the door of the tent, for he supposed that he was sleeping with Judith. But when no one answered, he opened it and went into the bedchamber and found him thrown down on the platform dead with his head cut off and missing. And he cried out with a loud voice and wept and groaned and shouted and tore his garments. Then he went to the tent where Judith had stayed, and when he did not find her, he rushed out to

the people and shouted, The slaves have tricked us. One Hebrew woman has brought disgrace upon the house of King Nebuchadnezzar. For look, here is Holofernes lying on the ground, and his head is not on him. When the leaders of the Assyrian army heard this, they tore their tunics and were greatly dismayed, and their loud cries and shouts arose in the midst of the camp. The Book of Proverbs, chapter 17, verses 13 through 16. If a man returns evil for good, evil will not depart from his house. The beginning of strife is like letting out water, so quit before the quarrel breaks out. He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. Why should a fool have a price in his hand to buy wisdom when he has no mind?

hand to buy wisdom when he has no mind. Father in heaven, we give you praise and glory. We thank you. Gosh, God, this day we give you praise. You are good and you are just and you are fair and you are faithful. And you continue for whatever reason, God, because of your unstoppable love for us, you continue to call us to yourself and you call us to be yours and help us to say yes today and help us to say yes every day. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. In the name of the Father and of the Son

and of the Holy Spirit, amen. So gosh, you guys, Jeremiah, man, golly. In Jeremiah chapter 41 and 42, we not only have the destruction of Jerusalem, right? We have Gedaliah, who's appointed governor of the remnant by King Nebuchadnezzar. But we also have this guy, Ishmael. And Ishmael wants to have an insurrection against Gedaliah. So remember, what's left back in the promised land are people that no one wants.

They are the poor. They're the weak. They're the sick. There's Gedaliah, who's the governor over them. And there's also kind of the resistance, right? The roving band of marauders. This is like a post-apocalyptic, the structure of government is kind of thrown to the wind and it's the Wild West, basically.

And in the Wild West, there's a guy named Ishmael and he belongs to the house of Judah. This is very important. We have to recognize this, that the very first verse in chapter 41, it talks about the fact that Ishmael belonged to the royal family. And we recognize that maybe he resents a little bit of the fact that Nebuchadnezzar did not appoint him or any members of his family to be the governor of Judah as it's now under Babylonian occupation and under Babylonian rule. Now, his is crazy. Gedaliah already knows that Ishmael wants to kill him, is going to kill him, has a plot to kill him.

And what does he do? He doesn't take any steps to protect himself. In fact, he not only does that, but he breaks bread with Ishmael and his roving band of marauders, essentially. And at that moment of breaking bread, Ishmael murders Gedaliah and everyone with him, which is kind of a double offense, right? We recognize that to share a meal with someone, even in our context now, is kind of a big deal. In the ancient world and still in Middle Eastern worlds now, to break bread with someone, to share a meal with someone is

incredibly significant. And here is Ishmael breaking bread with Gedaliah, the person he knows he's going to murder in just moments from now. And we even have the Psalms, right? The Psalm says, the one who ate bread with me has raised his foot against me. And Jesus, he lived that out perfectly as a good friend of his, Judas, betrays Jesus, even after they've shared the Eucharist, which is just incredible. Now, if the book of Jeremiah wants to highlight how bad Ishmael is, not only are there pilgrims, essentially 80 men arriving from Shechem and Shiloh and Samaria, it says their beards shaved and the clothes torn with the bodies gashed, bringing cereal offerings and incense to present at the temple of the Lord. Basically, they are men of faith who are going to worship at the temple, even though the temple has been destroyed. They're going to find some place to worship God around

that area. Even though Jerusalem is destroyed, the temple inside it is destroyed. They're on their way to honor the Lord, to worship the Lord. And here's Ishmael, and he just kills him. And he casts their bodies into the cistern. And even this book of the prophet Jeremiah makes a point of saying that the cistern to which Ishmael cast all the bodies of the men whom he had slain was the largest cistern, which King Asa had made for defense against the king of Israel. And he filled it with bodies. It's a massive cistern and it was full of bodies. That's how evil and how wild that after all this pain that the Israelites, the Jewish people had gone through, now it's just utter chaos, a complete utter chaos. And that's going to set up the next

stage. And the next stage is basically the people like Ishmael who have just killed Gedaliah. Now we're afraid and we're afraid of two things. We're afraid of the fact that there's people like Ishmael here. So, you know, the guy with the black hat rides into town, who knows if he's going to ride into our town and kill us. But also he had the guy in the black hat, Ishmael, he killed Gedaliah, who was the governor appointed by King Nebuchadnezzar. Who's to say that King Nebuchadnezzar isn't going to hear about this insurrection and say, you know what? Forget those people, forget the remnant. We're just going to wipe them all out and comes back with his army and just kills everyone. And that's the big fear because of what Ishmael had done. Now the people of Israel, the remnant are living in fear of either

the outlaws, right? Or King Nebuchadnezzar. And so they come to Jeremiah and this is, this is so remarkable. They have this great prayer, these great words that they speak to Jeremiah. And they basically say, let our supplication come before you. Pray to the Lord, your God for us. For all this remnant, we're just left but few of many, that the Lord, your God, may show us the way we should go and the thing that we should do. And he goes on to say, we'll do it. Whatever it is you tell us to do, we're going to do it. Should we flee? Should we stay? What is it? And we'll do it. And Jeremiah prays for 10 days. And he gets the word of the Lord back to him. The word of the Lord speaks to him and says, if you leave, if you go to Egypt, you'll die by the sword, by famine, by pestilence. If you stay

here in Jerusalem, if you stay here in Judah, you'll be saved. You just have to trust in the Lord. Remember this, this word of just trust in the Lord, just stay here. And what are the people who are the remnant? What do they say? They say, nope, we're not going to, we're not going to do this. We're not going to do this. We're not going to do as you've told us, as the Lord God has spoken to us. And this is just so awful. Tomorrow we're going to hear about how Jeremiah makes another plea to them. Just please do not do this thing. Do not flee to Egypt because you will not be able to escape death. But if you stay here and trust in the Lord, God is going to do something incredible with you here.

The people are not listening. They will not listen. And so Jeremiah has a couple last words of judgment that he's going to say tomorrow and the next couple of days as we journey through this. We also have Judith, who is one of these great women of the Old Testament, who's killed Holofernes, cut off his head. And then not only that, she tells the people at Bethaliah, say, here's the plan. She has the plan. She's, you know, walk down as if you're going to battle, but don't go to battle because they're going to wake everyone up and realize Lophanie is dead. Then they're going to be fleeing. And while they're fleeing, that's when you charge after them. And that's when you destroy the fleeing army. And that's just so wise. I mean, she's just so prudent, so genius,

so brilliant, but also so virtuous. And that's one of the things that the scripture makes a very clear point. It says that, nope, she was not in any point compromised in her purity. I remember at one point, I think it was someone I'm related to said they always wanted to be a spy. But they said, but you know, all the spies in the novels, all the spies in the movies, they have to kind of sleep around to get, you know, information and stuff. And she said, I would never do that. I could never compromise myself like that. And Judith, she was able to be in this position of intrigue, this position of espionage. And she makes a point of saying that all throughout it, she did not violate her purity. And it's important

because here is a woman who is righteous. She is virtuous from beginning to the end. And there's this incredible prayer, right? This prayer that Uzziah says, basically praising God about Judith and what she's done. And it's so incredible. Oh, daughter, you are blessed by the most high God above all women on earth. And blessed be the Lord God who created the heavens and the earth, who has guided you to strike the head of the leader of our enemies. You guys, you realize once again, we had JL, right, in the book of Judges, who drove the tent peg through Sisera's head

into the ground, killing him, crushing the head of the enemy. You have, in Genesis chapter three, you have this prophecy of, you will strike at his head while he strikes at your heel, you know, crushing the head of the serpent. And we have JL, crushing the head of the enemy. We have Judith here, crushing the head of the enemy.

And that prophecy that ultimately Jesus Christ, the descendant, the offspring of the woman is going to crush the powerful head of death. And yet these women, JL, Judith, and others, they are a sign or a type of pre-shadowing of the role of Mary. And Mary is the one who crushes the head of the serpent, obviously through the power of Jesus, her son. But see how the gospel of Luke will echo these words that are spoken by Uzziah to Judith, the one who has crushed the head of the enemies of the people of God. And it goes on, your hope will never depart from the hearts of men as they remember the power of God. It goes on and on. And just at the end of chapter 13, if you want to go back and reread that great prayer,

praising this heroine, this hero of the people of Israel who took her life in her hands. Now, in a little bit, we're going to read the story of, actually, it's going to be a couple of weeks from now. We're going to read the story of Esther. When I say a couple of weeks, I mean roughly a month. Sorry, of Esther, who also took her life in her hands to deliver the people of Israel. And that's going to be an incredible story as well.

But today, gosh, the bravery, the courage. And we've had so many stories of men of courage in the Bible and also men of corruption in the Bible. But this is one of those incredible stories we get to really highlight and say, the story of an incredible courage of the woman of God, the incredible courage of these daughters of the Father. And that's the courage that, my sisters, my daughters, you are called to walk in every day

because the Lord God, just like he was with Judith, the Lord God is with you as well. And so my brothers, let us pray for all of our sisters in Christ. And sisters, let's pray for all of our brothers in Christ as well. I'm praying for you. Please pray for me. My name's Father Mike. I cannot wait to see you tomorrow.

God bless.