- From Judith 9
I may dip into apocryphal writings from time to time. The Book of Judith was not included in the Protestant Bible, but the story is compelling, and in the case of this passage, powerful.
Judith was born into comfortable means. She had married well, and if I got the story right, wound up a widow. She was very attractive, and apparently, used these gifts in inappropriate ways.
But in the end, humility wins out. She realizes that she has been sinful. She cries out to God, to save Israel.
She is a wealthy person, that takes on the case of the lowly. For, even a wealthy Hebrew is but a poor vessel, in the Babylonian Empire. She gives a wonderful description of God, one that our generation has forgotten to emphasize:
- God of the lowly
- Helper of the oppressed
- Upholder of the weak
- Protector of the forsaken
- Savior of those without hope
Not too many generations prior, the Hebrews, and the Jewish nation, had it made, They lived in a very wealthy, and safe country, that had every prospect of expanding. (If you want your own citizens protected, in those times, it was essential that you keep growing. Well, it may be true for our times as well).
But wealth has a way of making one blind to oppression. Today's wealthy person is tomorrow's marginalized beggar. And in modern American politics, we can easily see how a little switch in voting patterns can become very hazardous indeed, for the well-off.
So here's what we need: The wealthy, in any time, must be proactive and aggressive in helping the needy. In no time at all, you may find yourself in the position of Judith: comfortable today, but tomorrow praying the prayer of a pauper.
But there is a message here, too, for the needy. We always want politicians, or other humans, to take up our cause. But the great people of faith, in Bible times, understood that only God could lift them up. When their hope is almost gone, they pray. They do not start organizing their neighbors in angry uprisings.
And He always shows up.
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