Saturday, September 20, 2014 (Ember Day)

Saturday September 20, 2014 

Judith 5:1-21

Today marks the confluence of at least two odd events – a passage from the Book of  Judith, and a day called an Ember Day.  Let’s tackle the second one first.  

Ember Days, four sets of three-day clusters roughly marking the beginning of each of the four seasons, but not otherwise connected to them, were set aside by the church to focus on God’s creation, and to do so by fasting, penitence, and prayer. Some might say this was the Church’s way to keep reminding its members of the season of Lent.  Ember Days have, for the most part, fallen out of usage in the modern day.  Some sub-sets of Anglicanism – those who are strict in their use of the Book of Common Prayer, for example – might still keep the intention of these days.  There is also a thought, perhaps what we might today call an urban legend, that says that the weather on the Saturday of the Autumn Ember Days (that’s today) will determine the weather for the whole month of December. 

The Book of Judith is found in only some bibles, and where present is a part of the deuteron-canonical group of writings which also includes writings with names like Tobit, Ecclesiasticus, Maccabees, and others.  You'll usually found these books sandwiched between the Old and New Testaments.  This is where the Book of Judith is found.  We do not read from it on any Sunday in the Christian year.

It is commonly thought to be a fictitious writing based on a bit of confusing historical background.  Its sixteen chapters roughly self-divide into two equal parts.  The first tells of the battles of the Assyrians, or perhaps it’s the Babylonians – that’s one of the confusing historical bits – against the Hebrews who are occupying what we know as Israel/Palestine.  The second part is the story of Judith, a Jewish widow, who stands up to the enemy by doing away with one of the generals of the invading army.  It’s gory and dramatic, and its moral outcome has been debated for centuries.

The part that is assigned for today is an account of a conversation between the invading general, Holofernes, and Achior, an Ammonite, who describes the close and protective relationship between these Hebrews and their God, the God of Israel.  In short, Achior proclaims that this people, because of their God, are a people not to be discounted. 

I would invite you, if your interest is piqued, to read the Book of Judith, and judge for yourself its value, and its teaching.

- Reverend Paul Kett

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¹ Holofernes, general-in-chief of the Assyrian army, received the intelligence that the Israelites were preparing for war, that they had closed the mountain passes, fortified all the high peaks and laid obstructions in the plains.

² Holofernes was furious. He summoned all the princes of Moab, all the generals of Ammon and all the satraps of the coastal regions.

³ 'Men of Canaan,' he said, 'tell me: what people is this that occupies the hill-country? What towns does it inhabit? How large is its army? What are the sources of its power and strength? Who is the king who rules it and commands its army?

⁴ Why have they disdained to wait on me, as all the western peoples have?'

⁵ Achior, leader of all the Ammonites, replied, 'May my lord be pleased to listen to what your servant is going to say. I shall give you the facts about these mountain folk whose home lies close to you. You willhear no lie from the mouth of your servant.

⁶ These people are descended from the Chaldaeans.

⁷ They once came to live in Mesopotamia, because they did not want to follow the gods of their ancestors who lived in Chaldaea.

⁸ They abandoned the way of their ancestors to worship the God of heaven, the God they learnt to acknowledge. Banished from the presence of their own gods, they fled to Mesopotamia where they lived for a long time.

⁹ When God told them to leave their home and set out for Canaan, they settled there and accumulated gold and silver and great herds of cattle.

¹⁰ Next, famine having overwhelmed the land of Canaan, they went down to Egypt where they stayed till they were well nourished. There they became a great multitude, a race beyond counting.

¹¹ But the king of Egypt turned against them and exploited them by forcing them to make bricks; he degraded them, reducing them to slavery.

¹² They cried to their God, who struck the entire land of Egypt with incurable plagues, and the Egyptians expelled them.

¹³ God dried up the Red Sea before them

¹⁴ and led them forward by way of Sinai and Kadesh-Barnea. Having driven off all the inhabitants of the desert,

¹⁵ they settled in the land of the Amorites and in their strength exterminated the entire population of Heshbon. Then, having crossed the Jordan, they took possession of all the hill-country,

¹⁶ driving out the Canaanites before them and the Perizzites, Jebusites, Shechemites and all the Girgashites, and lived there for many years.

¹⁷ All the while they did not sin before their God, prosperity was theirs, for they have a God who hates wickedness.

¹⁸ But when they turned from the path he had marked out for them some were exterminated in a series of battles, others were taken captive to a foreign land. The Temple of their God was rased to the ground and their towns were seized by their enemies.

¹⁹ Then having turned once again to their God, they came back from the places to which they had been dispersed and scattered, regained possession of Jerusalem, where they have their Temple, and reoccupied the hill-country which had been left deserted.

²⁰ So, now, master and lord, if this people has committed any fault, if they have sinned against their God, let us first be sure that they really have this reason to fail, then advance and attack them.

²¹ But if their nation is guiltless, my lord would do better to abstain, for fear that their Lord and Godshould protect them. We should then become the laughing-stock of the whole world.'

²² When Achior had ended this speech, all the people crowding round the tent began protesting. Holofernes' own senior officers, as well as all the coastal peoples and the Moabites, threatened to tear him limb from limb.

²³ 'Why should we be afraid of the Israelites? They are a weak and powerless people, quite unable to stand a stiff attack.

²⁴ Forward! Advance! Your army, Holofernes our master, will swallow them in one mouthful!