Judith 9:7-10. Part of Judith's prayer prior to her great endeavor (See Girl (with God) Power). Judith says the Assyrian army is mighty and glorious in its strength. They trust their arms, but do not know the God of the Israelites. She asks that God break their strength through her efforts, the efforts of a widow, "for they intend to defile thy sanctuary, and to pollute the tabernacle where the glorious name rests." She asks that God see their pride, send down his wrath, and give her the strength to do what she has planned. "By the deceit of my lips strike down the slave with the prince and the prince with his servant; crush their arrogance by the hand of a woman."

Part of Judith's amazing story that I ponder a lot is the fact that she was deceitful, and successful in her deceit. I struggle with this. To my mind, it is never okay to lie, every lie is a tiny (or not so tiny) denial of God, who is truth. The devil is the liar, and when we lie we are aligning ourselves with him. In her prayer, Judith tells God that she is planning on being deceitful and she asks him to help her carry out her plan. Judith's plan is ultimately very successful - she alone defeats the Assyrian army arrayed against Jerusalem by deceitfully gaining access to their commander, Holofernes, and killing him. So is this okay? Did God want her to do this? I don't know, to be honest.

I still think, for myself and in general, that it is always better to be completely truthful. But following this rule, if I were Judith, would mean that either I did nothing or that I would have been truthful when captured by the Assyrians and who knows what would have happened? But there - maybe that is the point - who knows what would have happened? God does! Perhaps if Judith had been just as brave as she was but also committed to being honest (although maybe not sharing everything, which is okay), maybe an even better outcome would have occurred! Maybe Holofernes would have been swayed by her beauty, courage, and truth, and called off the siege, rather than Judith beheading him.

Perhaps the point is that God sees us and uses all of the actions of his faithful ones to accomplish his goals, even when we stray a bit from the rules. But he can accomplish even greater things if we don't stray, as he did with Mary and Jesus. Judith's prayer showed her faithfulness, but also showed that she wanted God to use her plan, her deceit, and she was asking his forgiveness for this. She got what she prayed for, but she had to lie and she had to kill a man to accomplish her goal. Perhaps if she had prayed in complete surrender, asking God to give her a plan rather than asking him to use hers, then her deceit and murder of Holofernes would not have been necessary, but her people's freedom would have still been secured.

I think it is never part of God's plan for us to be deceitful. When we are, though, he will still accomplish good with it, but we also suffer because of it. I am sure that Judith suffered after having beheaded Holofernes. She was a good and holy woman, there is no way violently killing a man sat well on her psyche.