Judith 13:1-2. "When evening came, his slaves quickly withdrew and Bagoas closed the tent from outside and shut out the attendants from his master's presence; and they went to bed for they were all weary because the banquet had lasted long. So Judith was left alone in the tent, with Holofrenes stretched out on his bed, for he was overcome with wine." 

Holofrenes had designs on Judith, and set up this banquet as "the opportunity to deceive her" (Judith 12:16) he had been waiting for. Unbeknownst to him, Judith had also been waiting for an opportunity to be alone with Holofrenes, the chief general of Nebuchadnezzar's army, in order to do much more than just deceive him - she planned to kill him in order to end the siege of Judea. Judith ends up being successful in her plan; Holofrenes loses his head at her hand in this tent. Judith is absolutely amazing, and we can learn a lot from her, some of which I covered in Girl (with God) Power. But let's focus on Holofrenes today - where did the great general go wrong, and what lessons can we learn from his missteps?

First of all, Holofrenes had an evil intent. He planned on deceiving and using a woman for his own pleasure. This might seem a lot less criminal than what Judith intended, but Judith was doing what she planned for the good of her people, to save them from a besieging army. Judith's intentions were pure and noble, she prayed intensely and asked for God's guidance and help before taking on this mission (see Judith 9), and she bravely put her life on the line by going out on her own to accomplish her goal. Holofrenes' intentions, by contrast, were anything but pure. So the first lesson is, in everything we do, we must examine our intentions. If they are not good, not in service of God, we should go no further. If our intentions are good, we should pray to God for guidance and help in how we plan to carry out our goal.

Secondly, Holofrenes set up the banquet so only his slaves and personal-assistant eunuch, Bagoas, were there, not any of his officers (Judith 12:10). Presumably, Holofrenes wanted to have Judith all to himself, without his officers being tempted by her as well. But this played right into Judith's plan, since it left Holofrenes alone and unguarded, without his trusted allies to warn him that something might be amiss. The second lesson, then, is when we are engaging in a course of action that we decide we have to hide from our trusted friends, family, or advisors, that is a sure pretty good sign that we are up to no good. (It is not always a bad sign, though, Judith hid her plan from the leaders of Israel, but for their own good, and she did not hide it from God.) If we didn't pray and discern our course of action in the first place, and we find ourselves in a spot where we are hiding things from trusted people, that is the time alarm bells should be going off, and we should probably be changing course.

Lastly, Holofrenes gets drunk at the banquet, so when he finally does get Judith alone, he's unable to carry out his plan, and leaves himself open to hers. Due to his indulgence in another passion, Holofrenes leaves himself drunk and at Judith's mercy, and she has none - she carries out her plan exactly as she had intended and prayed about. So the final lesson is to always temper our passions and to stay awake and alert at all times, as Jesus warned us (Mark 13:32-33) and St. Paul reiterated (1 Thessalonians 5:6). Holofrenes' enemy, Judith, was just waiting for the right moment to slay him, and our enemy is doing the same, waiting for any moment of weakness to slip in and lead us astray.

Judith and Holofrenes show extreme examples of what can happen when we either do rely on God, as Judith did, or instead rely on ourselves, as Holofrenes did, in making and carrying out our plans. The only way we can be truly successful, especially high stakes situations, is to do God's will, which may sometimes seem like something frightening to us, and which we won't know unless we ask. If we ask Him for guidance, and then follow His lead while trusting Him, things will work out just as He intends. If we are slaves to our passions, however, we just may lose our heads.