A Garden for the Good

“Then will the LORD be jealous for his land, and pity his people.” (Joe 2:18 AV)

Joel is the prophet of the conclusion of the tribulation.  He gives us a view of the dark and troublesome day of the LORD.  He declares there is coming a day when the entire world who has rejected Him will stand in judgment at the valley of decision.  This book is an encouraging one in that the Holy Spirit, by the pen of Joel, lifts our hearts in His holy vindication.  There are so many verses of encouragement regarding God’s faithfulness to His people.  He will not abandon them.  He will not allow the obedient to suffer for the wickedness of the disobedient.  This principle was laid out at Noah’s flood.  The LORD removed the eight righteous souls then flooded the world.  This principle was argued by Abraham on behalf of Lot.  The question, will God judge the righteous with the wicked; was the question Abraham argued rather effectively.  The LORD heard Abraham and pulled Lot out of Sodom before He rained fire upon it.  To the same end, the LORD will not allow His people to be judged with the wicked.  He will take pity on His people.  In context, it is obedient Israel who will be protected in the wilderness.  But the same principle applies to the church.

I went to private schools when I was younger.  Don’t get the wrong idea.  They were religious schools and my father taught there so we could all go to school.  There were times when my class was not well behaved.  I was a well-behaved child and rarely got in trouble.  I remember this special place our teacher used to send us to if we were well behaved.  It was the back yard of a house owned by the church.  It was a beautiful place.  It was filled with a rose garden and trestle work.  Birdbaths and fountains were in this back yard.  There were cement benches.  There were flowers all over.  If the class was particularly unruly, then those of us who were well-behaved was to get the privilege to spend class time in the garden as we worked together on our classwork.  While we were in the garden, there were a few times we could hear the voice of our teacher coming down on the class.  She took pity on the well behaved and removed them before she dealt with the rest of the class.

What struck me this morning is the fact the LORD takes pity on His people.  This is in the context of persecution and judgment.  God will not allow His people to suffer undue circumstances that have been thrust upon them by the disobedient world.  We see this in Israel when they were in bondage to Egypt.  The LORD allowed some persecution, but when the plagues came, for the most part, they were protected.  God will pity His people.  This is a promise which we can cling to.  When we see the world coming apart before us, we can take heart that the LORD knows exactly what is going on and He will not tolerate His people to be abused any more than they need to.  This is not a promise to protect us from all evil.  Only undue or oppressive harm.  He will pity His people.  He would not be a God of love and mercy if He did not.