Governed Garden

Governed Garden
Defending the Weak

Weeds are plants that grow in the wrong place. They are unwanted, because they are outside of order, harmony and beauty.

Queen Anne’s Lace and Thistles are beautiful along the bike path. Their blooms and stalks gracefully reach toward the sky and give off summer scents. But in my garden, they are dominant, intrusive and greedy. They take nourishment from the soil that is meant for other plants.

Shāpat is a Hebrew word found in Scripture where we see the word judge. This word shāpat involves deciding cases of controversy to bring order, harmony, justice, and rest in the place of disorder, chaos, evil, and contention.

When the Scripture speaks of God as a judge, this language conveys the truth that He is One Who brings order. When we follow His instructions, we bring order, harmony, and justice into the world.

Gardening is a constant judging of strengths and weaknesses. Plants need to be ordered; they need to be pulled back, so that others can grow. God does not promote the survival of the fittest, but promotes giving preference to the weak so that all can thrive.

Scripture says that God is the defender of the helpless, the orphan, the widow, and the needy. He pulls back the powerful to give room to the weak. Jesus says, “Blessed are the gentle for they shall inherit the earth.” (Matthew 5:5) He calls us to defend the weak.

Let the rivers clap their hands, let the mountains sing together for joy before the Lord, for He is coming
to judge the earth; He will judge the world with righteousness and the peoples with equity! (Psalm 98:8-9)

Isaiah 11:1-10 speaks of the final order and harmony that God will bring through Jesus the Messiah. Notice the parallelism that beautifully repeats the truth within each verse:

Then a shoot will spring from the stem of Jesse,

And a branch from his roots will bear fruit.

The Spirit of the Lord will rest on Him,

The spirit of wisdom and understanding,

The spirit of counsel and strength,

The spirit of knowledge and the fear of the Lord.

And He will delight in the fear of the Lord,

And He will not judge by what His eyes see,

Nor make a decision by what His ears hear;

But with righteousness He will judge the poor,

And decide with fairness for the afflicted of the earth;

And He will strike the earth with the rod of His mouth,

And with the breath of His lips He will slay the wicked.

Also righteousness will be the belt about His loins,

And faithfulness the belt about His waist.

And the wolf will dwell with the lamb,

And the leopard will lie down with the young goat,

And the calf and the young lion and the fatling together;

And a little boy will lead them.

Also the cow and the bear will graze, their young will lie down together, and the lion will eat straw like the ox.

The nursing child will play by the hole of the cobra,

And the weaned child will put his hand on the viper’s den.

They will not hurt or destroy in all My holy mountain,

For the earth will be full of the knowledge of the Lord

As the waters cover the sea.

Then in that day the nations will resort to the root of Jesse,

Who will stand as a signal for the peoples;

And His resting place will be glorious.