Treatment of Children - the measure of a society

In Joel Chapter 3, the Prophet takes us to very near the end of time when God Himself calls the nations before Him in judgment.  One of the charges is that they “and have cast lots for my people, and have traded a boy for a prostitute, and have sold a girl for wine and have drunk it.” (Joel 3:3, ESV).  In the Commentary on theMinor Prophets, edited by Thomas McComsky, the contributor to Joel, Dr. Raymond Dillard quotes Carl Keller who wrote this profound thought:

"There is a sense in which any society can be measured by the treatment accorded its children.  In ancient Israel children, largely because they were defenseless, were the particular object of the care of God and the protection of the law. The treatment accorded Judean children by Gentile nations showed the depths of their crimes."