Ezekiel 22:30 8/10/20

“And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (KJV).

Ezekiel was a prophet after Judah was defeated and exiled into slavery in Babylon in 586 BC. The prophets had warned Judah to repent and turn to God or they would lose their land, their children, their freedom and, many, their lives. But not many listened to the prophets and most prophets were murdered. Ezekiel is now reminiscing about life before exile and what had caused it. His answer was that their sins had caused the wrath of God upon them.
Romans 1 tells us that the wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and worldly lust and three times Paul says “God turned them over to a depraved mind”. So the wrath of God is that if you want to live without God, He will let you. If you want to live without the help and protection of God go ahead, but you will reap what you sow, you will reap the consequences and pay the price your sins have caused. You don’t break God’s law—they break you.
Judah had committed all the sins of the heathen nations: Murder, child sacrifice, sexual sins, greed, thief, hatred, etc. The doors of the Temple were nailed shut and people worshiped other gods. They had committed the same sins that caused God to drive out the Canaanites from the land. So God drove the Jews out from the land as well.
In Job 1, Satan accused God of putting up a wall around Job to protect him. God does put up a wall of protection around His people. A wall is a barrier to keep things in or to keep things out. God’s wall is a wall of protection to protect His people from danger.
But Judah’s wall of protection was crumbling because they wanted to live without God. Gaps were breaking in the walls everywhere and people were reaping what they had sown and were paying a heavy price for their sins. Their children had become heathens and the streets of Jerusalem ran red with blood.
Jeremiah was the prophet during the evil times right before Jerusalem and Judah were destroyed. Jeremiah was known as “ole terror on every side”, because all he ever preached was bad news. His message was that it is too late, Judah is doomed. God had told Jeremiah not pray for these people (7:16); in other words, “do not stand in the gap for Judah”. It is too late to save them.
A prophet is someone called by God and empowered by His Spirit to speak to people for God. Prophets are preachers who preach God’s Word to humans. And people listened back then about like they do today. Prophets pleaded with people to repent, to turn to God and God would save them. And only a few ever listened. But sometimes God needs more than preachers! God needs “a man” or “a woman” to stand in the gap and plead for God’s mercy for bad people.
Psalm 106:23, “So he said he would destroy them—had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the gap before him to keep his wrath from destroying them.” In Exodus 32, Moses and Joshua were on the Mt. receiving the Ten Commandments from God when Israel decided to build a golden calf and worship it in the most vulgar and obscene way imaginable. When Moses heard the uproar from the wild partying he broke the stones of the Commandments (written by the hand of God) and confronted Aaron and the people. He ground the golden calf into powder and mixed it with water and made the people drink it. Then he had to go back up the Mt. and face an angry God.

Moses stood in the gap between an angry God and the people and pleaded with God to forgive them and to have mercy on them—“if not, then take my name from the book you have written”. God listened to Moses and did not destroy the people or let the consequences of their sins destroy them. But standing in the gap can be a scary and dangerous place to be.

In Genesis 18, Abraham stands in the gap for Sodom and pleads with God not to destroy it, although it was possibly the world’s most sinful city. Abraham asked God not to destroy it if He found 50 righteous people in it, the 45, then 30, then 20, then 10. God listened to Abraham but He did not find 10 righteous people in Sodom and destroyed it.

And standing in the gap of the wall was exactly what Jesus came to do. Romans 5:8, “God demonstrated His love for us in that while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Matt 1:21, “She will give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus, because he will save his people from their sins” (that is save them from the consequences of their sins, as well as continuing to do the sins). I Timothy 1:5, “Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners.” John 3:17, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world; but that the world through him might be saved.” To stand in the gap today means that it must be done in the name of Christ.

In Jeremiah 5, God looked for a righteous person in all Jerusalem and found no one. Ezekiel words it like this, “I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it, but I found no one” (NIV).

Before anyone can stand in the gap before God and ask for mercy on others, that person must first be under the mercy of God. You must have received God’s mercy before you can ask God to have mercy on others. You must stand before God washed by the blood of Christ and have Christ living inside, because God always listens to His Son. If Christ does not dwell in you then you have to beg for mercy for yourself. Only then can you beg for mercy for others.

God is looking for someone—a righteous person, any righteous person. Someone saved, someone washed in the blood of Christ to stand in the Gap for America—to plead for mercy on America, to ask God to forgive all the evil doers. God is looking for someone like Abraham to plead with God to spare evil Sodom, someone like Moses to plead with God to spare sinful Ancient Israel, someone with Jesus in their hearts to plead for mercy on sinful America.

God is not just looking for someone to “pray” for America or to say, “God bless America”. This is much more important than that! God is looking for someone to stand before Him and plead with God for mercy on sinful America, not because America is good but because America is bad.

“I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so I would not have to destroy it.” And the saddest part is “but I found none.” No on righteous enough, willing enough, who believed enough or loved enough to stand before God and plead for mercy on Ancient Israel. So Ancient Israel paid the consequences their sins required and most went into slavery in a foreign land and many died.

And God is still looking for someone with Christ living in them to stand in the gap for America and to plead with God for mercy, for more time, for your children and family and for all of America’s sinful people. How do you know you have Jesus in you? Simple, He comes to everyone who asks Him for mercy. Mercy seems to be word God is looking for. As Luther said, “We all stand before God as beggars.” Everyone who ever asked God for mercy received it—period. Not a matter of feelings or emotions but a matter of fact!

After you have received mercy yourself then your country needs you now as never before. John Kennedy said, “Ask not what your country can do for you but what you can do for your country” and here is the most important thing you can ever do: Stand in the gap of the breeched wall and plead with God for mercy on America. Plead for more time to evangelize.

Come before God and stand in the gap between God and people and beg for God’s mercy on America, beg for God’s mercy on the bad folks, beg for God mercy on the sinners of America, on the dopers, on the cheats, liars and murderers. If you don’t, if someone doesn’t, America will crumble, first from within then from without. All that is between America and complete collapse is God.

Throughout the Bible the words, “have mercy” gets God’s attention every time. God is still looking for someone to ask God for mercy on America.

Jim