Standing in the Gap

Ezekiel 22:30 … "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." K.J.V.

In the Amplified Bible, in place of "make up the hedge" it reads … "who should build up the wall …"

Sin makes a gap, a breach, a hole in the hedge or wall of protection that is placed around God's people … Israel in the verse above … a gap which allows both, good things to run out from them and evil things to pour in upon them; a gap by which God was also willing to enter and destroy them because of that sin.

It's God's desire to show mercy even when He must correct or judge a sinful people; that He expects someone to intercede for them, and enquires if there would be a man (or woman) that will stand in the gap.

There is a way of making up for the breach caused from sin and standing in the gap against the judgments of God, and that is through repentance and prayerful intercession.

When there is a breach in the wall and judgment is about to break in upon a nation … a nation like Israel or America today; and if prayer is restrained because no one is found that will intercede or speak a good word for them … when it is so, what can be expected but utter ruin and destruction?

Ezekiel 22:31 … "Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord GOD."

God also deals with our sin no worse, and usually much better … than we deserve.

The nation of Israel might have been said to perish for the lack of such a man to interpose or … come between, to alter or hinder an action … like the judgment of God as Moses did when he "stood in the gap" for Israel.

God seemed determined in His own mind to destroy Israel, being provoked at their forgetfulness of Him and their sinful idolatry when He said to Moses in Exodus 32:10-14 … "therefore let Me alone, that My wrath may wax hot against them, and that I may consume them …"

The Psalmist also speaks to this in Psalm 106:23 … "Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses His chosen stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He should destroy them."

Ezekiel 22 summarizes the sin of Jerusalem, her prophets and her priests. The eye of God sought for someone to stand in the gap before Him, but found none.

God is basically saying … I saw there was a breach made in the … "walls" … the moral state and heart of the people; and I sought for a man that would stand in the gap, that would faithfully exhort, reprove and counsel with sound doctrine from the Word of God. But none was to be found in Israel, so judgment came.

I have said all of this to come to this point; today the … "walls" … that have a breach or gap in them is our nation's faith in God and in Jesus as Lord. Have we as a Christian nation forgotten who has given us our salvation? Are we as a nation just as guilty of idolatry as Israel was when Ezekiel said that God was looking for a man (or woman) to stand in the gap?

America as a nation has been blessed by God from its inception. The founding fathers created this nation to be a lighthouse based on the Word of God. Although this country did not have a physical "wall" around it for protection from enemies; it did have God's Salvation as its walls.

Isaiah 60:18 … "Violence shall no more be heard in thy land, wasting nor destruction within thy borders; but thou shalt call thy walls Salvation, and thy gates Praise."

Isaiah states that our salvation is our "walls" that protect us from the enemy. Sin opens a gap in the hedge of protection that God has placed around us. The gap or breach allows the enemy access to us individually and as a nation. I am not saying that our individual salvation is not secure. All that is ever going to be done has already been done by Jesus … He paid the price for our salvation in full … once and for all.

But America is not like Israel, where a Priest can offer Atonement for the nation. We, the believers who are following the Lord Jesus are being called to … stand in the gap … for America before it's too late and God sends judgment upon us like a flood through the gap or breach opening up in America's … "walls."

But there is still hope, because God said in …

Isaiah 62:6 … "I have set watchmen upon thy walls … which shall never hold their peace day nor night: ye that make mention of the LORD, keep not silence …"

God has also set … "watchmen" … on America's walls to watch for holes, breaches or gaps in the walls … our Christian faith, our salvation. Could it be that I am one of the watchmen that … "never hold their peace … that make mention of the LORD and keep not silent …"?

Is this the reason I have this blog, to give warning of a breach or gap in the wall?

Had not Moses stood before God in the gap; the allusion is either to a hedge broken down, or a hole in the wall which allows the enemy a way in to … "kill, steal and destroy." So Moses made up the hedge, and stood in the gap. He presented himself to God, stood in the gap on behalf of the people with fervent prayer and was successful in his intercession for them. This shows the power of prayer, and its result with God.

This may also be seen or thought of as a shadow of intercession to come, a type of Christ; as Moses was a mediator between God and the people of Israel, so is Christ a mediator between God and His people. Sin is a transgression of God's law, a breaking of His statutes, which He has set also as a hedge or wall around man; and sin makes a breach between God and man.

But today Christ has stood in the gap, made up the breach with His intercession, and has appeased the wrath of God, and turned it away, and by doing so is preventing the ruin and destruction of His Church today.

Hebrews 7:25 … "Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them."

As … a watchman on the wall … I pray that others will stand in the gap with me for America.

May God restore what America has lost.