Text: “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. So I will pour out my wrath on them and consume them with my fiery anger, bringing down on their own heads all they have done, declares the Sovereign LORD.” (Ezekiel 22:30-31)
Isaiah and his contemporaries had come and gone. In his ministry he warned Judah of the coming judgments if they refuse to repent. He however gave them hope of the coming redeemer and good days ahead.
In 722 BCE Northern kingdom was invaded and taken captive by the Assyrians. It did not occur to the Judah that something similar would occur to them if they continued in sin.
Jeremiah and Ezekiel were contemporaries. They gave warnings that a foreign nation will take Judah into captivity. Our text refers to the last moments before the Babylonian invasion. God in His love was seeking and searching for one of them who could stand in the gap, build a wall and stand between God and them (intercede) so that God in His mercy could spare the city. He found none.
Inhabitants of Judah refused to listen and continued in their sin. Everybody lived below God’s expectations. In chapter 22 Ezekiel narrates God’s complain against the people. Let me analyze the charges.
Princes and officials (civil and political leaders)-roaring like a lion to devour people, take treasures and precious things (enrich themselves at the expense of the poor and make widows (wars).
Priests and prophets (church leaders)-make violence to God’s laws, white wash the wrong deeds by false prophecies, teaching that there is no difference between clean and unclean.
The whole society practice exhortation, they commit robbery; oppress the poor and mistreating aliens.
What is going on in our society today? Same sins are being committed. Even more badly, the name of God is being wiped out from the minds of people. Let us be available and stand in the gap for our nation. God who is being rejected is the king of the universe. ‘The decision is announced by messengers, the holy ones declare the verdict, so that the living may know that the Most High is sovereign over all kingdoms on earth and gives them to anyone he wishes and sets over them the lowliest of people.’(Daniel 4:17)