Word of Salvation – Vol.43 No.29 – August 1998
Standing in the Gap
A Sermon by Rev J Haverland on Ezekiel 22:30
Scripture Reading: John 17:13-26; Ezekiel 22:1-12, 23-31
Suggested Hymns:
Psalter Hymnal 455; 211:1, 2, 3, 11, 12; 467
Congregation,
Over the past few years there has been a lot of concern expressed about the present state of our society, especially with the general decline in standards and the rise in violence and crime.
An ever increasing number of marriages end in divorce; more and more children are born outside of marriage; young women are virtually paid by the state to have babies, while men, young and old, walk away from the responsibility of raising the children they have fathered. Many young people sense the hopelessness of our situation contributing to one of the highest teen suicide rates in the Western world. Add to this the ever declining number of people who claim an even nominal adherence to the church.
Truly we are in a situation of great crisis. And this is a crisis to which no one seems to have the answers. Despite all their talk and promises, our politicians are at a loss to know what to do; educators keep tinkering with the school curriculum in a vain search for the right formula to deal with loss of truth and values amongst young people.
What are we to say as the church in this situation? And just as important, what are we to do?
Our situation today is similar to the spiritual and moral crisis faced by Israel in the 6th Century BC. God had called Ezekiel to be a prophet to the people of Judah in exile. He had been taken into exile by the Babylonians in the second deportation from Jerusalem in 597 BC. He prophesied to the people of Israel in exile both before and after the fall of Jerusalem in 587 BC.
The preceding chapters and the first part of this chapter describe the state of the nation of Israel at that time. There was idolatry, immorality, murder, religious prostitution and child sacrifice. Children treated their parents with contempt. Israel oppressed the alien and mistreated the fatherless and widows. They despised God and His holiness, desecrated the Sabbath and generally had forgotten about God.
What’s more, this situation existed all through the society and had affected every level of leadership – verse 25 describes the sin of the princes, verse 26 of the priests, verse 27 of the officials, verse 28 of the prophets, and verse 29 the sin of the people of the land. The land was corrupt from top to toe, from head to foot! Their situation is not unlike our own. There is a general collapse of faith and morality in the nation. What we want to notice is God’s response to this situation: “I looked for a man 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 none” (vs.30).
1. GOD LOOKED FOR A MAN TO BUILD UP THE WALL
Children, the cities in those days were built with walls around them. These high walls formed a defence against the enemy. If part of the wall was broken down the enemy could easily attack the city through that gap.
God pictures Jerusalem as a city with her wall broken down, not physically, but rather spiritually and morally. God was looking for someone to rebuild the wall. About 150 years later Nehemiah would rebuild the walls of the city which were knocked down by the Babylonian armies. But here God was looking for people who would do this spiritually. This was actually a task of the Old Testament prophets. In chapter 13:4-5 we read… (please read…)
Notice that this is a positive task. Sometimes we are very good at pointing out what is wrong with someone or something, but very weak when it comes to doing something positive. God was looking for men and women who were prepared to do a work of construction.
One example of such a person is Martin Luther. In the early 1500s Luther stood alone against the Pope, the councils and tradition of the Roman Catholic church, pointing out what was wrong with these things, but then he set to work rebuilding the church on the foundation of the Word of God.
Today we need people who are ready to do the work of rebuilding. We are living in a time of great crisis but also of great opportunity. Many in our society don’t know what to do about the state of our society. They are searching for solutions, looking for answers.
Today, too, we need Christians who will set to work and rebuild the nation; who will strengthen society; who will reconstruct the family. Will you do that? Will you rebuild the wall?
God also looked for a man
2. WHO WOULD STAND BEFORE ME IN THE GAP
Children, if part of the wall was broken down it was crucial that that place be defended. That was the weakest point and the enemy would concentrate there – that was the place that needed defending. To stand in the gap required courage because it was a place of great danger. You needed to be bold and to be ready to fight.
God was looking for a person to stand in the gap. Ezekiel could not do this — he was away in exile in Babylon. Jeremiah was a prophet in Jerusalem at this time but he was in prison. God was looking for someone else to do this so he would not have to destroy it. But he found no one, and eventually the city of Jerusalem was taken by the Babylonian armies.
Today, too, God is looking for people to stand up for Jesus in the places of great need.
Husbands and fathers, will you stand in the gap in your home? Will you provide clear spiritual and moral leadership in your home? Will you make it clear that you and your household are going to follow the Lord?
Children, will you stand up for the Lord at school? Will you show that being faithful to God is more important than being popular? That being kind to others is more important than being part of the ‘in’ group.
Students at polytech (TAFE) and university, are you prepared to stand firm for your convictions, even when you might be mocked?
Will you stand in the gap at work? Will you be honest, a person of integrity? In society, will you protest against the violence and immorality on TV, against the murder of unborn babies? Will you make a stand for truth and justice?
It is a great temptation to remain part of the silent majority. But remember that “evil flourishes when good men do nothing.’
So, God was looking for a man to build up the wall, to stand in the gap. But he also looked for people to…
3. STAND BEFORE ME…ON BEHALF OF THE LAND
God was looking for a person to pray for the nation, to intercede for God’s people, to act as a mediator.
There are many examples of Old Testament people who did this. After Israel had sinned with the golden calf, God was about to destroy his people, but Moses prayed for them: “So he said he would destroy them, had not Moses, his chosen one, stood in the breach before him to keep his wrath from destroying them” (Psalm 106:23).
Later, Samuel also prayed for the people, and later still we read of Daniel’s great prayer for his people in Daniel 9.
But the greatest example of a person interceding for his people is the Lord Jesus himself. We read his famous High Priestly prayer in John 17, which he prayed on the night before he died. Notice that he wasn’t thinking of himself but of his disciples and us. After his death and resurrection he went to heaven and is there today interceding for us as our mediator, praying for us.
Just as Jesus prays for us, so God wants us to pray for each other. He is looking for people to stand before him in prayer for the church, the nation, the world.; to plead with God personally, in our Bible studies, in our churches.
In New York in the mid-19th Century there was a man named Jeremiah Calvin Lamphier. He decided to have a prayer meeting for businessmen on the 23 September 1857. The meeting was to last one hour. For the first half hour he prayed alone. In the next half hour he was joined by another five people. The next week there were 20 and the following week 40. Then they decided to have a daily prayer meeting. That soon went to a hundred, and after three months to a 1,000. This was the beginning of a great revival in America in which 2 million were saved. It began with the intercession of one man.
The tides of history have been turned by men and women who were prepared to build the wall and stand in the gap and pray; by people who stood on their own fighting for the Lord and for truth.
One person can make all the difference. “One with God is a majority”, One example of this comes from Roman times. The favourite sport in Rome was the gladiator fights in the arena. One day a monk visited Rome and joined the crowds streaming to the Colosseum, not realising why they were going there. When he saw these men fighting in their gruesome battles, he was horrified and called out to them to stop fighting, but his voice was lost in the shouting of the crowd. So he jumped out and stood between the two gladiators and called on them, in God’s name, to stop fighting. The crowd went wild with anger that this man should disrupt the games – they rushed out and beat him to death. But then they realised what they had done and were shocked and ashamed. It was the last gladiator fight in the Colosseum.
Or take the example of William Wilberforce who fought almost single-handedly for the abolition of slavery in England in 18th Century. Each year for 20 years he took the issue back to the House of Commons, only to have it defeated yet again. He persevered until finally, in 1807, the British Parliament finally abolished slavery.
Yet we may not always win. In the days of Hitler’s Third Reich in Germany two German pastors were deeply concerned about the misuse of power by the Nazi’s in 1938-39. They were Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Neimoller. Both protested against Hitler and were imprisoned for their stand. Their protest may have seemed futile, but they were faithful to God. Though we may not admire all of their theology, they did have the courage to stand in the gap in times of danger.
God is always looking for men and women, boys and girls, who are prepared to build up the wall, to stand in the gap, to pray for the land. God has provided such a man himself – He sent His Son. The Lord Jesus Christ proclaimed the truth, lived for righteousness, did battle with evil, defeated sin and Satan, and prayed for his people.
Today, the Lord Jesus Christ calls you to stand with him in this present crisis, to do what you can to build a righteous and just society, to stand in the gap for what is true and holy in our nation, and to pray that God would be merciful and turn the church and nation to Him. Will you be such a person?
Amen.