Standing in the Breach
Ezekiel was one of two Old Testament prophets who conducted their ministries among the Jewish exiles in Babylon. Daniel was the other. Ezekiel 22:30-31 forms the conclusion of a prophetic oracle in which God exposes Judah’s utterly depraved condition and the necessity of their expulsion from the Promised Land. Judah had seen God judge the northern kingdom of Israel by the hand of the Assyrians for her idolatry and sin. Even so, she refused to fear God and repent of her own rebellion. Rather, Judah chose to imitate her fallen “sister” by mimicking the northern kingdom’s willful rejection of God. In Ezekiel 22, the magnitude of Judah’s rebellion is detailed. In reference to Judah’s practice of child sacrifice God condemns Jerusalem as “the bloody city” defiled by the idols she has made (v. 2-6). In violation of their covenant with God, parents were treated with contempt (7), foreigners were extorted (7), orphans and widows were oppressed (7), Sabbaths and temple worship were profaned (8), lewdness and immorality were practiced (10-11), dishonest gain was pursued (12-13). In verses 23-29 we learn that Judah’s prophets were liars, her priests dishonored God, her princes oppressed the people, and the people themselves practiced extortion and robbery!
Through Ezekiel, God responds to Judah’s willful depravity. To the exiles in Babylon, God announces that his judgment had already fallen on Judah and Jerusalem. God explained, “And I sought for a man among them who should build up the wall and stand in the breach before me for the land, that I should not destroy it, but I found none. Therefore I have poured out my indignation upon them. I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath, I have returned their way upon their heads, declares the Lord God”(Ez. 22:30-31, ESV).
Several principles regarding both judgment and grace emerge from Ezekiel 22:30-31. The first is the inevitability of God’s wrath where repentance is absent. Having already reviewed the various expressions of Judah’s sin, we need now consider its universality. In verse 30, God declares that he searched for, but could not find, one Israelite righteous enough to effectively intercede on behalf of God’s chosen people. Such was the depraved state of Judah. Where repentance is absent, sin spreads until it infiltrates every corner of human life and culture. When this happens, judgment is the only possible outcome.
At the same time, Ezekiel 22:30-31 reminds us of God’s patience and his divine impulse to forgive. In the face of Israel’s long history of rebellion and idolatry, God patiently sent his prophets to call his people back into relationship with him. Wrath is not God’s first impulse when confronted by human sin. Before judgment comes, grace and forgiveness are offered. Even when responding to Judah’s rebellion, God refused to execute his wrath until he searched one last time for someone qualified to intercede on their behalf. No one could be found.
Which brings us to a third principle found in this passage—our own need for an intercessor. As fallen sinful people, we cannot be saved from God’s wrath apart from a man qualified and willing to “stand in the breach” for us before God. In his mercy, God himself has provided the man we need in Christ (1 Timothy2:5-6; 1 John 2:1-2). May we stand in awe at the remembrance of God’s grace.
Finally, Ezekiel 22:30-31 reminds us that, even as Christ intercedes for us, we are called to intercede for others. Abraham “stood in the gap” by interceding with God for Sodom and his nephew Lot (Genesis 18:22-33). Lot was delivered. After the Israelites crafted and worshipped their golden calf, Moses “stood in the breach” between them and God preventing their destruction (Psalm 106:23). Since we have now been made righteous in Christ, we too can intercede for each other and for the lost. How faithful are we to intercede for our church? For our wives, our children, our extended family? How faithful are we to intercede for our community, our nation, our world? Will we believe God’s promise that “…the prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working” (James 5:16)? May we prove useful to God in our own ministry of intercession.