Ezekiel 22:30 - Homiletics

A man to stand in the gap.

The nation of the Jews is in a desperate condition. Their defense is broken down, and God is ready to rush in through the breach with devastating vengeance. But he is loath to do so, and, though his is the threatening power, yet in a wonderful clemency God looks for some one to fill the gap and so to save the devoted nation. Unhappily, no such man is to be found.

I. THE REACH IS MADE . The Jews have been already beaten in the war with Babylon. In the corresponding experience of souls the same lamentable condition is observable. The sinner sets himself against God with a brazen face, and makes the stoutest fence of worldly precautions wherewith to protect himself. But alas! this is a feeble structure. We have not to wait long before we discover that it has been broken through. Trouble has come. Misfortune has fallen on the self-complacent sinner. Or it may be he has suffered from severe sickness, that has weakened the energies of his body. Possibly his mental faculties have begun to fail. He receives unpleasant warning of his mortality. There is a breach in his hedge.

II. GOD IS PREPARING TO COME THROUGH THE BREACH . He cannot disregard the sins of his people, for he is their King, and he must act justly. He might even make a breach at any moment, and in the awful crash of judgment sweep away the strongest fortifications of the soul as so much dust and rubbish. Much more, then, must the enfeebled soul, with ruined fences, stand open to the irresistible wrath of God! So long as we live in sin we are inviting God to come in vengeance through the ever-widening breaches in our paltry defenses.

III. GOD WISHES THE BREACH TO BE FILLED . Here is the wonderful part of our subject. Though we deserve God's vengeance, he is reluctant to wreak it upon us. While he is necessarily preparing to smite the sinner, he longs to spare him. When the soul is indifferent to its own danger, God grieves over it and looks out for a way of escape. God now longs to save us before we think of seeking for our deliverance.

IV. A MAN IS NEEDED TO FILL THE BREACH . The Jews cannot do this for themselves. They do not see their danger, or they are too busily engaged upon the walls, or no one among them is strong and brave enough to take so perilous a position. We cannot mend the breach in our own lives. We cannot fortify our own souls against the wrath of God.

V. NO MAN IS FOUND TO FILL THE BREACH . Jeremiah might have seemed the most likely savior in this time of extreme need; but even that great prophet was not able to stand alone against the inrushing army of vengeance. No man can save his neighbor from sin and ruin. The evil of the world is too great for all the good men in it to resist. The case of man is hopeless if it is left only to his fellow-man to save him.

VI. GOD HAS SENT HIS SON TO FILL THE BREACH . God looked to see if there was any to save, and wondered that there was no man. Then his own arm brought salvation.

1. Christ came as a man. A man was wanted. God coming in wrath against mankind must be met by a representative man.

2. Christ came into the world . He stood in the breach and met the fury of the storm. He was "made sin for us," and faced the curse of the cross.

3. Christ came in the might of God .