A Man in the Gap

Ezekiel 22 has some of the most alarming practices of Israel listed in detail. Their heinous sins were the reason why God would no longer relent from sending disaster. They stole, they murdered, they committed sexual abominations with family members. They took bribes, extorted, and swindled each other. They were an utterly corrupt nation. And in the middle of the litany of issues Ezekiel addresses, there is this:

Ezekiel 22:12 (ESV) In you they take bribes to shed blood; you take interest and profit and make gain of your neighbors by extortion; but me you have forgotten, declares the Lord GOD.

The Lord determines to deal with the corruption through the fire of purification. Ezekiel is told that the city will melt as silver or other fine ores are melted in order to produce something useful. 

Ezekiel 22:17–22 (ESV) And the word of the LORD came to me: 18 “Son of man, the house of Israel has become dross to me; all of them are bronze and tin and iron and lead in the furnace; they are dross of silver. 19 Therefore thus says the Lord GOD: Because you have all become dross, therefore, behold, I will gather you into the midst of Jerusalem. 20 As one gathers silver and bronze and iron and lead and tin into a furnace, to blow the fire on it in order to melt it, so I will gather you in my anger and in my wrath, and I will put you in and melt you. 21 I will gather you and blow on you with the fire of my wrath, and you shall be melted in the midst of it. 22 As silver is melted in a furnace, so you shall be melted in the midst of it, and you shall know that I am the LORD; I have poured out my wrath upon you.”

Later, Ezekiel enumerates another reason for Israel's judgment. 

Ezekiel 22:26 (ESV) Her priests have done violence to my law and have profaned my holy things. They have made no distinction between the holy and the common, neither have they taught the difference between the unclean and the clean, and they have disregarded my Sabbaths, so that I am profaned among them.

It was important for Israel to distinguish between the holy and the common. We don't think this is much of a big deal, but the Lord sees so. He listed out through Moses in Leviticus the cleanliness laws and holiness code in such detail, down to their dishes, discharges, and diseases. Israel was to be a people who distinguished the holy from the mundane, which should make every Christian ask how we are to do the same.

Do we honor the Sabbath (our Sunday worship) as a holy day? Or do we keep it as every other? Do we honor our places of worship or treat them with contempt and scorn? I do admit the Temple in the New Covenant is the body of Christ, but our worship gatherings speak to our values. Do we honor marriage as God does, child-bearing and rearing as holy institutions? Do we see our sexuality as God does, or do we meld with the world? The reason the Lord calls us salt is that salt is distinguished from every other taste. It stands out. 

On top of this Israel was full of false prophets who spoke of their own imaginations. 

Ezekiel 22:28 (ESV) And her prophets have smeared whitewash for them, seeing false visions and divining lies for them, saying, ‘Thus says the Lord GOD,’ when the LORD has not spoken.

The words, "smeared whitewash" is a picture that Jesus will use of the Pharisees in Matthew 23, calling them "whitewashed tombs, which outwardly appear beautiful, but within are full of dead people’s bones and all uncleanness." (Matthew 23:27). There is a form of religious practice that is void of the power of God's work because the people disregard the holy things, making them mundane and then seek to put a good face on it. This was Israel's sin and in many ways, it can become the church's sin. For why does Paul warn of such things in the New Testament?

2 Timothy 3:1–5 (ESV) But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. 2 For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, 3 heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, 4 treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, 5 having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people.

Finally Ezekiel is told the saddest news of all. God could find no one to stand in the gap for the people. 

Ezekiel 22:30 (ESV) 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.

In the New Testament, we have that man. His name is Jesus. He stood in the gap between a holy God and lost sinners and He now builds the church today. But do not take for granted the grace of God's New Covenant. He is patient and caring enough to melt you down and refurbish His people into what He wants them to be once again.