“So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one.” (Ezekiel 22:30)
He saw that there was no man,
And wondered that there was no intercessor; (Isaiah 59:16a)
Intercessors matter to God! He wants people who will stand in the gap before Him on behalf of our nation.
What did God do when He found no intercessor in the midst of the wicked leaders and prophets in Israel? We find the answer in the very next verse.
“Therefore I have poured out My indignation on them; I have consumed them with the fire of My wrath; and I have recompensed their deeds on their own heads,” says the Lord God.” (Ezekiel 22:31)
Would that there was someone like Abraham who pled with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. (See Genesis 18;16-33.)
What of God’s response in Isaiah 59:16b?
Therefore His own arm brought salvation for Him;
And His own righteousness, it sustained Him.
There is a parallel to this verse in Isaiah 63:
I looked, but there was no one to help,
And I wondered
That there was no one to uphold;
Therefore My own arm brought salvation for Me;
And My own fury, it sustained Me. (Isaiah 63:5)
The verses from Isaiah quoted above are widely held to be messianic and, of course, Jesus is the Great Intercessor. (Hebrews 7:25)
It is sobering to consider for whom Jesus is intercessor. According to Hebrews 7:25, He is intercessor for believers.
I would like to propose that today’s intercessors ought to focus strongly on national leadership (in all seven mountains, not only the mountain of politics). We ought to stand in the gap before God and plead for our nation.
So many nations, including Australia, are little different to Israel in Ezekiel’s time. Our national leaders are far from God (not all, but a distressingly large number of them). It might turn out that the only way to avoid judgment is for intercessors to stand in the gap.
PIFA, be encouraged that you have answered the call. When God looks for intercessors in our nation, He will find them. Things are very different now to what they were when Ezekiel and Isaiah wrote their prophetic words.
