I’ve always been taught 22:30, “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,” meant that there wasn’t a single righteous person left in Judah.
Except, reading it this time, in context, I saw it from a completely different perspective. This is being delivered through Ezekiel, after all. There have been prophets to deliver the judgments. There have been servants faithful attending to the prophets. Ezekiel was married.
Now, it is possible that ‘none’ is a poetic and/or statistical statement. That there simply weren’t enough to merit further reprieve. But I have a question.
What if none of those who were righteous were willing to stand for the people? What if all of the faithful few were like, “Yeah, nope. No. Go for it. This place is awful. Burn it all down and start over. Totally deserved.”
Because… I can understand getting to that point. I’m not saying we’re quite there yet. Not as a church. Not as a nation. But, yeah, I can see feeling that way.
So maybe this could have fit in my Bible vs Sunday school series, really, because I don’t read this a verse that should be used to inspire us to stand up. That’s the way it was taught to me more than once. “Will you be the one to stand in the gap?”
Because honestly? No. The way Judah is being described here? No. I won’t defend that. I won’t ask for a people like that to have more time.
God isn’t asking Ezekiel to defend anyone. He’s telling Ezekiel there’s no defense left. He’s told Ezekiel over and over that opportunity after opportunity for repentance was rejected. Paul tells us that there is a time to knock the dust from our sandals and move on. If people don’t want to listen, let them face the judgment they have chosen.