In Ezekiel 22, the Lord recounts many of the reasons for His coming judgment upon the people of Jerusalem. They were guilty of bloodshed, idolatry, sexual sin, and many more sins that were ultimately summed up with forgetting God (22:1-12). Not only was this a problem amongst the average person, but also amongst the leaders there as well! God says, the priests, “have done violence to my law” (22:26) for they made no distinction between the holy things and the unholy, the clean and the unclean (22:26). The princes in the city were abusive and put their own gain before the good of others (22:37) and as if this wasn’t enough, false prophets were running rampant who tried to cover over these sins (22:28).
In light of all of this, once again God’s judgment is promised to come. God even looked for someone to try and avert His coming wrath to no avail. He says, “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” (Ez. 22:30). This verse ought to remind us of the time that Abraham pleaded with God on behalf of Sodom and Gomorrah. God pronounced judgment against the cities, and Abraham interceded on their behalf, eventually coming to the conclusion that if there were merely 10 righteous in the city that God would spare the city for the sake of the righteous (Gen. 18:22-33). However, none were found apart from Abraham’s nephew Lot, who was rescued by angels before the Lord destroyed the cities with fire and brimstone (Gen. 19:23-29). Abraham was the one who was willing to build up the wall, to stand in the breach, and to seek the aversion of destruction. He alone stood before God and pleaded with God on behalf of the righteous that he hoped were to be found in the city.
In Ezekiel’s day, there were none. No one was in the city interceding for it, and there weren’t any who were to be spared from judgment. God searched, and His search came up empty, and surely if there was someone, He’d have found them! He’s God!
These judgment passages are a frightful thing because they remind us of the severity of sin and God’s just judgment that is coming. The Scripture says that all have sinned (Rom. 3:23). All of us deserve the just judgment of God. We all, by nature, were children of wrath (Eph. 2:3).
But the good news today, is that God is also rich in mercy (Eph. 2:4) and the intercessor is no longer missing. For the Scripture shows us that under the new covenant the Son of God is interceding for us. The author to the Hebrews describes this, in light of the eternality of Jesus’ priesthood by saying,
“Consequently, he is able to save to the uttermost those who draw near to God through him, since he always lives to make intercession for them”
Hebrews 7:25, ESV
He doesn’t need to offer up sacrifices for His sins, because He was sinless; instead, He offered Himself, once and for all (see Heb. 7:26-28). When we read about the passages concerning God’s judgment, we should be drawn to worship as we remember that we are spared not on the basis of our own righteousness or our own good works or anything we bring to the table. We are spared from God’s just judgment because Jesus bore that judgment for us. He suffered in our place. He paid the price for our sin, that we might be saved by a free gift of grace and that we might receive His righteousness credited to our account. We don’t have to fear today, for an intercessor has been found and will forever be interceding for us! Oh, what a Savior!
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