Are You Standing In The Gap?
Ezekiel 22:29-30 "The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully. 30 And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none."
Standing in the gap—interceding for others—has always been practiced by those who truly love God and His children. In the Bible we find many instances of individuals who stood in the gap for the people of their time. These included Moses (Ex 13, 17:9-32:11, 12, Nu 16:21, 22, 47, 48, Ps 106:23); Samuel (1Sa 12:23); Ezra (Ezra 9:1-15); Nehemiah (Nehemiah 1:4-1); Job (Job 42:8); Daniel (Daniel 9:3-19), to name only a few.
In our day a few are interceding and I am grateful for those intercessors. Jeremiah 27:18 suggests that true followers should be interceding in our day: “But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts….”
Unfortunately, Israel had so fallen into sin, that it was too late for intercessory prayers to make much of a difference. It isn’t too late in our time.
Are you standing in the gap?—Dan