Bible Commentaries

NOT A MAN TO BE FOUND!

‘And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap … but I found none.’

Ezekiel 22:30

It is a terrible thing to read this chapter, and to trace an exact resemblance between the sins enumerated by the prophet and those with which we are familiar in many of the great cities of our empire. Indeed there are forms of sin amongst us in excess of those charged against Jerusalem. These sins were committed in Jerusalem, which God had chosen, and had favoured with the highest privileges. But even Zion had not such privileges as have been the lot of some of us.

I. It is impossible that our nation should be spared from heavy calamities, unless there be a change for the better in our national spirit and manners.—We shall no longer be fit to be God’s messengers of life and blessing to the world, unless our filthiness is consumed out of us (Ezekiel 22:15). In Jerusalem, the prophets, priests, and princes were specially reprehensible; because they were the leaders in the national apostasy their retribution was to be proportioned to their opportunities. We have amongst us many godly men, who sigh and cry for the abominations that are being wrought amongst us; may God increase their number, and raise up specially in our Colleges and Divinity Halls a godly succession.

II. God is ever in search of men to perform His holy purposes, in turning back their fellows from their sins, and restoring His lost authority.—How wonderful this is! He cannot do the work Himself because He is pure Spirit; and He will not avail Himself of the instrumentality of His holy angels. Nay, but He seeks for men who will be prepared to stand in the gap. Never was the need greater than to-day for such men, to resist the pleasure mania, the Sunday desecration, the licence and lax morality of our age. The masses are pouring through the gap like a flock of sheep. Will you not heed God’s appeal, and offer yourself for this great and crying need?

Illustrations

(1) ‘From the coast of Cornwall Marconi’s wireless telegrams are being sent forth upon the ether. In radiating waves they are passing round the world, just as the ripples emanating from a stone cast into the centre of a tranquil pool will presently break in silvery chimes upon the beach. Wherever they encounter a sympathetic point, they leave their message, which is passed to the newspaper or the individual. So God’s call for service is throbbing in the atmosphere around us. Happy is he who is so attuned to His nature, that he can detect the summons and welcome it with gladness, saying, “Here am I, send me.”’

(2) ‘God demands of me a holy life even more than an outward service. Prophet and priest I may claim to be, but of what avail is it, if in conduct I do not discern between the unclean and the clean? There is no name in Scottish history round which darker or grimmer or bloodier associations gather than the name of John Graham of Claver-house. He hunted and harried the men of the Covenant. He shot some of them with his own hand. He brought misery and weeping, widowhood and orphanhood, to many a lowly and godly home. Yet he was scrupulous in the observance of all religious ordinances. Let me beware of this double life. Let me remember how insufficient it is to say, Lord! Lord! Let me be a daily follower of Jesus Christ, as well as a professed believer in Him.’