In the book of the
prophet Isaiah, there is a parable that was spoken to Israel, by the
Lord’s messenger Isaiah the prophet . This parable concerns the
rebellion of the house of Jacob and their failure to bear righteous
fruit. In the fifth chapter, verses one through seven, God is
complaining about the sins of the house of Judah and Israel, and their
unfaithful ways. God likens His people unto a vineyard, which He had
planted, in a choice spot on a very fruitful hillside. God told how He
had chosen and planted the choicest vine, and how He had fenced them
in for their protection: how He had gathered out the offending things
(stones), and had fortified it; how He had built a winepress and then
how He had waited for the time of grapes to be gathered. Then to His
dismay, His prized vineyard had produced wild grapes. God then asked
that they should judge whether He had failed to do anything that
should have been done to ensure a good harvest? Yet His vineyard had
produced worthless fruit. God then told the people that the vine was
themselves. He also warned them that He would not take care of His
vineyard anymore, but would take away the hedge and allow them to be
devoured by enemies; to be trodden down and laid waste by the beasts
of the field, all because there was no fruit of truth and
righteousness in them.Now God has always kept a protective wall to
stand between His people and their enemies. This wall is a wall of
mercy, on the inside is grace and on the outside is wrath. Those who
believe are kept from judgment. You may have heard the saying “hedged
about by mercy.” So it is, that we who believe are kept from wrath by
a hedge of God’s power and grace. This is so we may not be hurt or
molested by the judgments and trials of the world. Yet, there is one
thing that can cause a breech, or a gap in this hedge of mercy, and
that is sin. It is no secret, that the one thing that will cause God’s
protection to be breeched is unconfused, unforgiving sin, in the lives
of God’s very own children. When we keep His Word, we bring forth
fruit to God, but if we should sin and fail to be fruitful, we become
like a tree without worth to God, and He will no longer keep us but
cast us from His presence, as He did Adam when our first parents
sinned and were driven from the place of God’s provision.
You will remember how the people sinned by committing an
abomination while Moses was up on Mt. Sinai where God was giving him
the tablets of His law by making and worshiping a golden calf. God was
so incensed by their idolatry that He instructed Moses his servant,
“Let me alone, that I may consume them in a moment.” But Moses, the
man of God, stood in the breech, and turned away God’s wrath from His
people so that they did not die at that time. For the thing God had
thought to do unto them, He did not. From this incident in the history
of Israel, we get the phrase, “standing in the gap.” Moses also
entreated God that He not leave the people, but consent to go with
them up to the Promised Land, because God had said He would send an
angel, but Himself would not go: but Moses said, “If thou go not with
me, carry us not up hence.” And He said, “My presence shall go with
thee, and I will give thee rest.” This literally means that Moses or
other men of God could hold back judgment from a sinful nation, a
people, person, or church, who might otherwise die except for the
intercession of that Prophet. This seems to have been a pattern in the
men whom God called to carry His Word and stand between God and the
people. A watchman must, at the very least, take his responsibility to
warn the people, seriously, or he will be held accountable for their
blood if he fails to cry a warning against sin. Perhaps the church as
a whole, or we as individuals, may by intercessory prayer, literally
hold back judgment from sinners. One of the identifying marks of a
true Prophet is: if he loves his people enough to place himself
between them and God’s wrath, thus making up the hedge, so that the
people may have another chance to repent and do things right. No one
is called just for his own sake, but for the peoples’ benefit. Let us
not be as the false prophets, those who refuse to stand in the breech,
for they did not love the people. Moses actually told God if He would
not forgive the sin of the people, to blot me out of your book. Paul,
speaking of the Jews, said much the same thing, saying, “I could wish
myself accursed from Christ, for my brethren after the flesh, the
Jews.”
As we are called to represent Christ, let us not grow weary in well
doing, as we are the light of the world. God has given us the Word of
reconciliation, so that we may, in Christ’s stead, invite men to come
to God. For, said Christ, “Ye are living epistles, read indeed by all
men.” As Christ manifests God to the world, so must we show them
Christ, his love, his care, his mercy, his faith. In doing this, we
stand in the breech for our generation, holding back the wrath of God
from wayward men. Let us stand in the gap for one another, our
friends, our brothers, our nation, our children, and for the church
itself. Thus we may fulfill our office toward God and His church. Do
not underestimate the value of your commission nor the restraint that
Godly people have, on sin’s power in the earth. You will remember how
that God, if He could have found ten Godly people in Sodom, would have
spared that city and the whole plain of Jordan from fiery destruction.
There were many times when God heard the prayers of just one righteous
person; people like Hannah, Samuel, Jehoshaphat, and Daniel. So let us
continue to stand in the gap for our generation. We, as God’s
watchmen, should be alert for it may be that the blood of this
generation will be required at our hands.
Of course, the greatest example we find of this principle of God’s
Word is Christ Himself and His standing in for the sin of the whole
world. God sent His son into the world to suffer for the sins that
kept the world from God. His death filled up the breech that sin
caused between God and His creation. In the time of the Old Testament,
all the blood that was shed by innocent beasts of sacrifice only
delayed the judgment until later, but now that debt is paid, the
justice of God is satisfied, and the great breech between God and man
is forded by the blood of God’s Son, who is the One Mediator between
God and man, the man Christ Jesus. This is the ultimate intercessor,
because of this man, we shall not all die, but be saved from death by
Him. Though we have all sinned, we now have an advocate, Jesus, who
will, if we ask Him, plead our case before God. So you see why we
should plead for sinners, because Jesus now pleads for us, even so we
should plead for one another. You will remember how Moses, as he
pleaded, tried to offer himself to die instead of the idolatrous
people. God said, at that time, that sinners must die for their own
sin, yet later, He sent Christ to die for the people. God could not
find anyone fit to fill the gap, so He came Himself. Paul, as our
instructor, spoke of how Jesus loved so much that He was willing to
die for His church. In the Words of the Apostle, we should also love
in like manner, for he said, “Let us so love.” In the book of Isaiah,
Chapter 58, we are instructed how that by proper love and care for
God’s people we might become known as “the repairers of the breech,
the restorers of paths to dwell in.” If only we would obey from our
hearts God’s commandments, and love one another. God wants more than
lip service. “Be ye doers of the work,” as said James the Apostle.
Paul instructed Timothy to be an example to his flock, that is, to
show them by his conduct what is right. Be ye followers of me, said
Jesus. He wants us to be like Him, having the same compassion and care
for His church. So we find that what is here written is reasonable and
good for doctrine and practice.
