One

In the last entry, we considered what occurred with God's people in a particular gap. That gap involved a physical location between two mountains, but it was a spiritual gap as well, as God's people turned away from Him. It comes up again in this entry.
Ezekiel was a very unusual prophet. He was carried away into captivity from Judah, Israel to Babylon with thousands of others. He was trained as a priest, but in captivity, he was physically separated from the Temple in Jerusalem, and the service for which he, and his fathers before him, had been trained. His father's name was Buzi, meaning "contempt, despised, shame", and this was the condition of the priesthood in Israel. So, looking at Ezekiel's situation in the natural, we would think that he had lost everything. However, Ezekiel tells us that his home in captivity in Babylon was by the River Chebar (Ez. 1:1). This is important because Chebar means "far off, length of space, continuance of time, already, long ago, formerly, now, joining together, length". The very length of the river was used to express the connection between past, present, and future, and between near, and far away. The picture this river gives us is of a connection among those things, and a lack of limitation or boundary between them. Ezekiel's prophetic visions were of the same nature. He saw into places that were far in distance, and he saw into the spiritual realm in a way that few others experienced.
The elders of Judah in captivity would come to Ezekiel and ask for the word of the LORD. In chapter 8, Ezekiel is given a vision of what is occurring at the Temple in Jerusalem, many hundreds of miles away. There were bizarre idol images and worship within the Temple walls. Elders that remained in Jerusalem, including Jaazaniah ("The LORD Hears"), were burning incense, waiving their censors in front of the abominable images. They were practicing abominable things in private as well saying, "The LORD does not see us, the LORD has forsaken the land" (Ez. 8:12). They were practicing sun worship from the Temple site, as they faced eastward (v. 16). The land became filled with violence as a result. Yet, here was Ezekiel, far away in the land of captivity, "seeing" everything they were doing, whether in public, or private, because the LORD did indeed see it.
As we go to chapter 22 in Ezekiel, the physical and spiritual condition of Jerusalem and Judah has continued to decline with their idolatry, presumably because they continued to think that the LORD did not see. The land was filled with violence, injustice, greed so brutal that souls are destroyed, and evil, debauched sexual behavior from the princes who govern, to the priesthood, to the prophets who prophesy falsely. They looked at other men and women as prey for their greed, use and abuse.
The description from this chapter sounds very similar to what we have become in our country. We also live as though we believe that the LORD does not see, that we also can do as we please in the secrecy of our minds, in our private chambers, and even in the open places.
Then the LORD says something pitiful:
"So I sought for a man among them who would make a wall, and stand in the gap before Me on behalf of the land, that I should not destroy it; but I found no one."  Ez. 22:30
The LORD wasn't looking for thousands. All it would have taken was a single man who would stand and intercede in this spiritual gap. He couldn't find even that one.
Could it be possible that Jaazaniah, the only person Ezekiel specifically mentioned by name, whose name  means "The LORD Hears", was one of those who had been called and purposed to stand in the gap? If he had been standing in the gap, would the LORD have heard, stopped the judgment, and healed the land? We don't know for sure, but instead of standing in the gap, he was waving a burning incense censor (representing prayer) before abominable idols with the others-idols that couldn't hear, and couldn't save.
The LORD says in another place to the prophet Jeremiah:
"Run to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem; see now and know; and seek in her open places if you can find a man, if there is anyone who executes judgment (justice), who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her."  Jer. 5:1
He is looking for a person who does not just talk, but whose heart, desires and actions are to seek God. It just takes one.
The scriptures say of Moses:
"Therefore He said that He would destroy them, had not Moses, His chosen one stood before Him in the breach, to turn away His wrath, lest He destroy them."  Ps. 106:23
How did Moses make this intercession for the people? How did He move the LORD to spare hundreds of thousands from destruction after they chose to worship idols instead of God? Moses said to the LORD:
"Yet now, if You will forgive their sin-but if not, I pray, blot me out of Your book which you have written."   Ex. 32:32
Words are easy. Sacrifice is not. Moses interceded, stood in the gap, from a place of self-sacrifice.
In another place in scripture, we are told that in order to stand in the gap for our land, we who are called by His name must humble ourselves, pray, seek His face, and turn from our own wicked ways (2 Chron. 7:14). It requires more from us in order to stand in that position. The prophet Isaiah was a tremendous prophet of God, one of the greatest in scripture, who had the devastating and humbling experience of having his spiritual uncleanness revealed to him. His cleansing took the form of a spiritual hot coal taken from the altar in heaven and touched to Isaiah's unclean lips. Only at that point, could Isaiah volunteer to fill the need and say, "Send me." (Isa. 6:1-8).
We might say, "But this is the Old Testament. Jesus already sacrificed Himself to stand in the gap for us." However, the Apostle Paul tells us to let this same mind be in us which was also in Christ Jesus, being that Jesus humbled Himself, became of no reputation, leaving kingship to become a servant, obedient to death, even a humiliating death (Phil. 2:5-8). So even after Christ died for us, we are still expected to have the same mind regarding our purpose. Our purpose involves walking in His character.
I am not talking about a physical death here for us, but I think it does require more than the words that come so easily out of our mouths. This is probably why it is so difficult for the LORD to find someone who is spiritually prepared, to do it. It just takes one.
Our nation, according to the path it has rebelliously chosen while believing that God does not see, may soon come to the point of impending destruction as a result. God will look, is looking now, for someone who will make a wall, and stand in the gap. I need to develop the spiritual character necessary for that coming moment now, otherwise, I will not be ready and able to do it. 

Our Father is asking, "Is there any man who would make a wall, and stand in the gap?"


"PRAY"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MC4kbteMLCg&sns=em

"Take Me Into the Holy of Holies"
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tfZp8ev1MD0