Ezekiel 22:30 (NLT) “I looked for someone who might rebuild the wall of righteousness that guards the land. I searched for someone to stand in the gap in the wall so I wouldn’t have to destroy the land, but I found no one.”

Ezekiel was a prophet during the second round of people that were taken into exile in Babylon. Even with thousands of people that were already either killed or taken captive, the people of Judah, which included the main city of Jerusalem, didn't turn away from their grave sins that had brought judgement on the people and the land. Ezekiel was given many messages by God to give to the people who remained in the land of Judah, but the news was not good at all. Because the people refused to repent and turn away from their sinful ways, more doom and destruction was foretold. In one of God's rebukes to the people given through Ezekiel, we read the words of the verse above. How utterly sad it is and must have been for Ezekiel that among all the people still in the land of Judah, the Lord could not find even one righteous person that he could count on. That is a horrible situation among a people, especially a people that were known as the people of God! According to what the Lord said, if He had found one person who was righteous enough for Him to use, the land could have been spared.

That makes me think about our present-day state of affairs in the country that we live in. This country has so obviously turned away from the foundation that the founding fathers laid, which was very much based on the principles and precepts in the Word of God. But as history has always proven, mankind will eventually drift away from God and when that happens, all bets are off. Perversion and extreme sinful behavior follow, which leads to chaos and mayhem and that's exactly what we see in our society today. Things that we would have never dreamed would happen, including our government establishing laws that go directly against the laws of God, have happened and now down is up and up is down. We are in the days that were spoken about in Isaiah chapter five where the people were calling evil good and good evil.

So the question remains, is there a righteous people that the Lord can turn to who can "rebuild the wall of righteousness" that guards the land? Is there a people who can stand in the gap in the wall to hold back God's judgement to give more people an opportunity to turn from their sinful ways and avoid disaster? That people should be the Church of God. That's us! We need to check ourselves to make sure that we have not sullied ourselves with the patterns of this world and have not joined in the chaos and mayhem that is going on right now. The days that we are living in were foretold in the scriptures. I believe that we are at the beginning of the last days. I also believe that the Lord is shaking things to see who is actually with Him and who is not. The pandemic that we just experienced was a shaking and many have now stopped even going to church and have stopped following Jesus. Let's make sure that we prepare ourselves to stand in the gap so that we can rebuild the wall of righteousness around this land as long as possible until Jesus comes. Let's make sure that when the Lord is looking for someone to build that wall, He will find us ready and willing, saying what the Prophet Isaiah said to the Lord when He was looking for someone to use, "Here am I, send me!" Even so, send us and use us Lord!

Pastor Joey Vazquez