There is an interesting story in Ezekiel chapter 22. I would encourage you to read verse 26 to the end of the chapter before reading the rest of this devotional. To give you an understanding of what was taking place in those days I would like to quote from Matthew Henty’s commentary. “All orders and degrees of men had helped to fill the measure of the nation’s guilt. The people that had any power abused it, and even the buyers and sellers find some way to oppress one another. It bodes ill to a people when judgments are breaking in upon them, and the spirit of prayer is restrained. Let all who fear God, unite to promote his truth and righteousness; as wicked men of every rank and profession plot together to run them down.” Sounds very up to date. Verse 30 is the key verse to our message this morning. God sought for a man to make up the hedge, but He found none! This hedge is found mentioned in the Bible many times. It is a wall of protection against “enemies”. In Job 1:10 God had made an hedge about Job. In Mark 12 God had made an hedge about the nation of Israel. In Ecclesiastes 10:8 we are warned “He that diggeth a pit shall fall into it; and whoso breaketh an hedge, a serpent shall bite him.” The reference to the serpent should be obvious.
God is always looking for those who will pray and work for the deliverance of the people. I Timothy 2:1 states, “I exhort therefore, that, first of all, supplications, prayers, intercessions, and giving of thanks, be made for all men;” Israel needed an intercessor. America needs an intercessor. Our families need an intercessor. Our churches need an intercessor. In Isaiah 58:18 they are called, “The repairer of the breach, The restorer of paths to dwell in.” May God use our lives and our prayers to be involved in repairing and restoring lives, not to cause the breach to be wider.
David asked God in Psalm 55 to create in him a clean heart, to renew a right spirit within him and to restore unto him the joy of his salvation. Then he went on to say, “Then will I teach transgressors thy ways and sinners shall be converted unto thee.” Solomon said in Proverbs, “He that walketh with wise men shall be wise, but a companion of fools shall be destroyed.” James said, “the prayer of a righteous man availeth much.” The lines, the fence, the hedge, the Bible principles are for our protection. We all have an influence on others for good or for bad. May we draw those around us closer to God rather than farther away. In Proverbs, those that forsook the guide, that were void of understanding, wandered out of the way. May God use us to be a light in a dark world, a voice of reason amidst all the confusion, a refuge in the time of the storm and certainly a repairer of the breach. God sought for a man….be that man!