God Looks for the Devoted

Israel in the prophet Ezekiel’s day was lewd and proud. Men committed abominations with their neighbors’ wives and even defiled their daughters-in-law. Prophets who had once been holy became backslidden and no longer discerned between the holy and the profane. The nation’s leaders became as ravening wolves, seeking after dishonest gain, shedding blood, speaking lies, and burdening the poor.

Israel forgot God’s ways, and the nation grew so weak and worldly that God made them a laughingstock to the secular world. He said, “…therefore I have made you a reproach to the nations, and a mockery to all countries” (Ezekiel 22:4, NKJV).

What a searing indictment! God was saying to Israel, “You’ve so despised holy things, giving yourselves completely over to lust, that I’m going to take away your witness.”

Ezekiel was an older man at this time, about to pass out of the picture. So how did God deal with the situation? Israel’s fate rested on whether God could find just one reliable, righteous man. He told Ezekiel, “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” (Ezekiel 22:30).

God said the same thing 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, who seeks the truth, and I will pardon her” (Jeremiah 5:1). He told the prophet, “I’ll pardon the entire nation if I can find just one man who’ll stand in the gap. All I need is a single soul who is wholly yielded to my will.”

Beloved, today we hear a babble of voices in the church crying for more relevant, contemporary ways to reach the world. Many bizarre, fleshly programs are being tried. Yet, in my many years of ministry, I have seen these kinds of programs come and go. They rely totally on appeasing the flesh, having nothing to do with the cross. The crowds they draw live empty, unfulfilled lives, having never been exposed to the gospel of separation from the world and its lusts. The world scoffs at these programs, recognizing them all as mere foolishness. Only a person or a ministry wholly devoted to God will stand as a witness to the world!