When God decides to destroy a nation however, it is because they have persistently refused to repent of their wickedness and finally reach the point where is no longer a remedy, and it’s at that point that God’s anger is aroused to destroy the nation for its wickedness. And so it is in these instances that God looks for an individual to stand in the gap before Him, for if no one stands in the gap for the nation at that point the nation will be completely destroyed by Him. The scripture reveals to us that on more than one occasion Moses stood in the breach for Israel, thus preventing God from completely destroying them as a nation (Psalm 106:23). There is another account in scripture when Aaron had to run into the midst of the nation with his censer filled with incense to stop a plague that had broken out among the people, because of God’s anger being aroused against them. Fourteen thousand seven hundred people died on that occasion, and had Aaron not intervened the nation would have been completely destroyed (Numbers 16:44-50). Another account recorded in scripture is when the Israelites had begun to commit harlotry with the women of Moab and bow to their gods, thus arousing the Lord’s anger against the nation. Aaron’s grandson Phinehas, stood in the gap on that occasion and killed an Israelite and a Midianite woman with a javelin, as they practiced sexual immorality in the midst of the camp. Twenty four thousand people died on that occasion, and had Phinehas not intervened the nation would have been completely destroyed (Numbers 25:7-11). And so we see that in all these instances people standing in the gap before the Lord on behalf of the nation prevented Israel from being completely destroyed.
Michael E.B. Maher
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