Make Up the Hedge and Stand in the Gap

As the Lord examined the people in Ezekiel’s day He said this: “And I sought for a man among them, that should make up the hedge, and stand in the gap before me for the land, that I should not destroy it: but I found none” (Ezekiel 22:30).  He was looking for someone who would stand for Jehovah despite difficulties, someone who would not “vex the poor and needy,” someone who would reject the wickedness around him.  But since He found none Jerusalem was largely destroyed.  This reminds us of the experience of Abraham when he and Lord negotiated about how many righteous it would take to have the Lord preserve the city of Sodom.  The Lord agreed that “peradventure ten shall be found there” He would “not destroy it” (Genesis 18:32).  Ultimately the Lord got everybody who was righteous out of the city and it was destroyed for its wickedness.  Abraham was surely one who “made up the hedge” and was “standing in the gap” for the land in that day—he was righteous despite the terrible wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah around him.  Perhaps then the question today for us is if the Lord were seeking such a person—in a day when the prophets have told us that our society is not unlike those ancient cities—would He find us as those who stand in the gap and go against the wickedness around us to spiritually protect our loved ones? 

                The phrases to “make up the hedge” and “stand in the gap” seem to connote to me the willingness to take personal suffering or difficulty in order to do the Lord’s will and be an example of righteousness.  Nephi, for example, was surely one who fit that description.  It was largely because of his righteousness—think of the storm on the ship or the incident with the bow—that they were not destroyed on their travels to the promised land.   Other examples in the Book of Mormon would surely include men such as Moroni and Teancum who stood up for the right and risked their lives to save their people.  They made themselves a hedge between the Lamanites and their people as they sought to preserve their freedoms and way of life.  A more modern example would be those early Saints who settled in the San Juan valley in southern Utah with the instruction to be a “buffer” between the larger population of Saints and the cowboys and Indians around them.  They took the brunt of difficulty in order to help establish a peaceful society for everyone, and they did it by following the direction of their prophet and keeping the Lord’s commandments.       

                Thinking about this verse in Ezekiel on another level, surely Christ is the only one who truly did this perfectly.  In the premortal council in heaven the Father also sought for one who would “make up the hedge” and “stand in the gap” between us and sin and death.  Christ willingly offered His life and glory in order to become the great and final sacrifice for our sins.  Without Him our bodies would have “laid down to rot and to crumble to its mother earth, to rise no more” and been “shut out from the presence of God” (2 Nephi 9:7-8).  Any attempt that we make in our lives to be that man or woman that the Lord can find standing up for His cause then is only in similitude of the true Defender of the Father’s plan.  We follow the example of the Savior as we try to be one whom the Father will find when He “[seeks] for a man among [us].”