Psalms 106:23: “Therefore he said that he would destroy them had not Moses his chosen stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them.”

Well here we go again. One of those verses that have people convinced that God is a ruthless, short tempered God who is ready to destroy His people and thank God for a patient loving Moses who seems to have some control over God when He gets into one of His irrational moods.

I mean does it not clearly say in this passage that had it not been for Moses God would have destroyed His people. Frankly, I can understand the atheist’s argument that we Christians are full of contradictions.  We talk about a God of love and then we have passages like this where this loving God boils over in wrath and it takes a cool headed human named Moses to establish some control over God before He does something really stupid like destroy his own people.

Well, here again we find that the word destroy is found in a Hiphal infinitive construct form. In such a state this would most likely be in a jussive form indicating a permissive action.  In other words it could be render: Had it not been for Moses God would have had to allow them to be destroyed.  In other words God is not the one destroying He is the one protecting.  However, due to the sin of the people, he was just too holy to continue this protection and he needed a man to stand in the gap or the breach that the sin of the people had caused between them and God. Because of the holiness of God and man’s free will God could not act to put his hand of protection over his people lest He violate the law of free will. This would give the enemy a clear opportunity to come in and do his worst. But there was a righteous man who could stand in the gap, whose own sin was cleansed by the blood of the Lamb that would be slain for His sin a couple thousand years in the future. How can an event that had not yet taken place redeem Moses from his sin? We tend to forget that God does not live in time. People were saved in the Old Testament just like today. They needed a redeemer. Moses knew there would one day be a Messiah who would come and redeem his sin. Since this Messiah would not live in time, actually lived in past, present and future the sins of Moses were covered. In fact old Moses himself became a picture of this future Messiah who would redeem him as well as anyone who trusted in the atoning work of the coming Messiah.

The passage gives us that little extra insight with these words, Had it not been for Moses his chosen. Moses was chosen by God to stand before the breach or in the gap. The word for chosen is bachar which could also be rendered as proven. Thus you could render this passage as:  Moses was proven in his faith. Moses had faith in the redemptive work of a Messiah who was yet to come. He did not know his name would be Jesus or even recognize that it would be God’s own Son, he just knew there would be a redemption and it is in that He trusted, not his own righteousness to cleanse his sin. There are still many Jews today who are waiting for this Messiah, this Redeemer to come and are trusting in God to send a Redeemer for their sins. So do they actually have to believe that Jesus was the Messiah to be saved or is just trusting in God for a Redeemer enough to be saved?  Don’t you dare ask me that question, I am not a theologian, I am just a guy who studies the Word of God in the original languages and God has not given me a theological mind. I understand just enough theology to tend to my own garden and believe that Jesus was that Messiah and Redeemer for my sins and it is Him that I put my trust for my eternal state and the right to share an intimate relationship with God.  I am leaving it up to God and the theologians to decide who else makes it to heaven.

But now let us get back to the subject on this standing in the gap business. In ancient times when an army would besiege a fortress, they would attempt to make a breach in the walls so they could crawl through it into the city. When a breach would occur, a warrior from the city would place his body in front of this breach to prevent anyone from entering the city. Not anyone would be called upon to fill this breach. It had to be a proven and tested warrior, who would be capable of fending off this intrusion into the fortress.

God had created a hedge around Israel, but because of their sin there was a breach to that hedge. God needed someone to stand before Him in that breach. Someone who was redeemed by the blood of the Lamb and the man for this job was Moses who was chosen or proven to be pure enough to fill that gap for God’s people because of his faith in the future redemptive work of God.  Not by his own righteousness but the righteousness of a future Messiah.

We hear a lot of talk and sermons on the issue of filling the gap. This is a picture of intercession. There is the cry for intercessors and a pleading for people to volunteer as intercessors.  Yet, like in ancient times, when a warrior stood in the breach, it was not anyone who could do this. It had to be a proven warrior, someone who is pure and cleansed of his sin.  Someone who is trusting in the same Messiah that Moses trusted in for his redemption. For Moses that Messiah would come 2,000 years later, for us that Messiah came 2,000 years ago. God who does not live in time applies that redemptive work past, present and future.  If you are one of those who have been redeemed and you have family and friends who are not, it is you duty, just like Moses to stand in the gap for your family or friends and when the enemy approaches your family or friend he will see the gap and he will say, “Ah ha, no redemption there, God cannot put his hand of protection on them, I’m gonna go in and get ‘em.”   But you who have been cleansed by the blood of the Lamb, Jesus Christ can jump into that gap and say, “No you are not either, by blood of Jesus Christ I am cleansed and thus I can have that Hand of God protecting me. If you want to touch my family or my friends, then you have to go through me and if you do that you know who is waiting on the other side and you don’t want to mess with Him.”