The worst of times ( Jonah 3 )

 'It  was the best of times,it was the worst of times,( Quote from ,'Tale of two cities',by Charles Dicken) In Ezekiel 22 v 30 ,we have God speaking through the prophet Ezekiel who was a captive in Babylon, here is what he said.'I looked for someone among them who would build up the wall and stand before me in the gap on behalf of the land so that I would not have to destroy it,but I found no one'.This was written of one of the worst time in Jewish history.As one reads chap 22 we are made aware of the dreadful decline of the nation of Israel,morally and spiritually. It was so serious that God would judge them,by sending  an invading army upon them to practically destroy them.John B.Taylor writes ,'The over-all picture of extortion ,bloodshed,immorality,incest and irreligion is a terrifying description of any nation whose appointed  time is drawing near'.To emphasise how bad things had become God looks for even one person to stand in the gap, someone as J.B.Taylor puts it,'who would try to interpose himself to stop the national ruin.But there was no one with the moral courage to stem the tide'.so judgement would fall.Just one man,but it was not to be. No one listened to the prophet Jeremiah in Jerusalem,but if the king had stood in the gap,bringing people back to God, the city would have been spared,but alas it  was not to be.There comes a time when things become so bad ,that God says enough is enough.

                                                ' Heed the voice of God before it is to late'