Good evening, and welcome to EBible Fellowship’s Bible study in the book of Genesis.  Tonight is study #24 in Genesis 38, and we I will read Genesis 38:29-30:

And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.

We have been looking at the name Pharez, which means “breach.”  It is also be translated as “broken forth,” or “gap.”  We saw in our last study that God especially uses this word in relationship to His people, Israel of old and the New Testament churches, who had not conducted themselves faithfully according to His commandments.

That was the problem with Uzzah, and the breach upon Uzzah, or “ Perezuzzah,” the place where he put forth his hand to the ark.  It was inappropriate for him to do so.  He should never have been in that position.  Historically, that became a problem for David, and David faulted the priests and Levites because they should have instructed him when they heard about the plans for the ark.  Surely David just did not wake up one day and say, “Let us go get the ark.”  He would have made some preparation, and as it was discussed, the spiritual leaders of Israel should have instructed him.  And remember the spiritual leadership of Israel represents the churches, which were the churches of Christ, and the churches were under Christ, just as the priests and the Levites were under King David.  So, ultimately, we could find fault with the spiritual leaders of Israel for the death of Uzzah because this thing was not carried out in a biblical way, or in due order according to the commandments of God. 

So God made a breach upon Uzzah.  And we are starting to see that this word “breach” has an association with error, especially error in doctrine.  We saw that in Isaiah 30:12-14, and we saw that in Ezekiel 13:3-6, where this Hebrew word is translated as “gap.”  This is the chapter where they attempted to build a wall with “untempered mortar,” which means “without the faith of Christ.”  They were developing a false gospel like the “free will gospel,” which lacks the faith of Christ, but substitutes the works of men.  God likens that to daubing the bricks of the wall with untempered mortar.  In Hebrews 4, God speaks of those who perished in the wilderness, and it says in Hebrews 4:1-2:

Let us therefore fear, lest, a promise being left us of entering into his rest, any of you should seem to come short of it. For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it.

The Greek word translated as “mixed” is the same word used in 1Corinthians 12, and this chapter describes the body of Christ consisting of all the elect that become saved.  It says in 1Corinthians 12:24:

For our comely parts have no need: but God hath tempered the body together, having given more abundant honour to that part which lacked:

The word “tempered” is the same Greek word translated as “mixed” in Hebrews 4:2.  The Gospel was preached to the Old Testament Jews, but the problem was that it did not profit them because it was not “tempered” with faith, the faith of Christ: “Knowing that a man is not justified by the works of the law, but by the faith of Jesus Christ…”  That is the essential ingredient when making “mortar,” and you are developing your doctrine.  When you are “tempering” the Law, you have to add the faith of Christ.  To build the wall of salvation, the mortar must be daubed with the faith of Christ, and God says in Ezekiel 13:10:

Because, even because they have seduced my people, saying, Peace; and there was no peace; and one built up a wall, and, lo, others daubed it with untempered morter:

It was unmixed.  It must be “mixed” with the faith of Christ.  Then it says in Ezekiel 13:11-16:

Say unto them which daub it with untempered morter, that it shall fall: there shall be an overflowing shower; and ye, O great hailstones, shall fall; and a stormy wind shall rend it. Lo, when the wall is fallen, shall it not be said unto you, Where is the daubing wherewith ye have daubed it? Therefore thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH; I will even rend it with a stormy wind in my fury; and there shall be an overflowing shower in mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury to consume it. So will I break down the wall that ye have daubed with untempered morter, and bring it down to the ground, so that the foundation thereof shall be discovered, and it shall fall, and ye shall be consumed in the midst thereof: and ye shall know that I am JEHOVAH. Thus will I accomplish my wrath upon the wall, and upon them that have daubed it with untempered morter, and will say unto you, The wall is no more, neither they that daubed it; To wit, the prophets of Israel which prophesy concerning Jerusalem, and which see visions of peace for her, and there is no peace, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

You could take this whole passage and apply it to the churches.  It is extremely fitting because the churches built up a “wall of salvation” with untempered mortar, not mixed with faith.  And yet they would say, “Oh, but the people believed, and they accepted Christ, and to believe is to have faith!”  Yes, but if they have not the faith of Christ, what good is it?  Faith without works is dead.  People can say they have faith – even the devils believe and tremble, so they have faith.  But it says in James 2:18:

Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works.

And this “man” is Christ.  It is the work of Christ, and that is exactly what Hebrews 4 goes on to say.  It says in Hebrews 4:2-3:

For unto us was the gospel preached, as well as unto them: but the word preached did not profit them, not being mixed with faith in them that heard it. For we which have believed do enter into rest, as he said, As I have sworn in my wrath, if they shall enter into my rest: although the works were finished from the foundation of the world.

And those were the works of Christ performed on behalf of His people.  That is the “work” that must accompany faith.  You can say you have faith, and you can say for the rest of your life, “I believe,” but if you do not have this finished work of Christ performed for your sins, then your faith is dead.  It is nothing.  It means nothing because it is “untempered mortar,” and your wall is daubed with untempered mortar. 

And in the Day of Judgment, which began at the house of God in the churches, God simply brought the storm of His wrath against their “wall” and it fell, quickly and immediately.  And He discovered the foundation, which is saying the same thing.  There was no mixing of faith in the tempered mortar that was daubed in the so-called “living stones,” which resulted in a faulty wall that had no ability to withstand the storm of the wrath of God.  But more so, it was discovered that the foundation of that wall was not the Lord Jesus Christ. 

We see a similar picture of the two houses.  One was built on the Rock, the Lord Jesus, and the other was built upon the sand.  The house that was built upon the Rock withstood the storm, and the house built upon the sand collapsed.  It is the same idea.  We need Christ and His atoning work, not our own works.  God is not going to accept man’s works, just as He did not accept Cain’s work.  God let it be known that He desired a sacrifice, and Cain went about to do a good work, and he made an offering that should have been acceptable, except that he was trusting in his own offering, or his own work, whereas Abel trusted in who his offering pointed to, the Lord Jesus Christ.

We could go on looking at this passage in a great number of ways.  We could also go to Matthew 24 where it says regarding the temple that there shall not be one stone left upon another, which is looking at it in a different way.

But back in Ezekiel 13, before God got into this whole discussion of the wall built with untempered mortar, God said concerning the prophets in Ezekiel 13:5:

Ye have not gone up into the gaps…

That is, they have not gone up into the breaches, and that means they had not dealt with their doctrinal errors that were built into their confessions and creeds.  These high places provoked God to anger, and they had not turned from them and repented from them.  They had not closed up these breaches, and therefore God’s wrath was poured out, and it crushed the wall, and it was found out that there was no true foundation of Christ.  It was all built on their “profession of faith.”    “I am a Christian.”  That is how they would answer a census.  And on every Ash Wednesday, they will put ashes on their foreheads, or on Christmas Eve they will go a Christmas Mass.  Or, if they are Reformed Christians, they will go to churches that speak of Calvin, Luther, and Knox.  But they are all in the same boat, as the expression goes, and they are part of a structure that has no strength, as far as God is concerned.  It has no legitimacy.  It is alien to God, like “strange fire” being offered up, and God will destroy it.

Another place we find this word “Pharez” is in Ezekiel 22.  Let us start in Ezekiel 22::24:

Son of man, say unto her, Thou art the land that is not cleansed, nor rained upon in the day of indignation.

Where would that have been?  In the time of the Latter Rain, who did not receive the Latter Rain?  It was the churches.  Then it says in Ezekiel 22:25-29:

There is a conspiracy of her prophets in the midst thereof, like a roaring lion ravening the prey; they have devoured souls; they have taken the treasure and precious things; they have made her many widows in the midst thereof. Her priests have violated my law, and have profaned mine holy things: they have put no difference between the holy and profane, neither have they shewed difference between the unclean and the clean, and have hid their eyes from my sabbaths, and I am profaned among them. Her princes in the midst thereof are like wolves ravening the prey, to shed blood, and to destroy souls, to get dishonest gain. And her prophets have daubed them with untempered morter, seeing vanity, and divining lies unto them, saying, Thus saith the Lord JEHOVAH, when JEHOVAH hath not spoken. The people of the land have used oppression, and exercised robbery, and have vexed the poor and needy: yea, they have oppressed the stranger wrongfully.

This is quite a condemnation, is it not?  They are all rebels in God’s sight.  Then God says in Ezekiel 22:30:

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.

The word “gap” is the word “Pharez,” or “breach.”  Where was the breach?  It was practically everywhere you would look, and it is really the corporate church that is in view here.  We look at the corporate churches, and we see false doctrine after false doctrine on practically every point of Scripture.  They are false gospels, and these are the “gaps” that anger God.  Again, God said, “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”.

Then He said, in Ezekiel 22:31:

Therefore have I poured out mine indignation upon them; I have consumed them with the fire of my wrath: their own way have I recompensed upon their heads, saith the Lord JEHOVAH.

We know that the “man” God was looking for was the Lord Jesus Christ.  He was the “man” that was within the congregations throughout the church age, and it was His presence among the candlesticks that prevented God from destroying the whole corporate church.

God gave them space to repent, and He put up with their sins, and whenever they provoked Him to a high degree and He would  look for a “man,” He would find the “man” because the Spirit of Christ was still there for the many centuries of the church age.  But when we got to the time of the end, an awful transaction took place, and the “abomination of desolation” was set up in the holy place.  Christ had been among the candlesticks, but the Spirit of Christ departed, and He turned over the churches to Satan for destruction.  Then God came to visit, and as He looked He saw the breaches, and there was no “man” to stand in the gap.  As a result, He had to destroy it.  If there were a “man,” He would not have destroyed them, but He found none, and therefore He poured out His indignation and wrath.  That is why God judged the churches.

We have a similar verse in Jeremiah 5:1:

Run ye to and fro through the streets of Jerusalem, and see now, and know, and seek in the broad places thereof, if ye can find a man, if there be any that executeth judgment, that seeketh the truth; and I will pardon it.

No.  There is no “man,” the Lord Jesus Christ, in the churches today to ward off an angry God.  So God has caused their wall to collapse.  More than that, He has thrown down the stones of the “temple,” so that there is not one stone left upon another, and so forth.

So in these verses we have looked at the “breach,” and we have a good understanding as far as that is concerned.  There are a few Scriptures that we may get a chance to look at where there seems to be something else in view.  But we also want to look at something positive before we close this study, so let us go to Psalm 106:20-23:

Thus they changed their glory into the similitude of an ox that eateth grass. They forgat God their saviour, which had done great things in Egypt; Wondrous works in the land of Ham, and terrible things by the Red sea. 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.

Do you see how that works?  Just apply what this verse is saying to what we just read in Ezekiel 22 in seeking for a man and not being able to find one to stand in the gap.  Here, we see the sins of Israel while they were in Egypt, and God stated that He was going to destroy them.  We can read about that in the historical account.  And yet Moses interceded.  This may have happened more than once, but I remember one account of Moses speaking to God about what the enemies of God would say: “Because JEHOVAH was not able to bring them into the land which he promised them, and because he hated them, he hath brought them out to slay them in the wilderness.”   Moses interceding for the sake of Israel is a picture of the Lord Jesus Christ going to God on behalf of those who would become saved.  He has delivered the elect out of Egypt, and He wrought a great deliverance in saving the great multitude, but despite our great deliverance, we have fallen into sin, and we have grievously erred, and yet the Lord will not destroy us because the Lord Jesus ever liveth to make intercession for us.  He is ever before the Father, and the Father sees the Son, and He will not destroy the elect for His sake.  And we know that phrase “ever liveth” is telling us that God will never destroy His elect, and that is why we have eternal life.  The Bible would not say we have received eternal life upon the point of salvation if we could ever lose that eternal life.  But the Bible is true and faithful, and God does not lie, and He says that those who have truly become saved have received the gift of eternal life.  It came at the price of His intercession on our behalf, and it will forever be acceptable to the Father.  In other words, Christ has stood in the gap for us, and we can thank God for that.

But we see the awful situation for those that have not Christ because their sins remain upon them individually, and upon the churches, corporately, and they have no one to stand in the gap, so the breach will break upon them, and God will destroy them like a potter destroys a vessel.