Scripture Daily

Context No. 1696 of 4322 · Ezekiel

Context · Reflection

Ezekiel 12:17-28: in context

17Moreover the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 18“Son of man, eat your bread with quaking, and drink your water with trembling and with fearfulness. 19Tell the people of the land, ‘The Lord GOD says concerning the inhabitants of Jerusalem and the land of Israel: “They will eat their bread with fearfulness and drink their water in dismay, that her land may be desolate, and all that is therein, because of the violence of all those who dwell therein. 20The cities that are inhabited will be laid waste, and the land will be a desolation. Then you will know that I am the LORD.”’” 21The LORD’s word came to me, saying, 22“Son of man, what is this proverb that you have in the land of Israel, saying, ‘The days are prolonged, and every vision fails’? 23Tell them therefore, ‘The Lord GOD says: “I will make this proverb to cease, and they will no more use it as a proverb in Israel;”’ but tell them, ‘“The days are at hand, and the fulfillment of every vision. 24For there will be no more any false vision nor flattering divination within the house of Israel. 25For I am the LORD. I will speak, and the word that I speak will be performed. It will be no more deferred; for in your days, rebellious house, I will speak the word and will perform it,” says the Lord GOD.’” 26Again the LORD’s word came to me, saying, 27“Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, ‘The vision that he sees is for many days to come, and he prophesies of times that are far off.’ 28“Therefore tell them, ‘The Lord GOD says: “None of my words will be deferred any more, but the word which I speak will be performed,” says the Lord GOD.’”

God gives Ezekiel a strange sign, to eat and drink with trembling, to picture the dread that will fall on Jerusalem. Then he addresses a proverb going around: the days drag on, and every vision comes to nothing. The people, seeing that the prophesied judgment had not yet arrived, had concluded it never would; the visions were empty, they said, or meant for some far-off time. God answers: I will put an end to that proverb. The days are near; I will speak, and my word will be performed, no longer delayed.

The proverb Ezekiel confronts is the voice of a very human unbelief: the days drag on, and every vision fails. Because the warned-of judgment had not yet come, the people decided it was not coming at all; God's word, in their reckoning, had proved empty, or at least was safely far off, nothing to reckon with now. And so they went on as before, unmoved, treating the delay as proof that the word could be ignored. God's reply is pointed: the delay is not denial. I will speak, and the word I speak will be performed; it will no longer be deferred. The postponement they took as evidence that nothing would happen was in fact only a space of patience, and it was closing. There is a warning here that outlasts Ezekiel's generation. We are prone to the same reasoning: because God has not yet acted, because the word of warning or promise has not yet come to pass, we conclude it never will, and live as though it were empty. God's patience, his delay, gets read as his absence or his impotence, and we presume upon it. But delay is not the same as failure. The word God has spoken, of judgment and of promise, will be performed in its time; the fact that it has not come yet is no proof that it will not come. To build our lives on the assumption that God's word can be safely ignored because it has not yet been fulfilled is to be caught, as Jerusalem was, when the deferred word suddenly arrives. The days drag on, they said, and every vision fails; but God said, none of my words will be deferred any longer.

Do I read God's delay, his patience, the fact that his word has not yet come to pass, as proof that it never will, and live as though his word could be safely ignored, or can I take Ezekiel's warning that delay is not denial, and that the word God has spoken will be performed in its time?

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