Today’s reading: Ezekiel 12; 2 Corinthians 6
Today’s reading in Ezekiel puts me in mind of 2 Peter 3:9, where Peter says, “The Lord is not slow to fulfill his promise as some count slowness, but is patient toward you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance.”
God asks Ezekiel about the proverb the people were using, saying, “The days grow long, and every vision comes to nothing.” God had warned the people over and over again about his coming judgement, trying to give them ample opportunity to listen, repent, and not have to experience His wrath. Rather than viewing this as the mercy of God on their behalf, the people decided it meant that God’s words were nothing but words. The longer they went without experiencing His wrath coming to pass, the more sure they were that they had nothing to worry about.
The truly ironic thing about this though is that God is speaking to Ezekiel who is currently in exile. This proverb wasn’t being used by the people of Israel before they had been conquered and carried away, it’s being used by the people who have already experienced exactly what God said He was going to do!
God had warned the people that, if they continued in their ways, they would be conquered and carried off as exiles in a foreign land. Here they are in Ezekiel’s day, exiles in a foreign land, but when they hear God’s word they say, “Talk, talk, talk, all he does is talk. You keep telling us He is going to act, but when has He ever acted?” Rather than letting their present experience confirm that God is, in fact, good for His word, they continue to deny that His words concerning Jerusalem will ever come to pass.
This speaks volumes about our ability to deceive ourselves. It would be one thing for them to hear God’s pronouncements of future judgement when they were still in the land and think, “Eh, it’s probably fine, it probably won’t happen,” but it’s something else entirely when they are actively experiencing exactly what God told them would happen and they continue in the same dismissal.
The reason this makes me think of 2 Peter 3 is that the situation for them is not all that different from our situation today. Then, God had delayed His judgement, warning the people over and over, in hope that they would repent and turn back to Him. Today, God is delaying His final judgement, warning the world, through His people, in hope that they will repent and turn to Him. But just as in Ezekiel’s day, so too in our own, you hear this same critique, that things have carried on so long without Christ’s return, so why would we actually believe it’s coming? But God is not slow as some count slowness. We have a good and loving God who yearns to be with us, as He created us to be His human family, and so He is patient with us, trying to give us every opportunity to turn to Him. But also just like in Ezekiel’s day, God will not delay His judgement forever, but there will come a final day in which it will be too late to hear and respond to His patient mercy.
We can deny the Lord’s words all we want, but, one day, every knee will bow and every word the Lord has ever spoken will be vindicated before everyone in heaven, on earth, and under the earth.
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