The Expiration Date on Unbelief Text: Ezekiel 12:21-25
Introduction: The Anesthetic of 'Later'
Men have always been adept at domesticating the raw and terrifying Word of God. We are experts at taking the sharpest edges of divine warning and sanding them down until they are smooth enough to be handled without fear, and perhaps even placed on the mantelpiece as a quaint religious artifact. One of the primary ways we do this is through the invention of cynical proverbs, little sayings that function as a spiritual anesthetic. We hear the thunder of God's coming judgment, and we comfort ourselves by saying, "The storm is still a long way off." We are warned of the consequences of our sin, and we invent a little theological jingle that amounts to, "God's grace is a rolling tab; we can settle up later."
This is not a new problem. It is the perennial temptation of a rebellious house. The people of Israel in Ezekiel's day had become comfortable in their covenant rebellion. They had heard the prophets cry wolf for so long that they no longer believed there were any wolves. God's patience, which was meant to lead them to repentance, had instead been interpreted by them as divine indifference or impotence. They had developed a proverb, a catchy little phrase that encapsulated their unbelief and inoculated them against the urgency of the prophetic word. It was the ancient equivalent of kicking the can of obedience down the road.
But God will not be mocked. He will not allow His warnings to become background noise. In our text today, God confronts this proverb of procrastination head-on. He announces that the season of longsuffering is over, and the season of fulfillment is at hand. He declares an expiration date on their unbelief. This is a severe mercy. God is telling them that the time for games is over. The bill is coming due, not for their grandchildren, but for them, in their days. And this is a word we must take to heart, because our own age is rife with its own proverbs of delay, its own comfortable dismissals of the clear warnings of Scripture.
The Text
Then the word of Yahweh came to me, saying, "Son of man, what is this proverb you people have concerning the land of Israel, saying, 'The days are long, and every vision fails'? Therefore say to them, 'Thus says Lord Yahweh, "I will make this proverb cease so that they will no longer use it as a proverb in Israel." But speak to them, "The days draw near as well as the fulfillment of every vision. For there will no longer be any worthless vision or flattering divination in the midst of the house of Israel. For I, Yahweh, will speak, and whatever word I speak will be done. It will no longer be delayed, for in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and do it," declares Lord Yahweh.'"
(Ezekiel 12:21-25)
The Proverb of the Scoffer (vv. 21-22)
God begins by quoting the people back to themselves. He puts their cynical mantra on full display.
"Son of man, what is this proverb you people have concerning the land of Israel, saying, 'The days are long, and every vision fails'?" (Ezekiel 12:22)
This proverb has two parts, and together they form a complete worldview of practical atheism. First, "The days are long." This is the argument from divine distance. God's clock, they reasoned, runs differently than ours. His threats are for some far-off, distant future that has no bearing on our lives today. We can sin now and repent later. We can ignore the prophet now and pay attention when things get more serious. It is the sin of presumption, treating the future as though it were our own possession to manage.
The second part is, "and every vision fails." This is the argument from past experience, wrongly interpreted. They had seen prophets come and go. They had heard warnings of fire and brimstone before, and they were all still here. The sun still came up. The harvests still came in. Therefore, they concluded, the prophets must be mistaken. They mistook God's patience for His powerlessness. They had developed a spiritual callousness. The repeated warnings, meant to soften their hearts, had instead hardened them. This is the great danger of hearing the Word of God and not doing it. Each act of disobedience makes the next act of disobedience easier.
The Divine Abrogation (v. 23)
God's response is not to enter into a lengthy debate. He does not try to reason with their cynicism. He simply cancels their proverb by divine authority.
"Therefore say to them, 'Thus says Lord Yahweh, "I will make this proverb cease so that they will no longer use it as a proverb in Israel." But speak to them, "The days draw near as well as the fulfillment of every vision."'" (Ezekiel 12:23)
Notice the power dynamics here. They have their proverb, but God has His Word. And God declares that His Word will silence their proverb. How? By acting. He will make it cease not by outlawing the saying, but by rendering it absurd through fulfillment. You can't very well say "every vision fails" when the Babylonian army is breaking down your city gate.
God then speaks the exact opposite of their proverb. They said the days are long; God says, "The days draw near." They said every vision fails; God says, "the fulfillment of every vision" is also near. This is a direct, frontal assault on their unbelief. God is closing the gap they had created in their minds between His word and His action. The time for delay is over. The buffer they had relied on is gone. Judgment is imminent.
Clearing the Prophetic Airwaves (v. 24)
Before God's true Word can be heard with clarity, the spiritual static must be eliminated. The people had been listening to voices that confirmed them in their complacency.
"For there will no longer be any worthless vision or flattering divination in the midst of the house of Israel." (Ezekiel 12:24)
The people's proverb did not arise in a vacuum. It was cultivated and watered by false prophets who told them what they wanted to hear. A "worthless vision" is a prophecy that has no substance, no divine origin. "Flattering divination" is the work of the court prophet, the hireling who preaches for pay and tailors his message to please his audience. These are the prophets who cry "Peace, peace," when God is declaring war. They are the ones who tell the rebellious house that they are actually quite faithful, all things considered.
God declares that He is purging the prophetic office. He is going to silence the soothing, lying voices so that His sharp, true voice can cut through the noise. This is an act of judgment in itself. When a people will no longer endure sound doctrine, God often gives them over to teachers who will scratch their itching ears (2 Tim. 4:3). But here, on the cusp of judgment, God mercifully clears the airwaves so that the final warning can be heard without excuse.
The Unstoppable, Performative Word (v. 25)
The entire passage climaxes in this final, terrifying declaration of divine sovereignty and faithfulness.
"For I, Yahweh, will speak, and whatever word I speak will be done. It will no longer be delayed, for in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and do it," declares Lord Yahweh.'" (Ezekiel 12:25)
The authority rests entirely on the speaker: "For I, Yahweh, will speak." The creator of heaven and earth is about to say something. And when He speaks, reality rearranges itself accordingly. His Word is performative. "Whatever word I speak will be done." This is the principle of divine fiat that we see in Genesis 1. God said, "Let there be light," and there was light. Here, God is about to speak a word of judgment, and that judgment will come into being with the same certainty.
And then comes the final, devastating blow to their procrastination. "It will no longer be delayed, for in your days, O rebellious house, I will speak the word and do it." God addresses them directly. This is not for some future generation. This is for you. The judgment you have been dismissing as a problem for your children will happen on your watch. God was going to make His Word and their historical experience collide in their own lifetime. There would be no more room for cynical proverbs.
Our Proverbs of Delay
We must not read this as a quaint story about a stubborn people long ago. We must ask ourselves, what are our modern proverbs of delay? What are the little sayings we use to keep the Word of God at a safe distance?
Perhaps it is, "God is a God of love, not judgment." This is a half-truth that functions as a whole lie, ignoring the hundreds of passages where God's holiness and justice are on full display. Perhaps it is, "We are under grace, not law," used as a license to disregard the clear moral commands of God. Perhaps it is, "Let's not be divisive," used to silence any talk of sin, repentance, or doctrinal truth. These are our flattering divinations, our worthless visions, that allow us to remain comfortable in our compromises.
But the God of Ezekiel is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He has not changed. His Word is just as certain today as it was then. And this is actually the heart of the gospel. The same divine faithfulness that guarantees God will judge sin is the very faithfulness that guarantees He will forgive sin in Christ. The cross is the ultimate expression of Ezekiel 12:25. At Calvary, God spoke the word of judgment against our sin and did it, pouring out His wrath upon His own Son. He did not delay. He did not fail.
Because God's threats are absolutely certain, His promises are absolutely certain. Because He is faithful to His warnings, we can trust Him to be faithful to His offer of grace. The same God who says, "the soul who sins shall die," is the one who says, "whoever believes in Him shall not perish but have eternal life." You can take both statements to the bank.
Therefore, we are not to be a rebellious house, coining proverbs of unbelief. We are to be a household of faith. We hear the Word of God, and we believe it is true and that it is for us, today. We do not put off repentance. We do not delay obedience. We live in the light of the fact that the days are not long. The days are short. The day of the Lord is always near. Let us therefore live as those who believe that when God speaks, He will most certainly do it.