Commentary - Ezekiel 12:26-28

Bird's-eye view

In this brief but potent section, the Lord confronts a cynical and procrastinating attitude that had taken root among the exiles in Babylon. The people were not necessarily denying that Ezekiel was a prophet of Yahweh. Rather, they were domesticating his prophecies by assigning them to a far-distant, irrelevant future. They were, in effect, saying, "Yes, yes, fire and brimstone, judgment and woe... but not for us. Not for our generation. This is for our great-grandchildren to worry about." This is a sophisticated form of unbelief, one that inoculates the heart against the urgency of God's Word. God's response through Ezekiel is a thunderous refutation of this spiritual lethargy. He declares with the full weight of His covenant name that the time for delay is over. The word He speaks is not a theoretical future possibility; it is an imminent and certain reality. The judgment prophesied is at the very door. This passage serves as a critical lesson on the nature of divine warnings: they are never given for academic discussion, but for immediate repentance.

This principle, established here in Ezekiel, finds its ultimate expression in the New Testament. The same spirit of eschatological procrastination was rife in first-century Israel, and Jesus and His apostles confronted it head-on. The repeated warnings that "the time is near," that "this generation will not pass away," and that the Judge "is standing at the door" were not hyperbolic. They were the culmination of this very principle from Ezekiel. God's patience has a limit, and when He declares that the time is up, the wise man does not check his calendar; he falls to his knees.

Outline

Context In Ezekiel

This passage concludes a chapter filled with prophetic sign-acts and oracles concerning the impending fall of Jerusalem. Ezekiel has already acted out the role of an exile, digging through a wall with his baggage to illustrate the coming flight of King Zedekiah (Ezek 12:1-16). He has eaten his bread with trembling and drunk his water with anxiety to show the terror that would grip the inhabitants of the city (Ezek 12:17-20). Following this, the Lord addressed a common proverb among the people: "The days go on and every vision fails" (Ezek 12:22). This was the cynical scoffing of those who had heard prophecies of doom for so long that they no longer believed anything would happen. Our text (vv. 26-28) addresses a related, but slightly different error. It is not the outright denial of the prophecy's truth, but the denial of its relevance. It is the comfortable assumption that judgment is always a long way off. Both attitudes, outright scoffing and comfortable procrastination, are forms of unbelief that God is determined to shatter against the hard reality of His imminent judgment on Jerusalem.

Key Issues

The Comfortable Heresy

There are two primary ways to dismiss the word of a prophet. The first is to call him a liar and say his vision is false. The second is far more subtle, and therefore more dangerous. It is to nod in agreement, to affirm the prophet's credentials, to grant the "in principle" truth of his message, but to place its fulfillment in a dusty, theoretical future. "The vision that he beholds is for many years from now." This is the comfortable heresy. It allows a man to hold to an orthodox confession while maintaining a disobedient life. He can affirm that God's Word is true without having that truth disrupt his lunch.

This is precisely the attitude God confronts here. The exiles were insulating themselves from the heat of Ezekiel's words by wrapping them in the cool blanket of "the distant future." It is a temptation that has plagued God's people in every generation. We see it in the scoffers of Peter's day, asking, "Where is the promise of His coming?" (2 Pet 3:4). And we see it in the church today, where Christians can affirm the truth of God's commands regarding holiness, evangelism, and cultural engagement, all while acting as though we have endless millennia to get around to it. But God is the Lord of time, and His "soon" is not our "eventually." When He says a thing will be done, the wise response is not to form a committee to study its long-term implications, but to repent and believe today.

Verse by Verse Commentary

26 Furthermore, the word of Yahweh came to me, saying,

The formula is standard, but we must never let it become commonplace. "The word of Yahweh came to me." This is the foundation of all true authority. Ezekiel is not sharing his personal insights, his analysis of the geopolitical situation, or his pastoral concerns. He is a conduit. The living God, the covenant Lord of Israel, has something to say, and the prophet's task is simply to deliver the message faithfully. This phrase separates the Word of God from all human opinions and speculations.

27 “Son of man, behold, the house of Israel is saying, ‘The vision that he beholds is for many years from now, and he prophesies of times far off.’

God begins by quoting the people. He shows Ezekiel that He hears their murmuring, their rationalizations, their sophisticated dismissals of His warnings. He calls them the "house of Israel," reminding them of their covenant identity, which makes their unbelief all the more culpable. Their statement is a two-part dismissal. First, they say the vision is "for many years from now." They create a chronological buffer zone. Second, they say he prophesies "of times far off." They relegate his message to a different era altogether. This is how a sinful heart neutralizes the threat of God's Word. It is not a head-on assault, but a quiet act of spiritual gerrymandering, redrawing the boundaries of relevance so that the prophecy lands safely outside the borders of their own lives. They have effectively turned the prophet into a religious historian of the future, someone to be studied, perhaps, but not obeyed.

28 Therefore say to them, ‘Thus says Lord Yahweh, “None of My words will be delayed any longer. Whatever word I speak will be done,” ’ ” declares Lord Yahweh.

The "therefore" is sharp and decisive. Because they say it is far, God says it is near. His response is a direct, authoritative contradiction of their comfortable heresy. He prefaces it with "Thus says Lord Yahweh," putting His own sovereign name and authority on the line. The declaration has two parts. First, the negative: "None of My words will be delayed any longer." The period of grace, the time of longsuffering which they mistook for divine indifference, is now officially over. The clock has run out. Second, the positive: "Whatever word I speak will be done." This is a statement of divine efficacy. God's Word does not just predict the future; it creates it. It is performative. When God speaks, reality conforms. The fall of Jerusalem was not just an event Ezekiel foresaw; it was an event God's Word accomplished. The verse is bracketed by the declaration of "Lord Yahweh," emphasizing that this is not a threat, but a sovereign decree from the Maker of heaven and earth. Their unbelief could not postpone the judgment by a single second.

Application

The sin of the house of Israel in Ezekiel's day is a perennial temptation for the Church. We have the completed Word of God, a book full of glorious promises and stark warnings. And it is very easy for us to treat the Bible as a book that prophesies "of times far off." We can read the commands to make disciples of all nations, to take dominion, to seek justice, and to live holy lives, and we can mentally file them under a "long-term goals" category. We can hear the warnings of judgment against sin and apostasy and assume they apply to some other, more wicked generation than our own.

This passage from Ezekiel is a divine rebuke to all such spiritual laziness. God's Word is not for "someday," it is for today. The call to repentance is for now. The command to believe the gospel is for this moment. The promise of forgiveness is available this instant. We are not to be like the foolish virgins who assumed the bridegroom's delay was permanent. We are to be those who have our lamps trimmed and burning.

The ultimate answer to this temptation is to see that in Jesus Christ, all the promises and threats of God have found their focal point. He is the great "Amen" to all God's words (2 Cor 1:20). In His first coming, the judgment that Ezekiel prophesied for Jerusalem found its ultimate historical expression in the destruction of the Temple in A.D. 70, a judgment that fell upon "this generation," just as Jesus said it would. God's word was not delayed. And now, we live in the light of that fulfilled word, knowing that the same God who keeps His promises of judgment also keeps His promises of grace. The word He has spoken about the final victory of His kingdom will also be done. It will not be delayed. Therefore, we should labor with urgency, knowing that our labor in the Lord is not in vain, and that His Word will accomplish the purpose for which He sent it.