In Ezekiel 12:22, we read, “Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?”
Ezekiel’s job was prophesying and warning about the coming destruction of Jerusalem and Babylonian captivity. He was to preach about punishment for sin and the need for repentance.
However, the people of Judah had become so hard hearted that they did not believe any of the prophets. They had come to the point that they even scoffed and mocked them. They said that God’s prophets were telling things that were not true. They said God’s prophets had been foretelling of the fall of Jerusalem but it never happened. The leaders and false prophets of the people declared that all was safe and nothing bad was going to happen.
God through Ezekiel said that this proverb was going to end. Why? Because what He had been warning them about through the prophets was about to happen. There was no more time for repentance. There were no longer many days before destruction.
Some people had the same attitude in New Testament times. In 2 Peter 3, people were saying that Jesus was not returning to earth. They were saying that all the talk about Jesus’ return was false because nothing had changed. They even went so far as to say that nothing had changed since the beginning of the world. They were wrong. God had destroyed things with the flood.
There are people today who say that the Bible is not true. They mock it because it warns of a final Judgment. They say that these words were written about 2000 years ago, and nothing has ever happened. Therefore, they say nothing will ever happen. They say that since nothing has happened, every vision fails — in other words, the Bible is nothing but a collection of false stories and myths.
Study your Bible. Learn all you can from it. Do not be like the Israelites who did not believe God’s prophets. If any of this is hard to understand, ask an adult to help you.
