Son of man, behold, they of the house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off.
The house of Israel say, The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of the times that are far off. Not a mere repetition of the scoff Ezekiel 12:22: there the scoffers asserted that the evil was so often threatened and postponed, it must have no reality, it will fail altogether; here formalists do not go so far as to deny that a day of evil is coming, but assert it is far off yet (Amos 6:3). The transition is easy from this carnal security to the gross infidelity of the former class.
Remarks:
(1) It is truly said, none are so blind as those who will not see (Ezekiel 12:2). Natural men are blind and deaf to spiritual truth, not from want of eyes and ears, but from disinclination to use them right. It needs no less a power than that of the Spirit of God to new-create the heart, and work in men to will dud to do aright.
(2) When the simple announcement of the coming doom of Jerusalem, its king, and its people, failed to awaken the Jews, Ezekiel is directed to present before their eyes a vivid picture, in symbolical action, of their approaching overthrow, if haply even yet the rebellious people will "consider" and repent (Ezekiel 12:3-8). When one mode of appeal fails to arrest the serious attention of hearers, the minister must adopt another; and the more vivid and life-like his style is, so that the truth is as it were set before the very eyes of the people the more likely are they to be impressed. This was the object of the symbolical actions of the prophets; and so Paul describes his own preaching to the Galatians - "O ... Galatians ... before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth, crucified among you" (Galatians 3:1).
(3) Instead of drawing from the significant act of the prophet the spiritual lesson that was designed, the Jews cavilled at his action, affecting not to understand what he meant by doing so; as in a subsequent chapter (Ezekiel 24:19) they are represented as asking, "Wilt thou not tell us what these things are to us, that thou doest so?" The king also, unwilling to believe what he did not wish to be true, persuaded himself that there was a discrepancy in the statements of Jeremiah and Ezekiel, that God would "bring him to Babylon," and that yet he should "not see" it (Ezekiel 12:13). None are so keen in finding difficulties in Scripture as those who have no desire that it should be found true. There is left in the Bible a sufficiency of stumblingblocks whereon, in righteous retribution, all such as lack child-like docility and humility are allowed to stumble. To all those who sincerely and humbly desire to do God's will, seeming discrepances prove no stumblingblock. For many such, they have already found, on deeper search, prove to be hidden harmonies, as is the case in what seemed to Zedekiah a discrepancy; and as to those difficulties which they cannot solve, they believe that if they had more light they would find the difficulties disappear, so that they are content to trust God, and to wait His time for making all that is now dark clear.
(4) What a humiliation to the Jews to hear that their king, Zedekiah, in whom they so trusted, should not only not be able to help them, but should, with muffled face, and with his equipments on his own shoulders, stealthily flee away by night! Inextricably entangled in the meshes of God's net "spread upon him" (Ezekiel 12:13), he was doomed to be deprived of sight, and so to be carried to Babylon, and yet not see it, though he should die there. His "bands" and all from whom he could look for "help," should be scattered (Ezekiel 12:14), and a sword drawn after them. How vain it is to "put trust in princes, or in the son of man, in whom there is no help"! (Psalms 146:9.) Let us see that we have the God of Ezekiel for our help and our hope shall not be disappointed.
(5) God was about to "leave a few," whom He should preserve from the judgments which were to destroy all the others (Ezekiel 12:16). His design was that this spared remnant should be his witnesses among the pagan where they should come, "declaring" by their words, as well as by their visible condition as exiles, God's righteousness in having punished "the abominations" of Israel. When God has delivered us from the perishing multitude around us, it is in order that He may make us the instruments of glorifying Him before the world. Let us see that, having been ourselves by chastisements brought to know the Lord, we try to bring others also to the saving knowledge of Him.
(6) Ezekiel, by eating his own food "with trembling and carefulness" (Ezekiel 12:18), was to represent the scarcity of provisions, and the fear which should prevail among the Jews at the siege of their city, and in their subsequent exile. So ministers, and all others who warn sinners to flee from the wrath to come, should speak as those who themselves realize vividly the awful truths which they announce. Their manner, tone, and whole bearing should accord with their message.
(7) The exiles at the Chebar envied their seemingly more fortunate brethren still at Jerusalem. But what bad judges we are of what is really good or evil for us! So far from being fortunate as the exiles regarded them, the Jews at Jerusalem had the worst before them (Ezekiel 12:19); whereas the prospects of the exiles were daily brightening as the end of their captivity drew nearer. We often murmur at our own condition, and envy that of others, when, if we knew the whole case, we should pity them, and bless God for His goodness to ourselves. Let us leave our circumstances in the hands of the all-wise God to order, as He alone knows what is truly good for us.
(8) Two classes of unbelievers are presented before us in the ungodly Jews of Ezekiel's time-namely, those who deny wholly the reality of prophecy, saying that "every vision falleth" (Ezekiel 12:22); and those who persuade themselves that its fulfillment is indefinitely far off from our times (Ezekiel 12:27-28). The commonness of such views, so that they pass into the form of a "proverb" (Ezekiel 12:22-23), is no proof that they are true, nor will it justify the asserters of them for having set up the opinions of the world in opposition to the express word of the God of truth. The event will awfully confute them, and show that God must be true, though thereby every man should be proved a liar (Ezekiel 12:25; Ezekiel 12:28). Let us believe God's sure word, and continually look for the coming of the Son of man to judgment. Since there is but a step between us and eternity, let us not put far from us the question how we shall be best prepared for it, but be always ready, seeing that in such a day and hour as men think not the Son of man cometh.