Ezekiel 12:28. "Therefore say to them, Thus says the Lord God: None of my words will be delayed any longer, but the word which I speak will be performed, says the Lord God."

The word which the Lord is going to speak without delay is that of the destruction of Jerusalem. He promised the "land will be stripped of all it contains, on account of the violence of all those who dwell in it. And the inhabited cities shall be laid waste, and the land shall become a desolation; and you shall know that I am the Lord." (Ezekiel 12:19-20) God also warned against false prophets who told the people everything would be all right: "For there shall be no more any false vision or flattering divination within the house of Israel. But I the Lord will speak the word which I will speak, and it will be performed. It will no longer be delayed...." (Ezekiel 12:24). 

There are two things being reinforced in this reading: that God does not delay, and that what God says is. First, God does not delay, although it sometimes seems to us that He does (it certainly does to me)! David felt that way when he wrote Psalm 13 and lamented "How long, O Lord?". But Saint Peter assures us "The Lord is not slow about his promise as some count slowness, but is forbearing towards you, not wishing that any should perish, but that all should reach repentance." (2 Peter 3:9). Any "delay" we feel as we "bear pain in our souls and sorrow in our hearts", or "watch our enemies be exalted over us", to paraphrase Psalm 13, is due to our perception of time, not God's, and is meant to be borne by us patiently, it is how we carry our cross. God only does things in His time, in the "fullness of time," in Kairos, as opposed to Chronos. He forestalls speaking His word of destruction until He knows that as many as will repent have repented, and others will only repent, if at all, when they experience even greater destruction and suffering. This is His justice, but it is also and always a call to repentance for even the most hardened or blinded of sinners. While we wait for God to act, we must bear our sufferings patiently and remember, as David did, that our hearts shall rejoice in his salvation (Psalm 13:5), and every day of our patient suffering is a day in which more souls repent and are saved.

The second thing we know that is reinforced here is that God's word IS. He speaks and reality is created. I wrote about this before in How Is Jesus Christ The Word?, but it bears repeating here, especially in light of Old Testament prophecy. The false prophets may keep speaking their "flattering divination," but nothing they say will actually happen, since they are not speaking for God. True prophets, like Ezekiel and Jeremiah, do not tell people what they want to hear, but rather what God wants them to be warned of. They tell of a coming destruction that God is promising to speak into existence if the people do not repent. God says to Ezekiel that the people have a proverb that says "The day grows long, and every vision comes to nought" (Ezekiel 12:22), but He will put an end to that proverb. It is based on His forbearance and the non-fulfillment of false prophecy, and God will now "speak the word and perform it" (Ezekiel 12:25).

God doesn't change His mind and take back His prophecy, although sometimes, as with Jonah, the people take heed of the prophecy and change their ways. In that case, God's warning was successful and He had no need to speak the words of destruction. That is not God's word being unfulfilled, it is us listening to His warnings. When we don't listen, though, when we ignore and even mock the true prophets, seeking false ones while staying in our sin, we will eventually bring about our own destruction. God will speak it, and it will happen, in His time and His way. It is always bad when it gets to that point, but sometimes we have to hit bottom. Then, hopefully, we stubborn sinners will finally see what He was trying to tell us back when life was much easier,and repent. Every single soul is so valuable to God, that all of this would be worth it for just one saved sinner. If those of us who are already wondering "How long?" can patiently bear our suffering, uniting it with Christ's, while praying for those who refuse to see the danger ahead, or even are contributing to it, then we are doing exactly what God wants us to do - we are helping Him save more souls, and maybe forestalling His word of destruction.