Ezekiel 12:22
Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth? Son of man, what is that proverb that ye have in the land of Israel, saying, The days are prolonged, and every vision faileth?
The proverb current in the land of Israel was that the days are prolonged and every vision fails, meaning that prophetic fulfillment keeps being delayed and therefore visions will not come true. In Judah it mocked the warnings of coming judgment and denied the certainty of God's word, arising from doubt and discouragement over apparent delay. Later, as hope dimmed under oppression and through centuries of waiting without understanding the prophets, many were ready to repeat it about the promised Deliverer and Saviour.
The words that follow answer and rebuke the proverb, declaring that God will bring it to an end: the days are at hand and near rather than far off, every vision will take effect, and His spoken word will come to pass without further delay, even in the days of the rebellious people. At the first advent this pattern held, for though Israel's oppression and the passing of centuries made many despair that the promise had failed, Christ still came at the appointed time, even though the first recipients of the promise died before seeing its fulfillment. After the expected date for Christ's coming in 1843 passed, the verse comforted disappointed believers that the delay was a tarrying time and not proof the vision had failed, giving them grounds to wait patiently and to keep confidence in and hold fast to God's word.
In that advent application, time is the burden of the prophecy. The visions that fail are false predictions of the time, including those proclaimed after the seventh month in 1844, while God's promised word is the true time of Christ's coming, which the Father will speak from heaven and make known and which will surely come to pass. The verse also exposes a last-days peril in which people dismiss vision and prolong the days, so this chapter together with the eleventh chapter should be studied with critical, thoughtful attention and prayer. Unless those who have laid stumbling blocks by a perverse spirit remove them, God will turn His face utterly from them and their associates.