Humanity never really changes. We often think “people are worse” now than ever before. Part of that is the 24/7 news cycle we can’t seem to escape from.

Yet I’m often struck by the commonality between eras and generations. The cuneiform tablets unearthed in Mesopotamia in the last couple centuries attest to that. Financial records, crime logs, personal letters…all reveal human frailties and character defects we display today. People were cheating on taxes then, robbing stores, committing adultery.

Just like today.

An interesting passage from Ezekiel, which highlights prophecies directly given from God to the prophet, shows us clearly that human nature never really changes. The passage comes from Ezekiel Chapter 12:26,27—

“The word of the LORD came to me: ‘Son of man, the Israelites are saying, ‘The vision he sees is for many years from now, and he prophesies about the distant future.'”

The context is the coming Babylonian invasion of Israel, due to the idolatrous nature of the Israelite kingdoms since Solomon’s kingdom was divided. Think about what the Israelites were telling God’s man, Ezekiel: No, the Lord isn’t telling us about our near future; He’s talking about something coming way off in the distance.”

Years from now. Decades. Centuries.

Typical human behavior.

Of course, we know (as they should have and perhaps really did) that the prophecy very much concerned their futures. Due to the punishments handed down by the Creator, the Israelites would either be slaughtered in the coming invasion, or they’d be taken into exile.

All that happened.

Likewise, Jesus and the apostles predicted certain things that would come to pass in the very last days of human history, around the time of Jesus’ Second Coming. Ironically, there are key scoffers in the Church claiming all these things (if they are even literal) are very far off. The scoffers even scoff about the Second Coming.

They could learn a few things from the ancient Israelites.