EZEKIEL 2:5
[NKJV]
As for them, whether they hear or whether they refuse—for they are a rebellious house—yet they will know that a prophet has been among them.
[BSB]
And whether they listen or refuse to listen—for they are a rebellious house—they will know that a prophet has been among them.
Words of inspiration from this Bible verse above:
"Those of us sent as Messengers to rebellious or hardened people should not be measuring our success or failure by whether they listen (believe, hear, obey) or whether they refuse (disbelieve, reject, disobey, ignore) our messages. — The Goal for God sending us to them, knowing they are rebellious people, is not basically to guarantee their "Soul-Winning" but to guarantee their "Soul-Witnessing."
*✓* "Soul-Winning" – Is achieved when you go to them with God's message or your sermon, and you successfully wooed them or got them to conversion in Christ Jesus, for they heard, believed and repented, through your message to them.
*✓* "Soul-Witnessing" – Is achieved when you go to them with God's message or your sermon, and you successfully have them know that "A Prophet has been in their midst" or "The Kingdom of God has come to them."
Now, "A Prophet is here among them" or "God's Messenger is surely sent to them" etc. is just what you are basically going to prove to those who are rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked, hardened, unbelievers. Once they cannot deny you are a Prophet, Teacher, or Messenger, sent or empowered by God in their midst, with evidences, you have achieved "Soul-Witnessing" because they are witnesses that you came as a messenger of God to deliver such message to them. It's like a Courier Officer who is sent to deliver a package or mail to someone; and when he gets to the person, he would ask the recipient to sign with his name and date saying, "Original Copies or True Certified Contents received by me." The Courier Officer has no business in ensuring the person reads or does what the mail/content instructed him to do. His business is to have the person witness that he truly came and delivered the package or message as he was sent from the Head Office.
However, in our case the signature we collect from those we are sent is the "Knowing." Once they have "Known" (not when they believe or accept, but when they know), then our witness is done. Ezekiel, you are a watchman to them: If you refuse to make warning known to them and they are destroyed in their errors, their blood will be required from you; but if you warned or made it known to them, you are free and have fulfilled your own duties.
What are they to Know? — They are to "Know a Prophet has been in their midst."
That was before the Lord Jesus Christ came and change that from "Knowing a Prophet is/has being/been in your midst" into "Knowing the Kingdom of God/Heaven has come to you."
For the Lord Jesus Christ and John the Baptist began preaching the Kingdom of God in the people's midst, away from the old practice of preaching the Prophet in the people's midst. So He's not sending us to the rebellious people to just witness "A single Prophet has been in their midst" but to do greater witnessing of an entire Prophets, Kings, Priests, Ministers, Angels, etc, under one umbrella called "Kingdom of God" or "Kingdom of Heaven" have collectively come or been in their midst.
Therefore, this next Bible reference below is typical for "Christians' Soul-Witnessing" among the rebellious people or hardened unbelievers. As is written:
[Luke 10:8-16 NKJV] — Whatever city you enter, and they receive you, eat such things as are set before you. And heal the sick there, and say to them, ‘The kingdom of God has come near to you.’ But whatever city you enter, and they do not receive you, go out into its streets and say, ‘The very dust of your city which clings to us we wipe off against you. Nevertheless know this, that the kingdom of God has come near you.’ But I say to you that it will be more tolerable in that Day for Sodom than for that city. “Woe to you, Chorazin! Woe to you, Bethsaida! For if the mighty works which were done in you had been done in Tyre and Sidon, they would have repented long ago, sitting in sackcloth and ashes. But it will be more tolerable for Tyre and Sidon at the judgment than for you. And you, Capernaum, who are exalted to heaven, will be brought down to Hades. He who hears you hears Me, he who rejects you rejects Me, and he who rejects Me rejects Him who sent Me.”
Behold, almost all the great prophets and men of God in the scriptures were sent to or sent when there were hardened, stiff-necked, rebellious, stubborn or difficult, people; and somehow God multiplied signs, wonders, wisdom and show of knowledge, through those Messengers because of the resistance in those rebellious, stubborn, stiff-necked, people.
Moses was sent and empowered to do more miracles, because of the hardness of Pharaoh and the hardness of the children of Israel. Don't see that as good thing, but see that as problem for those who were being difficult to please or hard to get. It's like how the Lord Jesus Christ had to do extra work to get Thomas into believing because Thomas would not even believe or trust his fellow Apostles, implying that all the Apostles of the Lord Jesus Christ were liars or foolish to him, and he would not even believe if Jesus Christ appears in a Vision unless he can touch Him physically with his hand and insert his finger through His opening. He got the extra sign or evidence he tempted God to show him, but there's consequence for his being hard to get into believing.
The rebellious children of Israel were tempting and making God do more miracles and works through Moses among them by their hardness and unbelief; and then these came upon them: Written:
[Hebrews 3:7-11 BSB] — Therefore, as the Holy Spirit says: “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts, as you did in the rebellion, in the day of testing in the wilderness, where your fathers tested and tried Me, and for forty years saw My works. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and I said, ‘Their hearts are always going astray, and they have not known My ways.’ So I swore on oath in My anger, ‘They shall never enter My rest.’”
To not extend this leaf further, just know many other great men of God in the Bible were sent to or sent when there were rebellious and hard to convince people, and they proved a prophet was in their midst.