The dumb mouth opened.
I. THERE IS A TIME TO KEEP SILENCE. Ezekiel was not stricken dumb physically like Zacharias. He was silenced by circumstances and the will of God. Even a prophet may have to learn that "silence is golden." Consider the indications of the time to keep silence.
1. When one has nothing to say. It is a great mistake to speak because one ought to say something instead of waiting till there is something to be said. Prophets have not always messages to deliver. Poets are not always inspired.
2. When men will not hear. Ezekiel's repeated discourses, and even his striking illustrative actions, had beer treated with indifference by the Jews. It is useless to "cast pearls before swine."
3. When events are speaking. God says, "Be still, and know that I am God" (Psalms 46:10). The awful voice of providence silences every utterance of man.
4. When we are called to reflect. We have too much talking and too little thinking. This is an age of expression. We have lost the art of reticence. The consequence is shallowness and instability. More silence would allow of a richer brooding thoughtfulness.
II. EVENTS OPEN THE MOUTH OF THE SILENT. Ezekiel was to be silent in the grief of his sudden widowhood, and the Jews would be silenced by the frightful calamities of the siege of Jerusalem. Afterwards the prophet's lips would be unsealed, and he would be able to speak to better purpose. Events help to this result:
1. In suggesting topics. The truest thought is inspired by fact. New occurrences give rise to new lessons. The age of literature follows the age of action, and great books spring up in the soil that has been fertilized by great deeds. The facts of the gospel history are the chief topics for Christian preaching. The new scenes of the life of Christ and the Acts of the Apostles are the inspiration of all evangelistic speech.
2. In inclining men to listen. Ezekiel was silenced by indifference; he was to be rendered eloquent again by a newly awakened interest. Now, this change was to be brought about through the instrumentality of external events. Thus God breaks up the fallow ground and prepares the soil to receive the seed of the Word.
3. In inducing faith. This is the principal cause of the change in the present instance. The Jews had refused to believe Ezekiel. But when his words had been verified by the occurrence of the calamities he had predicted, the skeptical hearers would be forced to acknowledge that he was a true prophet. The fulfillments of Christ's prophecy in the growth of the kingdom from the grain of mustard seed to the great tree should incline people to listen to Christian teaching with faith.
III. THE WISE TEACHER WILL SEIZE OPPORTUNITIES FOR SPEECH. His mission is to proclaim the will of his Master; and, though silence may be suitable on occasion, and room for thought is greatly to be desired, he must be on the watch for every opportunity of delivering his great message. It is a glorious time when inspired lips are unsealed. The mere babble of empty talk is not to be compared with such utterance. The Jews had it in the thunders of prophecy, and the early Christians in the gift of the cloven tongues. But every Christian teacher who has power to speak to his brother may receive Divine impulses which should give him words of helpfulness and healing. The great art is then to utter the word in season—the right word, to the right person, in the right spirit, at the right moment.