Ezekiel 3:22-27, The Silent Prophet/Priest

Calvin Coolidge served as the 30th president of the United States from 1923 to 1929, and was nicknamed “Silent Cal.” Though he was considered a skilled and effective public speaker, privately he was a man of few words. Some quipped that he was silent in five languages. An apocryphal story has it that a person seated next to him at a dinner said to him, “I made a bet today that I could get more than two words out of you.” He replied, “You lose.” Coolidge himself said that the “You lose” quotation never occurred. But he did write to his wife at one time, “The words of a President have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately.” (Wikipedia). A president should use his words wisely, but certainly never not at all. The same could be said of a prophet and priest, like Ezekiel was.

22 The hand of Yahweh was on me there, and he said to me, “Get up and go out to the plain, and there I will speak to you.” 23 So I got up and went out to the plain. And the glory of the Lord was standing there, like the glory I had seen by the Kebar River, and I fell facedown.

24 Then the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet. He spoke to me and said: “Go, shut yourself inside your house. 25 And you, son of man, they will tie with ropes; you will be bound so that you cannot go out among the people. 26 I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth so that you will be silent and unable to rebuke them, for they are a rebellious people. 27 But when I speak to you, I will open your mouth and you shall say to them, ‘This is what the Sovereign Yahweh says.’ Whoever will listen let them listen, and whoever will refuse let them refuse; for they are a rebellious people. (Ezekiel 3:22-27)

After seven days of being in a stupor after the vision God gave him, Ezekiel is told by Yahweh that he is to be a watchman responsible for warning Israel of God’s judgment on her sin. Then God gives him another glimpse of His glory again, and once again, Ezekiel breaks down physically, only to be revived by the Spirit. The Spirit then tells Ezekiel to go into his house and he will be bound inside and unable to speak and rebuke Israel until the Spirit opens his mouth to speak for Yahweh.

Commentators are split over whether Ezekiel was literally bound with ropes or only figuratively so. There is also debate about how silenced he was. Ezekiel makes many prophetic utterances after this, but we are told that he was “mute” until the fall of Jerusalem:

And on that day a survivor from Jerusalem will come to you in Babylon and tell you what has happened. And when he arrives, your voice will suddenly return so you can talk to him, and you will be a symbol for these people. Then they will know that I am the LORD.” (Ezekiel 24:26,27, NLT)

On January 8, during the twelfth year of our captivity, a survivor from Jerusalem came to me and said, “The city has fallen!” The previous evening the LORD had taken hold of me and given me back my voice. So I was able to speak when this man arrived the next morning. (Ezekiel 33:21,22, NLT)

The answer to this dilemma seems to be that Ezekiel was muted from rebuking Israel until God gave him a message, and then once Jerusalem fell, he was more free to publicly speak God’s word to His people as prophets normally did. As the Expositor’s Bible Commentary puts it:

Ezekiel would remain in his home, except to dramatize God’s messages (cf. 4:1-5:17). He would remain silent, except when God opened his mouth to deliver a message. Then his mouth would be closed until the next time that the Lord chose for him to speak. Instead of Ezekiel’s going to the people, the people had to come to him.

Would that more of our speaking would be only at the direction of God.