There is something unnerving about being mute. If you’ve ever witnessed someone who is nonverbal, especially someone who once was able to speak, you know that it is very distressing. To not be able to communicate with precise words is frightening. Daniel experienced a time when he was mute. After hearing about Nebuchadnezzar’s dream, Daniel was worried and became mute. When he had another vision of his own, Daniel recounted, “When he had spoken to me according to these words, I turned my face toward the ground and was mute” (Daniel 10:15). It wasn’t until someone in the likeness of a child touched his lips that Daniel could speak again.
In Mark 9 a demon had come over a little boy and had made him mute. The boy’s dad said, “Teacher, I brought my son to you, for he has a spirit that makes him mute” (Mark 9:17). The demon was violent and would often throw the boy down and would throw him into both fire and water. When Jesus cast the demon out, it convulsed the boy so violently that people thought the boy was dead. In Matthew 9 Jesus healed a man with a demon that made him mute. When the demon was cast out, “the mute man spoke. And the crowds marveled, saying, ‘Never was anything like this seen in Israel'” (Matthew 9:33).
Given the “oppression” of being kept from speaking that’s mentioned in the Bible, it may be surprising that Isaiah prophesied that the messiah would be oppressed and silenced. In fact, Jesus ordered his followers not to talk at all about him. This was to fulfil what Isaiah said: “He will not quarrel or cry aloud, nor will anyone hear his voice in the streets” (Matthew 12:19). Jesus actually spent a huge portion of his life being mute. This demonstrates that the signs were very important. Jesus did not have a huge platform. There was no social media and often he was made mute. Yet God’s kingdom advanced like never before. We don’t always need a big platform to bless other people. We need to remember that God is the one working through us!
