The Mute Watchman

It is not a very effective use of talent when one is appointed as a "watchman" - one who warns the people of approaching danger - if that person is mute. Nevertheless, that is exactly the case with Ezekiel. In chapter three he is appointed as a watchman over the city of Jerusalem and the people of Israel. Then God chooses to have him bound (figuratively or literally) and made mute. Mute only to a degree. If God gives him a message, God will free his tongue to deliver it. Other than that he is to remain unable to prophecy or function as a watchman.

For some seven years this is the way Ezekiel carried out his ministry. Restricted to home and speaking only when God spoke to him. Then, once Jerusalem was captured and destroyed, God released the restrictions.

I am not sure of all the ramifications of Ezekiel's muteness. However it is unique to him as prophet of God. Consequently, it serves as a special mark of his ministry at least up until 586 B.C. or near that time. Then in chapter 24 God releases him from that restriction.

There are times when it would be good if modern day "prophets" were bound and muted. Messengers that were allowed to speak only when God spoke to them. I suppose my reference here is more to literature than the spoken word.

I am always impressed by the number of written works some modern day evangelicals can produce.  This is not conclusive, just a rough estimation based on a simple search at Amazon or Christian Books Web site:

Wiersbe, some 146 books

Norman Geisler several hundred

John MacArthur close to a thousand

Rick Warren several hundred

Granted, some of these may be co-authored works, nevertheless, the number reaches into the hundreds for each of these men.  How can anyone have that much to say of any significance or originality?  I suspect they do not. They simply ride the coattail of a previous success because people are willing to buy their material.

While I was attending a class at Southern Evangelical Seminary, Geisler was reportedly working on eight different manuscripts simultaneously!

The marketplace is flooded with books and magazines that have perhaps little or no value. Nevertheless publishers turn them out in hopes that people will buy them, and indeed they do, to a degree.

Would we benefit if God would perhaps call some of these "worshipped" authors to silence until He decided to give them something significant to say?

It is like a sequel to a movie. Seldom, if ever, is the sequel as good as the first. There are exceptions, The Bourne series is one of them and perhaps the Indiana Jones series. Those kind of follow-ups are rare. So turning out volume after volume on the part of some of those men mentioned above can result in very little quality.

Are you thinking, this is nothing more than "sour grapes" on MacD's part?  Not at all. My goodness, there is not even that kind of discipline in my mind or body, let alone that volume of information to dispense. I simply long for some rationality to it all.

The again, I wonder....if the Apostle Paul were alive today, would he be keeping the publishers busy?