I remember in primary and junior high school where the class prefects were given special books to write names of talkative in class for punishment later in the course of the day.
Some of us were so rebellious that we had attached to our names (DP and TP), meaning double punishment and triple punishment respectively. Well, I was not ready to keep quiet because I loved to talk and laugh; I could care less about the prefect and his/her so called names of talkative.
Today in scripture I found out another class prefect whose list I wouldn’t want to be part amidst my love for talking.
The book of Luke 1:5-19, talks about the story of the priest Zechariah and the prophecy given by the angel Gabriel concerning his unborn son John the Baptist. Zechariah for his righteousness was elected by his division to go into the sanctuary to burn incense as the rest of the division wait and support him outside with their prayers.
In the sanctuary he is startled by the presence of the angel Gabriel who brings him the good news of his unborn son, and like any logical human being he asked how would this be because it was biologically impossible, and the answer he could get out of the question was to remain shush until the prophecy was fulfilled.
Interestingly, Mary the mother of JESUS, also asked the same question when angel Gabriel visited her and she had a good explanation from the same messenge, the big question here is why strike the man with being deaf and dumb and give an explanation to the woman, that is for another day so watch out.
Zechariah came out and couldn’t speak to his people, but could communicate to them in signs.
I was hoping the angel could consider him for the sake of his people but that wasn’t the case, what had to be done needed to be done, and In the process of time his wife Elizabeth conceived.
This story teaches us a lot as sons of GOD. Perhaps Zechariah would have announced to everyone that finally, he is going to be a dad, but the outcome of that announcement would have been terrible. Some people would have laughed at him, and like he asked the angel, he would be asked how can this be? Friends might advise him to seek other methods; others would just discourage him and put him of course. To curb this angel just shushed him until the prophecy was fulfilled and left him the skill to communicate in signs.
Sharing GOD given ideas and prophesy is not a bad practice,
but let us know who to talk to and who to share ideas with. “Talking to” and “sharing ideas with” are two different things. As Christians sometimes let us learn how to prevent our names from "the list of talkative" and only watch while the prophecy or idea unfold itself to us. You lose nothing when you keep quiet.
He was dumb and couldn’t talk to men, but could talk and communicate with GOD, after all Jonah spoke to GOD from the belly of a fish. There is power deposited in the mouth of babes how much more a priest. Note that his ability to communicate was not taken from him but it was his ability to speak.