GOD MUTE THE SPEAKER, TO SANCTION THE PEOPLE
EZEKIEL 3:26
[AKJV] — "And I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth, that you shall be dumb, and shall not be to them a reprover: for they are a rebellious house."
[ICB] — Also, I will make your tongue stick to the roof of your mouth. Then you will be silent. And you will not be able to argue with the people, even though they turn against me.
In this Bible verse above, God declared He will make the tongue of Ezekiel (the prophet) to become stuck to the soffit of his hard palate by the upper jaw, thereby making him dumb or mute, inorder to prevent or restrict him from either correcting or speaking messages to the people, for the people are rebellious.
The Lord God, (His Name be hallowed and praised), have ways of sanctioning some people to restrict or keep them from receiving His own Gospel/Messages and at the same time of sanctioning God will still be sending His messengers/ministers to the same people to preach or deliver to them the gospel or messages.
This is a great Paradox: God willing for the gospel or messages to be preached to the people, and yet He prevents them from receiving the gospel or messages. Examples: *A* He made Ezekiel a watchman to the people, but yet would make Ezekiel dumb or mute so that he will not speak to correct them. *B* He made Moses a god to Pharaoh and Aaron his prophet, but yet He hardened pharaoh's heart that Pharaoh should receive no warning. Etc. God sent to them a preacher and yet prevented them from it.
God's method with Ezekiel in the Bible verse above is just one of the many different methods God Himself may use in preventing some people from receiving the gospel or messages He Himself has sent His ministers to preach or teach the same people. Five:
*1* Making the Prophet/Minister Dumb or Speechless: This is as in the Bible verse above. It's like making the dog that should have bark to be speechless and it will not be able to bark at the stranger or robbers when it is needed to bark as warning sign. [Isaiah 56:10]
[Exodus 4:11] — "And the LORD said to him (Moses), Who has made man's mouth? or who makes the dumb, or deaf, or the seeing, or the blind? have not I the LORD?"
*2* Making the people's heart gross, their ears deaf or dull and their eyes blind so that will not see.
[Romans 11:8] — "(According as it is written, God has given them the spirit of slumber, eyes that they should not see, and ears that they should not hear; ) to this day."
*3* Speaking to them in parables, hidden mysteries/secrets:
[Matt 13:10-14] —"Then the disciples came to Jesus and asked, “Why do You speak to the people in parables?” He replied, “The knowledge of the mysteries of the kingdom of heaven has been given to you, but not to them. Whoever has will be given more, and he will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what he has will be taken away from him. This is why I speak to them in parables: ‘Though seeing, they do not see; though hearing, they do not hear or understand.’ In them the prophecy of Isaiah is fulfilled: ‘You will be ever hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving."
*4* Making the Gospel or Messages sound or appear as foolishness or very unpopular to them, as it is written,
[1 Corinthians 1:21-23,25,27-29] — "For since in the wisdom of God, the world through its wisdom did not know Him, God was pleased through the foolishness of what was preached to save those who believe. Jews demand signs and Greeks search for wisdom, but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and foolishness to Gentiles, … For the foolishness of God is wiser than man’s wisdom, and the weakness of God is stronger than man’s strength. "But God chose the foolish things of the world to shame the wise; God chose the weak things of the world to shame the strong. He chose the lowly and despised things of the world, and the things that are not, to nullify the things that are, so that no one may boast in His presence."
*5* Gave them over to reprobate mindsets, or send them strong delusion to believe lies and flatteries.
[2 Thessalonians 2:11-12] — "That's why God will send them a powerful delusion so that they will believe a lie. Then everyone who did not believe the truth, but was delighted with what God disapproves of, will be condemned."
Nevertheless, Ezekiel was not the only man of God in the Bible that was made dumb or mute for the gospel sake, for you may recall Zachariah the father of John the Baptist; for Zachariah was a priest that was made dumb, mute, by Gabriel the archangel for a season until the gospel by the archangel is fulfilled [Luke 1:20]. Even Daniel too suddenly became dumb by the vision of the angel he saw and heard speaking to him, but the angel had to touch Daniel's mouth to heal him and remove the dumbness [Daniel 10:15-16].
As for how these men became dumb, and could not speak but could eat and drink: The Spirit of God to Ezekiel that He will make his tongue stick or magnet the soffit of his mouth's hard palate. That will not prevent him from eating and drinking through the tongue, but will prevent him from speaking through it.
Can a man's tongue permanently stick to his hard palate by natural means? But Spirits can make even members of a flesh body to do things those members (parts) of the body couldn't do naturally. Hence, there's unclean spirit called "Dumb spirit" in "Mark 9:17, 25." Even hearing the words of certain Angels got men of God into becoming mute or dumb without the angel touching them: Daniel was only touched by the mouth after he was already dumb, and Zachariah the father of John the Baptist was not touched by the angel but just the angel saying the word that made the priest dumb.
However, all those men of God that were made dumb were later healed, and their tongues released and they once again spoke by the utterance of the Holy Spirit, including Ezekiel. Zechariah the priest was dumb until John his son of old age was born and named after hundreds of years it happened to Ezekiel the prophet, who began to speak again in the same day the "Escapee" came to him.