"Well, Shut My Mouth!"

“Well, Shut My Mouth”

Joshua 7:6-10 And Joshua rent his clothes, and fell to the earth upon his face before the ark of the LORD until the eventide, he and the elders of Israel, and put dust upon their heads. And Joshua said, Alas, O Lord GOD, wherefore hast thou at all brought this people over Jordan, to deliver us into the hand of the Amorites, to destroy us? would to God we had been content, and dwelt on the other side Jordan! O Lord, what shall I say, when Israel turneth their backs before their enemies! For the Canaanites and all the inhabitants of the land shall hear [of it], and shall environ us round, and cut off our name from the earth: and what wilt thou do unto thy great name? And the LORD said unto Joshua, Get thee up; wherefore liest thou thus upon thy face? Joshua 7:11 Israel hath sinned, and they have also transgressed my covenant which I commanded them: for they have even taken of the accursed thing, and have also stolen, and dissembled also, and they have put [it] even among their own stuff. Joshua 7:12 Therefore the children of Israel could not stand before their enemies, [but] turned [their] backs before their enemies, because they were accursed: neither will I be with you any more, except ye destroy the accursed from among you.

Thesis: When God shuts your mouth.

Intro: In this message we will look at examples in the scripture where God literally told people to shut their mouths. Sometimes we need to be silent before God, and receive instruction, rather than shooting off the mouth and explaining things from our perspective.

In Ecclesiastes 5:1,2 We read Keep thy foot when thou goest to the house of God, and be more ready to hear, than to give the sacrifice of fools: for they consider not that they do evil. Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.

I believe that this very scripture may have been in Jesus mind when he taught the Lords prayer, and opened it with this phrase: “Our Father, which art in heaven...” Can you see the parallel between that verse and the passage in Ecclesiastes? “Our Father, which art in heaven... Be not rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be hasty to utter [any] thing before God: for God [is] in heaven, and thou upon earth: therefore let thy words be few.”

So in this message I want to look at a few passages where God told people to shut up, and trust that we will receive instruction from them. If all goes as planned there should be a few, “Well, shut my mouth,” moments as we are preaching.

1. God tells us to shut our mouths when we are blaiming Him for something we did wrong.

In the passage in Joshua, Joshua is basically complaining that God had done them wrong. The truth is that Israel had done God wrong! This passage teaches that troubles can come as a chastisement for our sinful behavior, and before we get mouthing off to God we ought to examine ourselves to see if we could be the cause of our present problem. Christians often underestimate the hatred God has for sin. Things that we think are no big deal, God thinks are a big deal.

2. God tells us to shut our mouths when we are praying completely outside His will.

Psalms 35:13 But as for me, when they were sick, my clothing [was] sackcloth: I humbled my soul with fasting; and my prayer returned into mine own bosom.

Jeremiah 11:14 Therefore pray not thou for this people, neither lift up a cry or prayer for them: for I will not hear [them] in the time that they cry unto me for their trouble.

1 Samuel 16:1 And the LORD said unto Samuel, How long wilt thou mourn for Saul, seeing I have rejected him from reigning over Israel? fill thine horn with oil, and go, I will send thee to Jesse the Bethlehemite: for I have provided me a king among his sons.

In all of these scriptures God told people to shut up and quit praying. That they were praying outside of God’s will. In Jeremiah and Samuel God literally told the prophets to shut up, but in Psalms God didn’t literally say it, he just made David very uncomfortable as he prayed so that David understood God was not accepting prayer on these peoples behalf. It is a scary thing to think that God will no longer accept prayer on someone’s behalf!

3. God tells us to shut up when it is time for action and not words.