6988. 'Or who has made the dumb' means lack of utterance. This is clear from the meaning of 'the dumb' as lack of utterance, for it is used as an antonym of 'mouth', which means utterance, dealt with immediately above in 6987. Utterance is not used here to mean utterance made by the voice, which is speech, for that kind of utterance is natural. Instead utterance is used to mean confession of the Lord and declaration of faith in Him, since this kind of utterance is spiritual. From this it is evident what 'the dumb' means in the internal sense, namely people who, owing to lack of knowledge, are unable to confess the Lord or for that reason declare faith in him. This is the state of gentiles outside the Church and also of the simple within the Church. The fact that these kinds of people are meant by 'the dumb' is evident in Isaiah,
Then will the lame man leap like a hart, and the tongue of the dumb will sing. For waters will break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the plain of the wilderness. Isa 35:5-6.
'The tongue of the dumb will sing' stands for the fact that they will confess the Lord and the things that belong to faith in Him. 'Waters will break forth in the wilderness, and streams in the plain of the wilderness' stands for the fact that cognitions of what is true and good will come to them, 'the wilderness' being a state in which cognitions of faith are lacking because they are unknown.
[2] The dumb who were healed by the Lord also mean gentiles who were delivered through His Coming into the world from falsities and consequent evils, such as the one who was 'dumb' in Matthew,
Behold, they brought to Him a dumb man (homo), possessed by a demon; but when the demon had been cast out the dumb [man] spoke. Matt 9:32, 37.
And another who was 'dumb' in the same gospel,
One was brought to Jesus, possessed by a demon, blind and dumb; and He healed him, so that the blind and dumb [man] both spoke and saw. Matt 12:22.
The 'dumb' [boy] also possessed by a demon in Mark 9:17-30 has the same meaning.
[3] It should be recognized that the miracles performed by the Lord were all signs indicating the state of the Church and of the human race saved through His Coming into the world; that is to say, when He came those people were delivered from hell who received the faith going with charity. These matters are incorporated in the Lord's miracles. In general all the miracles described in the Old Testament are signs indicating the state of the Church and the Lord's kingdom. There Divine miracles are distinguished from miracles that are devilish or the product of magic, however much the latter, such as the miracles of the magicians in Egypt, seem in outward appearance to be the same as Divine ones.
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