Hid from the wise and understanding…

Matthew 11:25-26
25 At that time, Jesus answered, “I thank you, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to infants. 26 Yes, Father, for so it was well-pleasing in your sight. (WEB)

When Jesus prayed to His Father and thanked Him for hiding ‘these things’ from the wise and understanding, what was He referring to? If we read earlier in the chapter, Jesus is talking about how He was rejected by the religious establishment of the day when they called Him a ‘glutton and a drunkard, a friend of tax collectors and sinners’ (Matthew 11:19).

Basically Jesus was saying that the mysteries of the kingdom were hidden from those who considered themselves wise and prudent and were instead, revealed to little children. Now I don’t think there is anything wrong with using our brain. After all, God gave it to us. However, we can get into problems when we begin to trust in our own understanding (Proverbs 3:5-6) rather than trusting in God.

That is why it is so important to receive the kingdom like a little child. Little children don’t think too much. They just intuitively trust their parents to tell them who they are. If their parents say the sky is purple, then they believe it. There is no independence, no suspicion, no pride to get in the way of their trusting hearts.

The truth is that we are all little children in God’s eyes. He is the Everlasting Father and we are His little kids. The more that we can relate to Him as Father through a childlike heart, the more that we will be able to receive things from Him that are impossible to rationalize in our human understanding.

My prayer today is that we would all embrace a childlike heart so that we can truly receive all of the mysteries of the kingdom that our heavenly Father has prepared for us. May the Holy Spirit give us wisdom to navigate how to do this.

Matthew 18:1-4
In that hour the disciples came to Jesus, saying, “Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven?” Jesus called a little child to himself, and set him in their midst, and said, “Most certainly I tell you, unless you turn, and become as little children, you will in no way enter into the Kingdom of Heaven. Whoever therefore humbles himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. (WEB)