Articles
“Out of the mouth of babes”
When the chief priest and scribes heard children crying out in the temple saying, “Hosanna to the Son of David!” they were indignant (Matt. 21:15). When they pointed this out to Jesus, here is how the Lord responded: “Yes. Have you never read, ‘out of the mouth of babes and nursing infants you have perfected praise?” (vr. 16).
You have to love the innocence of youth. There was nothing negative to say about these children that were praising the Lord. The only negative would be towards those who thought there was something negative. This whole incident brings many lessons to mind. Let’s consider a few of them.
What were the children doing there in the first place? The parents are to be commended for bringing them. Not only that, how did they know what to praise? They learned from their parents and others that did the same. Parents need to learn this lesson well. Bringing our children up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord (Eph. 6:4) literally means to “bring” them. Children learn by example and parents can learn from their children to understand the purity of worship.
Proper praise comes from a proper heart. Those who wanted Jesus to chastise the children for their praises were guilty of something which the children were not. When you just want to go through the motions and not have a sincere heart, your worship is vain (Matt. 15:7-9). The last thing the chief priests and scribes were thinking was that they could learn something from the children. Some go by the philosophy that children should not be seen or heard. This couldn’t be further from the truth.
Children need to be encouraged, not discouraged. Imagine what would have happened to the spirit of those children if the Lord would have said, “Quiet! Stop praising Me!” Teaching children to sing is a wonderful blessing that they can hold onto for the rest of their lives. May we all have a smile on our face and joy in our hearts when we see children coming together to worship God.
