At that time, Jesus answering said, I praise thee, Father, Lord of the heaven and of the earth, that thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them to babes.
Jesus has just warned the towns that saw most of His miracles and would not repent. Then He turns from the crowd and thanks His Father. The strange thing is what He thanks Him for: something God has hidden. Why should the loss of the clever be the joy of the Son?
The setting explains the tone. Everything around Him had collapsed.
What is the history of that chapter? Simply this — everything in His outward circumstances was a complete desolation to His heart. John doubted Him, the cities that saw His mightiest works had not repented… "In that hour," when there was not a single star to light up the darkness of things around, what did His heart find its comfort in? Was it not this? In being perfectly subject to His Father's will.
The name He uses reaches far wider than the throne men have just refused Him.
Man's rejection of Him grows before our eyes, and Jesus says, "I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth." His hopes are not limited to the earth now. He looks to God as Lord of heaven and earth — sovereign over all things… They may refuse Him the throne of Israel; the Jews may reject Him, the leaders may despise Him… Refuse Him in His earthly dignity, and He only shines in His heavenly one; despise Him as a man, and He is clearly God.
The two words are not compliments about education alone. (Older translations read "the wise and prudent"; the ESV has "the wise and understanding.")
"Wise and prudent," that is, self-sufficient ones. "Wise," as the New Testament uses it, means people with education and training… "prudent" means shrewd. In both cases it implies self-sufficiency. "Babes" — not the reasoners but receivers… God bans all human pride, and no one can boast in His presence. Man gets the blessing, God the glory, in doing things this way.
God is not shutting out clever people. He is shutting out an attitude.
It was right to hide from the world's wise and prudent what to babes He could reveal. This is not hiding anything from men as men, but from men that cling to their own wisdom — who are wise enough to judge God, but not to judge themselves. In that condition it is impossible that He and they should come together. The first necessity is that God should have His place — that He should be God, and that man should be the small creature he is, a babe indeed before Him. Real wisdom finds it no hardship to take that place before the Lord of heaven and earth, and here is the condition of all true blessing.
If God must reveal these things, study cannot reach them. Two things must happen together.
These words from the lips of the Lord Himself declare that no one can gain the knowledge of God by hard, tiring study, however sincere the effort may be. It comes only by revelation… And they show that revelation has two sides. God is active; we receive. God reveals Himself, and the babes receive the revelation; the light shines and there are eyes that admit it. We depend on God for the babe-nature, the opened eyes, the believing heart and the listening ears, just as much as we depend on Him for the revelation they take in.
The same thing happens today, and it explains a puzzle believers still meet.
We often wonder why the wise and prudent of our day do not see certain truths… Others, poor and weak though they are, hold these revelations in full and keep receiving more out of His fullness. The reason is soon found. Only one kind of person can receive these things: the one who owns his nothingness, who takes his place in weakness at His feet, and is like a babe. The Lord never entrusts His secrets and His counsels to the wise and prudent… Would we know more of Him, of His Word, His purposes and His thoughts? There is only one way — be a babe.
What steadied the Lord steadies anyone whose service is thrown back at them.
If we see our testimony rejected, our wishes disappointed, our motives misunderstood; if trial comes from where we least expected it — from Christians, perhaps from our own family, from those we have sought to serve — then is the time to bow to the righteous sovereignty of God. Then is the time to say, "I thank you, O Father: for so it seems good in your sight."
- Rejected — the thanks come at the chapter's darkest point. The Son meets total desolation with subjection to His Father's will.
- Sovereign — He calls His Father "Lord of heaven and earth." Men refuse Him an earthly throne, and His heavenly glory shines out.
- Hidden — the loss falls on self-sufficiency, not on brains. Some are wise enough to judge God, but not themselves.
- Revealed — babes are receivers, not reasoners. God gives both the revelation and the eyes that take it in.
- Repeatable — the way to know more has not changed. Own your nothingness, be a babe, and bow to what seems good in your Father's sight when trial comes.
Yea, Father, for thus has it been well-pleasing in thy sight.
These words come at the lowest point of the Lord's public ministry. John the Baptist was doubting. Whole cities had seen His miracles and stayed unmoved. Instead of protesting, He agrees with His Father. Can anyone else learn to say the same?
(Older translations render the second half as "for so it seemed good in thy sight," and the writers quoted below use that wording.)
One writer asks what the Lord's heart rested on when nothing around Him gave comfort.
This is the most wonderful statement recorded in the whole word of God: "Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Thy sight." What amazing words from His lips, the Eternal Son of the Father! Everything in His outward circumstances was a complete desolation to His heart. John doubted Him, the cities where His mightiest works were done had not repented... "In that hour," there was not a single star to light up the darkness of things around. What did His heart find its comfort in? In being perfectly subject to His Father's will.
The rejection hurt Him. He traced it to His Father's hand.
The knowledge of God makes everything necessarily good to us, because it comes from Him. It may be very contrary to our nature. To Jesus, men's rejection of His message was of course painful. It threw Him on the sovereignty of God His Father, whom He knew. His Father had hidden these things from the wise men of the world and revealed them to the despised and weak.
The hiding has a reason, and it is not about intelligence.
It was right to hide from the world's wise and prudent what He could reveal to babes. This is not hiding anything from men as men, but from men who cling to their own wisdom. They are wise enough to judge God, but not to judge themselves. In that condition it is impossible that He and they should come together. God must first have His place — He must be God. So man must be the small creature that he is, a babe indeed before Him. If a man has true wisdom, he will find it no hardship to take that place before the Lord of heaven and earth. Here is the condition of all true blessing.
If you are drawn to Christ at all, that draw did not begin with you.
If we have been attracted to Jesus... we have been the subjects of the Father's work. He has revealed these things to us. He has given us eyes that can look into the heart of our Prince. Our Lord was satisfied to have it so, since this was His Father's doing. There was no resentment in His heart. He accepted the situation and spoke those memorable words of perfect submission.
A few verses later the Lord offers His yoke. One writer identifies that yoke with this very sentence.
And yet it is not violent or hard work. In one sense it is easy, as the Lord says. Submit! Say, "Even so, Father; for so it seemed good in thy sight." That is His yoke. This is how we learn of Him, who credited everything to the Father, not to the circumstances... "It seemed good in thy sight." That was enough. It was perfect submission, and the Father shone out in it. Its value depends on the perfect knowledge of sonship.
The occasions for saying it are ordinary ones, and often close to home.
Sometimes we see our testimony rejected, our wishes disappointed, our motives misunderstood. Trouble comes from where we least expected it — from Christians, perhaps from our own family, from those we have tried to serve. Then is the time to bow to the righteous sovereignty of God... God has revealed Jesus to us. He made us alive when we were dead in trespasses and sins. He stretched out the arm of His power on our behalf. If our souls knew a little more of that amazing mercy shown to any of us, we would not be wasting our time, as too often happens, in pointless grumbling and regrets.
Humility shows itself in what it does not do.
An absence of reasoning marks the humble soul. He is content to leave the management and outcome of everything in the Lord's hands... And this — "it seemed good in Thy sight" — will be the anchor of our souls if we are marked by the same features as the Psalmist.
- Cause — The Lord spoke these words at the moment of total rejection. He traced that rejection to His Father's hand and found His comfort there, not in His circumstances.
- Gift — God hides these things from those who cling to their own wisdom, not from ordinary people. He must have His place, and man must take the place of a babe.
- Reach — If Christ attracts you at all, the Father did that work. He revealed these things and gave the eyes that see.
- Result — This sentence is the yoke Christ offers. Say it back to the Father in disappointment, misunderstanding and family trouble. That is submission in practice.
- Rest — The mark of it is the absence of reasoning and complaint. "It seemed good in Thy sight" was enough for Him, and it becomes the anchor of the soul.
All things have been delivered to me by my Father, and no one knows the Son but the Father, nor does any one know the Father, but the Son, and he to whom the Son may be pleased to reveal [him].
Jesus speaks these words at the low point of His ministry, after the towns that saw His miracles refused Him. Stripped of the honours Israel owed Him, He does not defend His rights. He speaks instead of all the Father has handed to Him, of who alone knows Him, and of the Father He alone can make known.
Israel refuses Him a throne, and the loss of that glory uncovers a greater one:
"All things have been handed over to me by my Father." The throne of Israel may be refused Him. The Jews may reject Him and the leaders may despise Him. All this may happen — but what is the result? Not merely what was promised to David or Solomon, but "All things have been handed over to me by my Father." Where was anything like this revealed before — in the Psalms, in the Prophets? Man refuses the rejected Messiah, and He submits to it. They strip Him of His robes of Messianic glory, and what comes out? He is the Son of the Father, the Son of God from all eternity. Refuse Him in His earthly dignity, and He only shines in His heavenly one; despise Him as a man, and He is manifestly God.
What He receives reaches past the kingdom promised to Israel's Messiah:
In the hour of Jewish rejection the Lord takes up the glorious purposes of universal rule as the Son and the Heir of all things, far beyond the Messianic Kingdom.
The statement that only the Father knows Him is not a gap in our information but a proof of who He is:
No one knows Him but the Father. Who among the proud could fathom what He was? From all eternity He was one with the Father, and then He became man. In the deep mystery of His being He was beyond all knowledge except the Father's own. He emptied Himself to become man, and no one could know Him. That very impossibility kept His divinity certain and real, though this self-emptying might have hidden it from the eyes of unbelief. The incomprehensibility of a being in a finite form revealed the infinite that was there.
Two different Greek words lie behind "know" here. The difference decides how much this verse shuts us out, and how much it lets us in.
Not to know Him at all (ginoskein) was to be without eternal life; but to know Him thoroughly (epiginoskein) was only possible to God the Father. We cannot fathom, but we most surely believe. It is our deep joy that the Father only fully knows the Son, though we know Him enough to have eternal life in Him.
That limit does not shut believers out of knowing Christ:
Does this mean that we do not know Christ as our Saviour and Lord? Certainly not. But we do well to accept without reserve the limitation that we shall never know the mystery of His person. To neglect this is to court disaster. If we remember it, we will take care not to go a hair's breadth beyond what Scripture says on this profound and holy subject.
What the Son cannot pass on about Himself, He can and does pass on about the Father:
There is a certain knowledge of the Son which cannot be shared with anyone; that belongs to the Father only. But there is a knowledge of the Father that the Son was able to share with those whom He chose. Until the Son came, no one knew the Father. The Son brought with Him a divine revelation, something hidden from past generations.
Only the Son can reveal the Father, and that ability tells us who He is:
The Godhead glory of the Father, beyond all words, could only be revealed by the Son. But that He could reveal it proved His own personal Deity, for who but God could reveal God?
The revealing also rests on His own will:
The Son made this revelation according to His own good pleasure. What a mark of divine perfection! He came for this purpose, and He did it according to His own wisdom.
The invitation that follows shows who this revealing is for:
He is revealing the Father now. He has not merely come to fulfil the promises of God. He is revealing the Father, and bringing souls into a deeper knowledge of God than was possible before. "Come to me, all who labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." It is perfect grace: no restriction; no setting the Jew in the foremost seat of honour.
- Given, not grasped — Israel rejected Him as King. His Father handed Him more than any prophet had promised: all things.
- Given depths — His person runs deeper than any creature can reach. What cannot be fathomed in a man is the mark of the infinite.
- Given enough — no one knows Him fully but the Father, yet what we do know of Him is enough for eternal life. Speculation past Scripture is where the danger lies.
- Given a Father — the Son came to make known the Father, a name no generation knew until He brought it.
- Given away freely — He reveals the Father to whom He chooses. His next words show whom: everyone weary enough to come.