Out of the Mouth of Babes

After Jesus “cast out all them that sold and bought in the temple” near the end of His mortal ministry, we read that “the blind and the lame came to him in the temple; and he healed them.”  Because of these miracles that He did there were “children crying in the temple, and saying, Hosanna to the Son of David.”  The chief priests and scribes were “sore displeased, and said unto him, Hearest thou what these say?”  Jesus responded with a reference to scripture, justifying the children’s exclamations: “Yea; have ye never read, Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected praise?” (Matt. 21:12-16)  It is not totally clear to me what passage of scripture He was quoting, but the most likely candidate is this: “Out of the mouth of babes and sucklings hast thou ordained strength because of thine enemies, that thou mightest still the enemy and the avenger” (Psalm 8:2).  The heading suggests that we can interpret this as “babes and children praise the Lord,” an indication seeming to link it to the statement by the Savior.  The Jewish rulers wanted to discount and silence the words of adoration for the miracles of Jesus, but He showed that such praise from little ones is not only acceptable but foretold in the scriptures. 

               A few other scriptures also refer to the special spiritual knowledge that babes and children have.  After condemning some of the cities in Galilee for their wickedness, the Savior said, “I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent, and hast revealed them unto babes” (Matt. 11:25, see also Luke 10:21).  He didn’t give any other explanation at that time, but clearly He suggested that sometimes little ones have more spiritual wisdom than the supposedly learned.  Not too long later when He visited the Nephites He gave special attention to the children and gave them incredible power to teach, showing in at least one instance that His statement in Palestine was true: “And it came to pass that he did teach and minister unto the children of the multitude of whom hath been spoken, and he did loose their tongues, and they did speak unto their fathers great and marvelous things, even greater than he had revealed unto the people; and he loosed their tongues that they could utter.”  The next day the children still seemed to have this power of expression and revelation, for “it came to pass on the morrow that the multitude gathered themselves together, and they both saw and heard these children; yea, even babes did open their mouths and utter marvelous things; and the things which they did utter were forbidden that there should not any man write them” (3 Nephi 26:14, 16).  What an incredible and humbling experience this must have been to see small children, who presumably couldn’t speak otherwise, reveal truths so great that they could not even be written.  With a very small infant in my home now, I often wonder if she doesn’t have great truths and knowledge of the celestial world that she could similarly reveal to me if she were given the power of communication.  It may be that the veil of forgetfulness only works gradually as precious little ones enter this world and that knowledge of where they came from persists with them for some time.  Even though they can’t speak to us without this kind of miracle Jesus performed, their goodness emanates and teaches us much about the purity of heaven.

             We have one more reference to this phenomenon in the words of the prophet Joseph Smith to the Saints as he taught them of salvation for the dead.  He wrote, “Those things which never have been revealed from the foundation of the world, but have been kept hid from the wise and prudent, shall be revealed unto babes and sucklings in this, the dispensation of the fulness of times” (Doctrine and Covenants 128:18).  In the latter days too the Lord will reveal great truths even to the youngest among us, showing that indeed He is no respecter of persons.