Jesus Certainly Valued Children

Psalm 139:13, 14 - 13 (NKJV) For You formed my inward parts;
You covered me in my mother's womb.
14 I will praise You, for *I am fearfully and wonderfully made;
Marvelous are Your works,
And that my soul knows very well.

Isaiah 44:24 (NKJV) Thus says the Lord, your Redeemer, And He who formed you from the womb: "I am the Lord, who makes all things, Who stretches out the heavens all alone, Who spreads abroad the earth by Myself;

Jeremiah 1:5 (NKJV) Before I formed you in the womb I knew you; Before you were born I sanctified you; I ordained you a prophet to the nations."

Psalm 127:3 - (KJV) Lo, children [are] an heritage of the LORD: [and] the fruit of the womb [is his] reward.

Matthew 19:13-15

Jesus Blesses Little Children
(Mark 10:13-16; Luke 18:15-17)
13 Then little children were brought to Him that He might put His hands on them and pray, but the disciples rebuked them. 14 But Jesus said, "Let the little children come to Me, and do not forbid them; for of such is the kingdom of heaven." 15 And He laid His hands on them and departed from there.

Jesus certainly valued children, as the following commentary tells us:

LITTLE CHILDREN BROUGHT TO CHRIST.

15. infants--showing that some, at least, of those called in Matthew ( Mat 19:13 ) and Mark ( Mar 10:13 ) simply "little" or "young children," were literally "babes."

touch them--or, as more fully in Matthew ( Mat 19:13) , "put His hands on them and pray," or invoke a "blessing" on them ( Mar 10:16 ), according to venerable custom ( Gen 48:14, 15 ).

rebuked them--Repeatedly the disciples thus interposed to save annoyance and interruption to their Master; but, as the result showed, always against the mind of Christ ( Mat 15:23, Luk 18:39, 40 ). Here, it is plain from our Lord's reply, that they thought the intrusion a useless one, as infants were not capable of receiving anything from Him. His ministrations were for grown people.

16. But Jesus--"much displeased," says Mark ( Mar 10:14 ); and invaluable addition. said--"SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME"--"AND FORBID THEM NOT," is the important addition of Matthew ( Mat 19:14 ) and Mark ( Mar 10:14).

What words are these from the lips of Christ! The price of them is above rubies.

But the reason assigned, "FOR OF SUCH IS THE KINGDOM OF GOD," or "of heaven," as in Mat 19:14 , completes the previous information here conveyed; especially as interpreted by what immediately follows: "AND HE TOOK THEM UP IN HIS ARMS, PUT HIS HANDS UPON THEM, AND BLESSED THEM" ( Mar 10:16 ).

It is surely not to be conceived that all our Lord meant was to inform us, that seeing grown people must become childlike in order to be capable of the Kingdom of God, therefore they should not hinder infants from coming to Him, and therefore He took up and blessed the infants themselves. Was it not just the grave mistake of the disciples that infants should not be brought to Christ, because only grown people could profit by Him, which "much displeased" our Lord?

And though He took the irresistible opportunity of lowering their pride of reason, by informing them that, in order to enter the Kingdom, "instead of the children first becoming like them, they must themselves become like the children" [RICHTER in STIER], this was but by the way; and, returning to the children themselves, He took them up in His gracious arms, put His hands upon them and blessed them, for no conceivable reason but to show that they were thereby made capable, AS INFANTS, of the Kingdom of God. And if so, then "Can any man forbid water that these should not be baptized which have received the Holy Ghost as well as we?" ( Act 10:47 ).

(Commentary by David Brown)