Matthew 11:26

Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in thy sight. Or, "so is the good will", or "pleasure before thee": thus, רצון מלפניך יהי, "let it be the good will before thee", or "in thy sight, O Lord", is

Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. Even so, Father; for so it seemed good , [ eudokia (G2107)] - the emphatic and chosen term for expressing any object of divine complacency;

Ver. 25,26. , hath the same thing, only he thus prefaces, In that hour Jesus rejoiced in spirit, and said, I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, & c. He rejoiced in spirit, his heart was inwardly affected with this grace of God his Father. Then he answered and said. Answering in Scripture doth not always signify replying to the words of others, but a speaking upon some fit occasion offered, a beginning of a speech. I thank thee, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth. In the Greek the same word is used which signifieth to confess. In all thanksgiving and praising there is a confession of the power, wisdom, or goodness of God, so as all praising is a confessing, though all confession be not praising. By calling his Father Lord of heaven and earth, he acknowledgeth his absolute power to have done otherwise, even as it pleased him. Because thou hast hid these things from the wise and prudent. By the wise and prudent he here plainly means the scribes and Pharisees, the learned doctors of that age, who should have been wise and prudent, and were so both in their own and in their followers’ opinion. By these things he means the mysteries of the gospel, as , The mysteries of the kingdom of heaven. God is said to have hid them, because he had not revealed them to them; nor can it be understood of a mere external revelation by the preaching of the gospel, but of an internal revelation by his Spirit, so as they embraced and believed them, ; in which sense Paul saith, If our gospel be hid, it is hid to them that are lost, . And hast revealed them unto babes, nhpioiv. It signifieth persons that are young in years, infants, and weak in understanding. He principally means his apostles, together with those ordinary persons that believed in him, for the Pharisees said, ,49, Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed on him? But this people who knoweth not the law are cursed. O Father, (saith our Saviour), thou hast all power in thine hand, thou art the Lord of heaven and earth, thou couldest by thy Spirit have caused these learned men to have received and embraced thy gospel, and followed me, as well as these poor fishermen, and other Jews of none of the highest quality; in that thou hast not done it, thou hast declared thy justice, for their rejecting of thy counsel for their salvation, but in that thou hast revealed these things to any, especially to these persons, not under the same worldly advantages for reputation, wisdom, and wit, herein thou hast showed thy special and abounding grace, as well as the greatness of thy power. Lord, I rejoice in thy dispensations, and I give thee thanks that out of the mouths of babes and sucklings thou hast perfected thy praise.

26 Even so, Father: for so it seemed good in thy sight. Ver. 26. Even so, Father, for so, &c.] Christ being tired out, as it were, by the untractableness of his hearers, turns him to his Father, and comforts himself with the consideration of his most wise decree and counsel: so must we in like case, accounting that we are a sweet savour unto God howsoever, even in them that perish, and that God shall have his end upon them, though we have not ours, 2 Corinthians 2:15.

(26) For so it seemed good.—Literally, Yea, Father, [I thank Thee] that thus it was Thy good pleasure. The words recall those that had been spoken at our Lord’s baptism (“in whom I am well pleased,” Matthew 3:17), and the song of the heavenly host on the night of the Nativity (“good will among men,” Luke 2:14). The two verses are remarkable as the only record outside St. John’s Gospel of a prayer like that which we find in John 17. For the most part, we may believe, those prayers were offered apart on the lonely hill-side, in the darkness of night; or, it may be, the disciples shrank in their reverence, or perhaps in the consciousness of their want of capacity, from attempting to record what was so unspeakably sacred. But it is noteworthy that in this exceptional instance we find, both in the prayer and the teaching that follows it in St. Matthew and St. Luke, turns of thought and phrase almost absolutely identical with what is most characteristic of St. John. It is as though the isolated fragment of a higher teaching had been preserved by them as a witness that there was a region upon which they scarcely dared to enter, but into which men were to be led afterwards by the beloved disciple, to whom the Spirit gave power to recall what had been above the reach of the other reporters of his Master’s teaching.

Verse 26. Even so, Father] ναιοπατηρ. An emphatical ratification of the preceding address. It was right that the heavenly wisdom, despised, rejected, and persecuted by the scribes and Pharisees, should be offered to the simple people, and afterwards to the foolish people, the Gentiles, who are the children of wisdom, and justify God in his ways, by bringing forth that fruit of the Gospel of which the Pharisees refused to receive even the seed.

26. Even so, Father: for] Translate: “yea Father [I thank thee] that, &c.”

26. It seemed good — It was not so done by God from mere arbitrary unreasoning and absolute will, but because it was good. It seemed right to the Infinite Mind. It seems right to all right reason.