‘At that time (season) Jesus answered and said, “I thank you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.” '
Note the vivid contrast between this and the previous passage. In the previous passage Jesus surveys the unresponsive towns and verbally passes sentence on them. It is an outward look, and He sees them as walking in the broad way that leads to destruction. Here He looks up to the Father and verbally acknowledges His goodness in revealing the truth to ‘babes'. It is an upward look, and these are they who are in the narrow way that leads to life. The thought of what He has experienced with respect to the spiritual blindness and unresponsiveness of the people of Galilee makes Him fully appreciate the wonder of what the Father is doing in revealing His truth. For He recognises that in the end it is not the fact that men are spiritually blind that is remarkable, it is the fact that some ‘see'. And they are those who are being blessed by God (compare Matthew 16:17; Matthew 5:3-9; Matthew 12:6). And He realises that when this happens it is due to His Father, Who is the Creator and Possessor and Controller of Heaven and earth, Whose power is such that He can even enlighten the hearts of men when they look to Him in confident faith and trust, without any thought of their own wisdom. The point He is making is not that God actually specifically hides things from the wise and understanding, but that by not unveiling their eyes they remain hidden. Indeed man in His wisdom sets up his own barrier against spiritual truth. He cannot ‘see' because his eyes are focused on something else, on earthly wisdom which possesses his mind and his thoughts so that he thinks that he knows all. He does not see any need for repentance, nor any need for humility.
But to the ‘babe', the one whose mind is uncluttered with his own wisdom, and who therefore looks to God for all his understanding (compare Matthew 18:3-4), God reveals His truth. In this case that truth is ‘these things'. And what are ‘these things'? They are the things that those who are wise, (that is, those who fail to see in Him and His mighty works, and in what they signify, the God-provided solution to the need of Israel and of the world), cannot see. They fail to see that He has come bearing their afflictions and carrying their diseases (Matthew 8:17), that He has come bringing forgiveness from God (Matthew 9:6), that He has come to cleanse all who come to Him (Matthew 8:3), that He has come to heal and make whole (Matthew 9:12), that He has come to bring men under the Kingly Rule of God (Matthew 12:28).
‘At that time.' A phrase linking this passage with the last one.
‘Jesus answered and said.' At first sight ‘answered' appears to be redundant. It is a favourite verb of Matthew's (45 times), but usually indicating a direct response to a question. On the other hand comparison with Matthew 12:38; Matthew 17:4; Matthew 28:5 demonstrates that it can be used ‘redundantly'. However it is very possible that here Matthew wants us to see that what He is about to say is the answer to the problems raised by what has gone before. All earth's problems find their answer in God, ‘the Lord of Heaven and earth'.
‘I thank (acknowledge with praise) you, O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.' The verb signifies that He acknowledges His Father for Who and What He is, He owns His worth, and therefore He praises Him. ‘O Father, Lord of heaven and earth.' This is Jesus use of ‘Father' as indicating His own Father, which as what follows, reveals is very different from when He speaks of God as the Father of the disciples. He is indicating the uniqueness of the relationship between them.
‘Lord of Heaven and earth.' This title as such is not found in Scripture, although it is found (rarely) in Jewish literature, in Tobit 7:19 and in the Genesis Apocryphon at Qumran. But compare Genesis 14:19; Genesis 14:22, ‘God Most High, Possessor (or Maker) of Heaven and earth', and Ezra 5:11, ‘the God of Heaven and earth'. The combination of Heaven and earth suggests the Creator and Possessor of all things (2Ki 19:15; 1 Chronicles 29:11; 2 Chronicles 2:12; Jeremiah 23:24).
‘That you hid these things from the wise and understanding, and revealed them to babes.' In other words that God so created and sustains the world that those full of their own wisdom and understanding in fact remain spiritually blind, while those who with an open and honest heart seek Him will have spiritual truth revealed to them. A full ‘commentary' on these words is found in 1 Corinthians 1:17 to 1 Corinthians 2:16. It is not a question of intellect (Paul was one of these ‘babes'), it is a question of humble submission and a willingness to receive truth from Him.
Elsewhere it is made clear that the failure of men to understand is also a spiritual one. It is that their hearts and minds are blinded by ‘the God of this world' so that they need the veil drawn back in order to behold the glory of Christ, and see the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ (2 Corinthians 4:4), it is that they need to have their eyes opened, and to be turned from darkness to light and the power of Satan to God (Acts 26:18), and that is what He will later stress that He has come to do (Matthew 12:28-29; Matthew 12:43-45).
The selective revelation of God is also described in Psalms 147:19-20 but there it was to Israel and not the nations. Here the Father will reveal the truth to the ‘new nation' who are being taken out of the old (Matthew 16:18; Matthew 21:43). Yet this idea of selective revelation to the righteous comes out in the Psalms. ‘You will show me the path of life' (Psalms 16:11); ‘show me your ways, O Lord, teach me your paths' (Psalms 25:4); ‘teach me your way, O Lord' (Psalms 27:11 - when he has been forsaken by those who should have guided him). And it is a part of what God's righteousness, paralleled with deliverance, signifies in Isaiah (see Isaiah 51:4-5; Isaiah 51:7). Through it all are to know Him, from the least to the greatest (Jeremiah 31:33-34).