After watching ten-year-old Viola using a tree branch as a microphone to mimic a preacher, Michele decided to give Viola the opportunity to “preach” during a village outreach. Viola accepted. Michele, a missionary in South Sudan, wrote, “The crowd was enraptured. . . . A little girl who had been abandoned stood in authority before them as a daughter of the King of kings, powerfully sharing the reality of God’s Kingdom. Half the crowd came forward to receive Jesus” (Michele Perry, Love Has a Face).
The crowd that day hadn’t expected to hear a child preach. This incident brings to mind the phrase “out of the mouths of babes,” which comes from Psalm 8. David wrote, “Out of the mouth of babies and infants, you have established strength because of your foes” (v. 2
How can I offer praise to God today? Why is He worthy of my praise?
INSIGHT
After arriving in Jerusalem on what is known as Palm Sunday, Jesus made His way to the temple where He symbolically and prophetically reclaimed God’s house for its rightful purposes (Matthew 21:12). In doing so, He quoted the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah (v. 13): “It is written,” he said to them, “‘My house will be called a house of prayer’ [Isaiah 56:7], but you are making it ‘a den of robbers’” [Jeremiah 7:11]. Jesus’s zeal for God’s house was such that—though risky—He did not let the mismanagement of the religious leaders go unchallenged. What may have been mercenary practices were—at least momentarily—replaced with marvelous acts of mercy (v. 14), deeds which were more consistent with the purposes of the Father’s house. Though the physically blind were healed, the blindness of the leaders remained, as noted by their indignation and words to Jesus (vv. 15–16).