“The Kingdom’s Pediatric Paradigm”

Is. 11:1 A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots. 

Is. 11:2 The spirit of the LORD shall rest on him,the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and the fear of the LORD. 

Is. 11:3 His delight shall be in the fear of the LORD. He shall not judge by what his eyes see, or decide by what his ears hear; 

Is. 11:4 but with righteousness he shall judge the poor, and decide with equity for the meek of the earth, he shall strike the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips he shall kill the wicked. 

Is. 11:5 Righteousness shall be the belt around his waist, and faithfulness the belt around his loins.

Is. 11:6  ¶ The wolf shall live with the lamb, the leopard shall lie down with the kid, the calf and the lion and the fatling together, and a little child shall lead them. 

  “In typical kingdom-of-the-world fashion, the disciples assumed Jesus was too important to concern himself with children. Jesus showed how wrong-headed they were—and by allowing the children to come to him, he demonstrated the kind of kingdom he came to bring. (I imagine Jesus roaring with laughter as the kids climbed all over him!) To Jesus’ way of thinking, there is no place in the kingdom for evaluating how important someone is on the basis of their power, possessions, money, or social respect. Children have none of these, but for that reason, they have open access to the Creator of the universe in his incarnate form.”         Gregory Boyd, “The Myth of a Christian Nation”