Yes, you saw my title correctly, did you know that there was a baby that was ordered to be split in half? That is exactly what was ordered. Two women (who were prostitutes, more like neither were not married) went before King Solomon, who was known to be a wise king. A lot of people knew they could go to him to help settle disputes without lawyers.
The two women lived in the same house each gave birth to a baby, one gave birth a day or so before the other. One night it was only the two of the women and their babies in the house. One of the women’s son died during the night because she slept on top of him. So she went to where the other woman was sleeping, snatched her baby, and then put her dead baby in its place. That woman awaken to go feed her baby, she saw that he was dead. So she began to examine him and notice that this baby was not hers. As you know a mother will know her own child.
As they were before King Solomon each woman put a claim that the child was theirs. The king was like each of you say that the living child is your own and the dead is the others. So he ordered that the baby be split in half, so that each will have half of the baby. He ordered for his sword to be brought to him so he could have the baby split. DNA was not discovered yet, yes it was around because DNA has always been around. So no DNA testing could have been done. So this was a wise choice by the king.
Just then, the woman who’s child was living (first woman), said give her the child. Let Him live. While the other woman (second woman) who’s child was dead, said go ahead and split him. The wise king put out this order, because by ordering this, he knew the biological mother would speak up and have compassion, while the other woman wouldn’t. He knew that the true test of the mother would be in case of extreme danger to the child. The woman who the child belong to, would rather see her baby go to the other mother than to see him killed.
So the king ordered to not kill the baby and give the baby to the first woman, because he knew she was his mother. That she cared for him, not the other. All the people heard about the wisdom used by the king and knew it was from God, and the people feared the king.
Could you imagine hearing the judgement or the ruling by the king? How do you think you would feel? The good thing about today, we do have DNA testing that can help determine who is the biological parent. I am sure if you were the birth mother, you wouldn’t think it was fair or just.
But this example shows us the same that God is a fair and just judge.
Read the full story in 1 Kings 3:16-28
First published August 8, 2014. Republishing June 25, 2015
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