Wisdom Wednesday: Wisdom of Solomon – Part 2
The Test of Solomon’s Wisdom
Submitted by Debbie’s Dad
“When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.”
(1 Kings 3:28) NASB 95
In the account of the beginning of Solomon’s reign, after his receipt of wisdom and his return to Jerusalem, he was confronted with a difficult court case. This case was apparently not resolved at a lower level of justice and so it came to the king. The well-known case involved two women, prostitutes, who lived in the same house, and both gave birth to babies 3 days apart.
The first woman said:
“Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house. It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house. This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.” (I Kings 3:17-21)
The second woman protested:
“No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” (I Kings 3:22a)
But the first woman countered:
“No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” (I Kings 3:22b)
This was clearly a “she said – she said” situation that rested solely on the testimony of the two women. One woman was lying, and the other was telling the truth, one woman knew she had a dead baby, the other knew her baby was living. There is no indication of any other evidence available to Solomon. Solomon summarized the conundrum, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’ (1 Kings 3:23). He had to rely solely on his wisdom regarding human nature and the behavior of the women. There is no evidence that he interrogated the two women to discern the honest woman from the liar. Solomon later wrote warnings to avoid or these kinds of sinful women (Proverbs 7:14; 9:14).
Solomon chose to conduct a subtle test of the women by making a king’s declaration. The two women were confronted with the powerful king who could make many judgments. He could shame them for prostitution, take the baby and give it to a loving family, for example.
But he acted as if in a rash manner (perhaps even acting irritated with the two) and chose a most extreme declaration. It was a decision to gruesomely divide the living baby before them and give the halves to the two arguing women:
The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.” (1 Kings 3:24–25)
With the sword and the baby before them, the true mother pleaded to Solomon not to kill the baby but give it to the other woman. The other woman said, effectively, “We will neither get the baby, go ahead and kill it.” (“He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” 3:26) Distinguishing the love for the baby in the first woman, and the cruel anger in the second woman who only cared about the argument, Solomon discerned the true mother.
This was a test for Solomon, and he demonstrated the wisdom God had given him. The writer of the book of Kings likely inserted this even here to provide evidence of how Solomon exhibited wisdom by choosing a vivid account that had impact across the kingdom. In the following chapter the writer summarized, “Now God gave Solomon wisdom and very great discernment and breadth of mind, like the sand that is on the seashore.” (1 Kings 4:29)
When confronted with difficult decisions in life, we may pray for wisdom and discernment to take the right action and make right decisions, as Solomon did.