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The wisdom of King Solomon

Feb 3, 2008 Devotions

1 Kings 3:16-28

16 – Then came there two women, that were harlots, unto the king, and stood before him.

17 – And the one woman said, O my lord, I and this woman dwell in one house; and I was delivered of a child with her in the house.

18 – And it came to pass the third day after that I was delivered, that this woman was delivered also: and we were together; there was no stranger with us in the house, save we two in the house.

19 – And this woman’s child died in the night; because she overlaid it.

20 – And she arose at midnight, and took my son from beside me, while thine handmaid slept, and laid it in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.

21 – And when I rose in the morning to give my child suck, behold, it was dead: but when I had considered it in the morning, behold, it was not my son, which I did bear.

22 – And the other woman said, Nay; but the living is my son, and the dead is thy son. And this said, No; but the dead is thy son, and the living is my son. Thus they spake before the king.

23 – Then said the king, The one saith, This is my son that liveth, and thy son is the dead: and the other saith, Nay; but thy son is the dead, and my son is the living.

24 – And the king said, Bring me a sword. And they brought a sword before the king.

25 – And the king said, Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one, and half to the other.

26 – Then spake the woman whose the living child was unto the king, for her bowels yearned upon her son, and she said, O my lord, give her the living child, and in no wise slay it. But the other said, Let it be neither mine nor thine, but divide it.

27 – Then the king answered and said, Give her the living child, and in no wise slay it: she is the mother thereof.

28 – And all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had judged; and they feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.

King Solomon is famous for his great wisdom, and that wisdom became quite apparent as one of the most well-known events in the Bible played itself out.
 
When these two women came before him, each claiming to be the mother of the same little boy, Solomon could have listened to their stories, asked them a bunch of questions, brought in hordes of witnesses, and then tried to decide who was telling the truth. But he knew that the quickest and most accurate way to determine who the real mother was was to simply let the two women make that determination on their own.
 
Solomon knew that except for the love of God Himself, there is no stronger love than that of a mother for her child. There was no doubt in his mind that the true mother would rather lose custody of her precious little boy to another woman than see it come to harm, and he was right. He actually ended up not having to decide the “case” at all – the “litigants” made the decision for him.
 
We can all apply a bit of Solomon’s wisdom to our own lives. Sometimes we make the process of making a decision a lot harder than it really has to be. Quite often, the answer to a seemingly complex situation is really quite simple, and if we ask the Lord for guidance and use a little common sense we’ll be able to get a lot more done in much less time than if we sit and ponder and stress ourselves out.