Knowing a mother's love

Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him. And one woman said, “O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house. And this woman's son died in the night, because she lay on him. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom. And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne.”
Then the other woman said, “No! But the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.”
And the first woman said, “No! But the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.”
Thus they spoke before the king.
And the king said, “The one says, “This is my son, who lives, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! But your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’” Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king. And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other.”
Then the woman whose son was living spoke to the king, for she yearned with compassion for her son; and she said, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!”
But the other said, “Let him be neither mine nor yours, but divide him.”
So the king answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him; she is his mother.” – 1 Kings 3.16-27

When you ask virtually anyone, Christian or non-Christian, churched or unchurched, Bible readers or never picked up a Bible in their lives to tell what they know about the wisdom of Solomon this is the story they would tell.

It happens shortly after he became king. Two prostitutes who lived in the same house came to see him. They both had young babies and one night one of the children dies. One of the mothers had rolled over on top of the child, but both claimed it was the other woman’s baby who had died. They took their dispute to the highest court in the land, King Solomon himself.

They presented their cases and the king had a solution. ‘Bring me my sword! I will settle it by cutting the child in half and giving a half to each mother.’

‘Go ahead and divide the baby and give each of half’ said one.
‘NO! Give him the the other woman – don’t kill him’ said the other.

And wise King Solomon knew who the mother was – the one who said ‘I’d rather give him away than let him be cut in two.’

Solomon knew the extent of a mother’s love. He knew that there is no way she would allow the baby to die. A mother’s love would go far as to give up her own child to save his life.

I can’t imagine that pain that filled that mother’s heart as she offered to lose her child to save him, but her love knew that was all she could do.

What a beautiful picture of the depth of a mother’s love.