Compassionate Love
Synopsis 1Kings 3:20-4:2 3/5/2019
There were two women who lived together. Both women were prostitutes. And both had recently borne baby boys. One woman’s infant son died in the night. She had inadvertently smothered the child. But when she realized what happened, she switched her dead child with the other woman’s living son.
A dispute broke out between the women. And there was no one who could resolve the dispute. So, the women brought the case before King Solomon.
The king heard the two women’s competing claims. Then he asked for a sword, with the intention of cutting the child into two pieces and giving each woman half the child.
The king’s proposal to slay the child mortified the true biological mother. And so, she relinquished her claims. However, the other women agreed with the king’s proposal that it would be better for neither of the women to have the child.
With this ruse, the king discerned the true biological mother. And so, he reunited the woman and her child.
Solomon and the Prostitutes
The curiosity of this scene isn’t just the bizarre circumstances. And it isn’t just King Solomon’s profoundly wise process of discernment. The strangeness of this scene begins with the idea of two prostitutes standing before the king seeking judgement.
Prostitution wasn’t within the law. And although it seems to have had a tacitly accepted place in ancient Israelite culture, it wasn’t a proper industry. So, in a certain way, it was like two thieves going before a judge with a dispute about the ownership of stolen property.
The implication is that neither of these women were of good reputation.
And yet, they loved.
Solomon knew this. He understood a mother’s love. And he used the essence of love to identify the true mother of love.
And so, he proved that the love of a mother for her child was the same.
Compassionate Love
So, the one who loves is the true mother….
“For whoever does the will of my heavenly Father is my brother, and sister, and mother.” Matthew 12:50
