When moral compromise is involved, often winning half actually means losing it all.
Among the Jews, prostitutes were often foreigners; hence their designation as “strange women.” To accentuate the gravity of their sin, these harlots plied their trade as a part of their devotion to some heathen idol (see Num 25:1-5; Hos 4:14). These demeaning and defiling practices were strictly forbidden to have any part in the service of God’s house (Deut 23:18). Yet it is a mark of divine grace that the first Gentile saved in Canaan was Rahab the harlot, the Savior’s earthly ministry was often to those known to be such sinners, and now Solomon’s first use of his heaven-given wisdom was to intervene between two harlots. Was this Solomon’s first day on the job after receiving “an understanding heart to…discern between good and evil” (1 Ki 3:9)? He certainly will need it now! Here’s how the story reads. Two women, both harlots, bear sons three days apart. One woman claims that her roommate accidentally suffocated her baby during the night by lying on it, then switched the boys before she awakened. In the morning light, she recognizes that the dead baby was not hers. But the other woman insists this was not the case; the living baby was hers. What was Solomon to do? There was no DNA test to be had. So the king called for a lie detector test—a sword! And the king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to one, and half to the other” (v 25). The woman of the dead child agreed to the grisly solution. But the mother of the living child responded, “O my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him!” (v 26). Thus the king revealed the true mother’s identity. While Solomon’s sword didn’t divide the baby, it did divide between selfless love and self-centeredness. God’s Sword will do that, too!