I Kings 3:

I Kings 3:

5 In Gibeon the Lord appeared to Solomon in a dream by night: and God said, Ask what I shall give thee.

6 And Solomon said, Thou hast shewed unto thy servant David my father great mercy, according as he walked before thee in truth, and in righteousness, and in uprightness of heart with thee; and thou hast kept for him this great kindness, that thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne, as it is this day.

7 And now, O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father: and I am but a little child: I know not how to go out or come in.

8 And thy servant is in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen, a great people, that cannot be numbered nor counted for multitude.

9 Give therefore thy servant an understanding heart to judge thy people, that I may discern between good and bad: for who is able to judge this thy so great a people?

10 And the speech pleased the Lord, that Solomon had asked this thing.

11 And God said unto him, Because thou hast asked this thing, and hast not asked for thyself long life; neither hast asked riches for thyself, nor hast asked the life of thine enemies; but hast asked for thyself understanding to discern judgment;

12 Behold, I have done according to thy words: lo, I have given thee a wise and an understanding heart; so that there was none like thee before thee, neither after thee shall any arise like unto thee.

13 And I have also given thee that which thou hast not asked, both riches, and honour: so that there shall not be any among the kings like unto thee all thy days.

14 And if thou wilt walk in my ways, to keep my statutes and my commandments, as thy father David did walk, then I will lengthen thy days.

15 And Solomon awoke; and, behold, it was a dream. And he came to Jerusalem, and stood before the ark of the covenant of the Lord, and offered up burnt offerings, and offered peace offerings, and made a feast to all his servants.

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.

So we see that God endowed Solomon with a great degree of godly wisdom in order that he might execute righteous judgment among God's people of Israel. We also see that the wisdom God gave to Solomon was not about deep, dark, mysterious things that really can't be explained. Rather the divine wisdom God imparted to Solomon was a wisdom of grand simplicity, and of very sound and good sense. It was also a wisdom of executing righteous judgment, as I said; and NOT the supposed wisdom we see among men today, who are usually more than willing to 'cut the baby in half.' I see it in all walks of life: No one wants any kind of righteous judgment executed among men, whether it be on a political level in government, or in business, or in the family, or in the body of Christ for that matter. Seems nobody believes in justifying the righteous and condemning the wicked these days. But it is certain that God still believes in it, and that he requires it of mankind, whether men are doing it or not: "If there be a controversy between men, and they come unto judgment, that the judges may judge them; then they shall justify the righteous, and condemn the wicked" (Deut. 25:1). That rule was established by the God who is still God today, and has never changed one iota of who and what he is (Mal. 3:6; Jas. 1:17). The ugly reality is that mankind today is in love with the idea of "calling evil good, and good evil," and that fits very conveniently and neatly with man's refusal to execute righteous judgment (Isa. 5:20). So what is the result of this deprivation of judgment and justice among men? Man has just come up with the non-solution to his conflicts and problems, of blanket rules that end up depriving the righteous and often rewarding the wicked.

You can see it in the previous government administration in this country in things like providing government sponsored benefits to illegal immigrants, while people such as military veterans suffer deprivation of the same benefits. Oh yeah, that was and probably still is to some extent, a very stark reality in this nation. All the while it is U.S. working, taxpaying citizens, who were and are providing the funds for those benefits. It's very strange how a government subsidized program could bless immigrants who are here illegally, and at the same time curse legal citizens who have hazarded their lives for this country. Something is way off in that equation. It's simply a lack of righteous judgment, and the governing forces that came up with that nonsense were perfectly willing to give the living baby to the illegitimate mother, and leave the true mother with no baby, which in fact is even worse than 'cutting the baby in half.' That is exactly the opposite of the wisdom of God that was in Solomon, that we see in our text passage above. The same previous presidential administration in this country ordered law enforcement to 'stand down,' and just watch helplessly while wicked, unruly, rioting mobs destroyed businesses and residents of certain cities. Why? I'll show you why: "And judgment is turned away backward, and justice standeth afar off: for truth is fallen in the street, and equity cannot enter. Yea, truth faileth; and he that departeth from evil maketh himself a prey: and the Lord saw it, and it displeased him that there was no judgment" (Isa. 59:14,15). Just a plain old lack of judgment. And a severe lack of wisdom for sure.

I'll give you a good example of 'cutting the baby in half' that I've seen up close and personal recently. There was a dispute in a restaurant about the TV, where one individual had been loitering in the restaurant all day long, doing nothing but watching TV. The other individual, a very loyal customer, came in and asked to watch something on TV, but the first individual made it abundantly clear that she was going to have her way and continue watching whatever she felt like watching. She even threatened physical violence to the other person, who did nothing but maintain a calm demeanor, and remind the woman that she had been watching TV there for hours. The same woman had caused trouble in the restaurant, threatening violence to people and hording the TV for long hours many times before. The restaurant management was well aware of all of these facts, being informed by multiple witnesses and being also aware of the woman's frequent antics; but their suggested 'solution' was to either take the TV out of the restaurant, or fix it on one 'neutral' channel that no one was interested in watching. Also there are many people who come to the restaurant because of the TV, so that they can relax, enjoy one another's company, and watch some things on TV that they commonly enjoy. So the supposed solution that management suggested was simply cutting the baby in half, for fear of actually making a rightful judgment call. It was actually said that they couldn't show 'favoritism.' Wow. So in this matter they were saying that justifying the righteous and condemning the wicked is favoritism. What a cop-out for not being willing to do what is obviously the right and sensible thing. The end result was that they just let it go for the moment, with the promise of eliminating the TV or fixing it on a neutral channel at all times, if the issue came up again. What a spineless way of getting one's self out of having to actually execute some form of righteous judgment in the real world.

It's a matter of cutting the baby in half because their 'solution' is to punish a whole lot of loyal customers who never cause trouble, because they don't have the guts to do the right thing and punish the ONE problem customer by banning her from the restaurant. Very few things I've seen recently have given me the degree of spiritual nausea as that. That's not only a lack of wisdom and righteous judgment, but it's also an extreme lack of business sense. In that scenario both of Solomon's women get a dead baby. The mother of the living baby suffers the same punishment as the lying mother of the dead baby, because Solomon doesn't want to show 'favoritism.' Doesn't sound much like the godly wisdom that God gave to Solomon, that's for sure. These kinds of things go on in the body of Christ as well, with people not being judged for their sins for fear of what others will think about it. Maybe someone will think that favoritism is being shown if the guilty are called out, while the righteous are left to be. The apostle Paul, who also had a large endowment of godly wisdom himself, thought otherwise: "Them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear" (I Tim. 5:20). The fear of man is the bedevilment of all righteous judgment, while the fear of God is the catalyst for righteous judgment. Many parents will not execute righteous judgment in disciplining their children, for fear that their children might not love them for it. That is directly contrary to how God thinks however: "He that spareth his rod hateth his son: but he that loveth him chasteneth him betimes" (Prov. 13:24). In any event, whether it is in managing secular government, business, family, or a congregation of believers; the failure to execute righteous judgment among men is a certain recipe for disaster.

After Israel overthrew Jericho upon entering the land of Canaan, they fell before Ai because Achan had defied Joshua's command, and had stolen forbidden goods from the city of Jericho. Though Joshua was unaware of Achan's trespass, God was not; and he threatened to forsake Joshua unless he found out the trespasser and punished him. The result was that Achan was found out and both he and his family were put to death for his sin. Afterward Israel was able to continue with their conquest of Canaan's land (Josh. 7:4-26). The point is that defeat is eminent on any and all levels of life whenever righteous judgment is shunned. It was not favoritism for Solomon to give the living baby to it's real mother, rather than cutting it in half, punishing the true mother for the lying woman's deceitful effort to claim the living baby for herself. Neither was it mistreatment for Joshua to put Achan to death for blatantly defying an order which resulted in the death of thirty five innocent men. Showing favoritism is actually when someone does NOT reward the innocent and punish the guilty. Favoritism is the failure to judge a matter righteously for fear of the wicked. It's also known as partiality. But then again, in a generation where "evil is [called] good, and good [is called] evil," it's certainly easy to see how people come up with such perverse nonsense. It should however be duly noted that God is not ignorant of these things, nor is he lenient to those who ARE ignorant, seeing they do not have to be ignorant. This kind of ignorance is the result of being fearful of men, and the scriptures show no favoritism to the fearful: "But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death" (Rev. 21:8). Case closed. For now. Stay tuned.