Daily Devotional For Thursday, May 21, 2026
Good morning and good day Southside! Our passage today from the One Year Chronological Bible is a story that is very famous in the Bible. It shows the wisdom of Solomon in a very challenging situation of filtering out who was the real mother of a baby. We read this in 1 Kings 3:16-28:
“Some time later two prostitutes came to the king to have an argument settled. (17) “Please, my lord,” one of them began, “this woman and I live in the same house. I gave birth to a baby while she was with me in the house. (18) Three days later this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there were only two of us in the house. (19) “But her baby died during the night when she rolled over on it. (20) Then she got up in the night and took my son from beside me while I was asleep. She laid her dead child in my arms and took mine to sleep beside her. (21) And in the morning when I tried to nurse my son, he was dead! But when I looked more closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t my son at all.” (22) Then the other woman interrupted, “It certainly was your son, and the living child is mine.” “No,” the first woman said, “the living child is mine, and the dead one is yours.” And so they argued back and forth before the king. (23) Then the king said, “Let’s get the facts straight. Both of you claim the living child is yours, and each says that the dead one belongs to the other. (24) All right, bring me a sword.” So a sword was brought to the king. (25) Then he said, “Cut the living child in two, and give half to one woman and half to the other!” (26) Then the woman who was the real mother of the living child, and who loved him very much, cried out, “Oh no, my lord! Give her the child—please do not kill him!” But the other woman said, “All right, he will be neither yours nor mine; divide him between us!” (27) Then the king said, “Do not kill the child, but give him to the woman who wants him to live, for she is his mother!” (28) When all Israel heard the king’s decision, the people were in awe of the king, for they saw the wisdom God had given him for rendering justice” (NLT).
When I read this I thought, “When was the last time you heard of two prostitutes getting an audience with a king or prime minister or president?” What I love about this story is how God used Solomon to enact justice for a mother. Both women were prostitutes who sold their bodies for sex to make money. In the days of Solomon, prostitutes were marginalized and ostracized and so it makes you wonder how they got an audience with King Solomon to settle their dispute. The Old Testament law was very clear about prostitutes:
- Leviticus 19:29, “Do not defile your daughter by making her a prostitute, or the land will be filled with prostitution and wickedness” (NLT).
- Leviticus 21:9, “If a priest’s daughter defiles herself by becoming a prostitute, she also defiles her father’s holiness, and she must be burned to death.” (NLT).
There are many other passages forbidding prostitution and going to prostitutes. In David and Solomon’s time, the king not only protected Israel from her enemies, but also he served as a judge to settle disputes. Probably in this story both prostitutes were from the same brothel. The first prostitute tells her story. We have two mothers here. No fathers are mentioned and it is clear no one else was in the house when the first baby died. The first prostitute had accidentally killed her son by lying on him. When she realized that, it seems she came and switched her dead baby with the newborn baby of the second prostitute. So, we have a case of one prostitute’s words against another. Solomon as judge has to decide who is telling the truth. Solomon does not get bogged down in who did what nor how the death occurred, but getting to which mother was the real mother of the living baby.
The prostitute that had accidentally killed her baby was angry, jealous and bitter over what she had done. Bitter jealousy over the injustice of her loss and her companion’s good fortune gripped her. We are horrified to hear her words that exploded from her mouth: “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!” The cold-heartedness of this prostitute is almost unimaginable. If Solomon did this, then both babies would be dead. So, you have to wonder, what in the world would she do with the half-carcass of a dead baby?
Solomon orders a sword to be brought to him. You can feel the tension build as the two prostitutes may have wondered if he was about to kill them both. Solomon ordered the baby to be divided in half and half given to each mother. The real mother spoke up to keep her baby alive and said give it to the lying prostitute. The lying prostitute said, “Divide the child.” At that moment Solomon knew who the real mother was. When all of Israel heard about this, they knew they had a king who had something better than weapons of war. Solomon had the wisdom of God to enact justice on God’s behalf.
Reflection Assignment: Think back over your life. Which decisions have you made that were wrong do you wish you had sought the Lord’s wisdom in making those decisions? How often do you go to the Lord seeking His wisdom in making decisions? What is a decision you have made that was wrong and in the end you made some lame excuse about what you did and why you did it?
Scripture To Meditate On: James 1:5, “But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him” (NASB).
Prayer To Pray: “Dear Lord, I need Your wisdom. Please forgive me when I just go and make a decision without seeking Your guidance. As James 3:17 says, Your wisdom is first of all “pure, peace loving, gentle, merciful and produces the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere.” Lord, I want that kind of wisdom. I love You Lord. In Jesus’ name, Amen!”
I love you Southside! – Pastor Kelly