Dividing the Child

Robert Wurtz II

 

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” (1 Kings 3:23–26 NKJV). 

 

Our passage is a familiar story of two harlots who each had a baby, but one accidentally laid on her child and smothered it. So she took the living baby and replaced it with the baby that passed. When the other mother awoke and found the lifeless baby, she knew what the guilty mother had done. Eventually, the matter went to the wise King Solomon, who discerned the truth through God’s imparted wisdom. God left us with a record of this dreadful situation to teach us basic discernment.

 

In this article my goal is to apply this great truth to the churches of God and the leadership therein. The situation with these careless prostitutes is both insightful and instructive because we learn how the threat of death and destruction revealed which woman possessed a heart of maternal love and which was diabolical at heart. So too we can discern the hearts of pastors and leaders by observing their care for the flock when faced with the sword as it were. A true shepherd embodies a motherly instinct, nurturing with compassion and affection, while a hireling views the people as mere livestock.

 

Astorgos (the Absence of Familial Love)

 

Solomon revealed the difference between the women by wisely discerning which woman was moving in familial love for the living child. This is a vital truth. Understand that one woman carried the surviving baby for nine months, and the other did not, which showed in her attitude toward the child. How could the genuine biological mother stand by as a soldier cuts her baby in half? It is extremely unlikely. She would have charged hell’s gates to stop that from happening if that was her baby. The other mother tried to steal a baby and when that scheme failed agreed to murder it. We would term that today a psychopath.

 

Consider also the story of David and Bathsheeba. Nathan came to him and told a story of a rich man killing a poor man’s little ewe lamb for food when he had scores of livestock to pull from. Nathan did prophetically what Solomon did with wisdom; he aroused the caring and nurturing nature of the one with the proper loving instincts. David’s estimate of the rich man was that he had no pity and deserved to die. Why? Because David knew what it was to invest love and affection in something and then have some reckless animal (or person) slaughter it. His pastoral (shepherd’s) instinct was similar to a motherly instinct.

 

Mothers and Pastors

 

Paul followed this line when he wrote to the Thessalonians:

 

“But as we have been approved by God to be entrusted with the gospel, even so, we speak, not as pleasing men, but God who tests our hearts. For neither at any time did we use flattering words, as you know, nor a cloak for covetousness—God is witness. Nor did we seek glory from men, either from you or from others, when we might have made demands as apostles of Christ. But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us” (1 Thessalonians 2:4–8 NKJV). 

 

Paul didn’t preach the Gospel in order to build a flock to fleece it and then sell it off in the marketplace. He didn’t do it to receive glory from men. God trusted him with the gospel because he had tested his heart and he passed the test. He was a man after God’s own heart meaning he cherished the people and didn’t view them as a resource. He wasn’t a covetous hireling who thought in terms of financial investments and therefore callously viewed the flock as mere livestock. Rather, he gently handled them like a nursing mother her newborn baby imparting his own life into the people. God safely approved of this and entrusted Paul with the gospel.

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In 1988, a 30-year-old Armenian woman was buried alive in an earthquake along with her 3-year-old child. Health officials reported that the mother kept the child alive during the eight days the two were entombed. She repeatedly punctured her fingers and allowed the child to suck her blood. It was its only source of nourishment. She looked past all the reasons she shouldn’t resort to such a thing. Why? Because she was focused solely on saving the child’s life. It was a far cry from the harlot’s attitude who agreed to cut the child in two. 

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Sleeper Awake!

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We can safely argue that both prostitutes in our story were more or less careless. One suffocated the life out of her child and the other allowed hers to be stolen. The common denominator is sleep or what the New Testament refers to as slumber. It is the opposite of watching or staying alert. They both should have been vigilant. Paul warned the leadership at Ephesus to watch and be vigilant because wolves were coming to destroy the flock (Acts 2:31-32).

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Had the careless mother who suffocated her baby been a pastor or leader we would have termed her a wolffish hireling. She effectively killed her own baby and consented to the murder of the other one. God forbid that a pastor or leader would behave in this way. Paul said, “But we were gentle among you, just as a nursing mother cherishes her own children. So, affectionately longing for you, we were well pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God, but also our own lives, because you had become dear to us.” Why? Because he was a true shepherd with real maternal instincts for God’s people.