Bring me a sword.
For some reason, I have been thinking about King Solomon’s wise decision that solved who the rightful mother of a baby was, so I thought I would refresh my memory about that judgment. Here’s what I realized:
The two women who argued they were the mother were prostitutes.
Both women lived together in the same house.
Both women gave birth to sons, one three days before the other.
The second-born son died because his mother “lay on him … during the night.”
There were no witnesses to the births of the sons, or the death of the second-born son.
The woman who smothered her son stole her roommate’s son while she slept, leaving her with the dead son.
The woman who awoke with the dead son cried, but when the daylight came she realized the baby was not her son.
When Solomon called for a sword to cut the baby in half, its true mother cried out to give it to the other woman, while the other woman cried out to kill the baby, so neither could have it, if not her.
Now 1 Kings 3:16-28 is introduced with a heading that says, “A Wise Ruling,” but what I had not remembered or realized was this wise ruling comes immediately after Solomon asks God, “give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong.” (1 Kings 3:9) However, in the next chapter (1 Kings 4), we read about the breakdown of the government of Israel that commenced under Solomon (1 Kings 4:1-28); but we are told, “God gave Solomon wisdom and very great insight, and a breadth of understanding as measureless as the sand on the seashore” in verse 29, which implies the ruling over the baby’s mothers was misplaced.
When Solomon had his conversation with God, it was in a dream. Solomon told God, “I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties.” (1 Kings 3:7b) We are told in verse 5 that the LORD appeared to Solomon in a dream, but in verse 15 we are told that Solomon then realized he was dreaming. Even though the event of the judgment to determine the rightful mother occurs after Solomon leaves Gibeon and goes to Jerusalem, I believe this judgment is another dream and meant to be interpreted symbolically.
While the story has to be taken as a literal account of a wise judgment by Solomon, it still needs to be seen as a metaphor for Israel. After the Israelites had settled in Canaan, dividing up the territory for each of the twelve tribes, the people had repeatedly turned away from God, leading to periods of misery. Judges would be sent to save the people from those who had lived on the land prior, those who resented their land being taken. Once a sense of peace came, with the prophet Samuel overseeing the people for God, the people asked for a king, like other nations had. The people wanted a warrior king, and chose Saul, but he was not connected to God. God chose David to be the king of the people; and as David was nearing death, the issue of succession arose. God approved Solomon as the king, because God’s wisdom would be his guide. However, God made it clear to Solomon that God’s blessing to the people of Israel would only last as long as the king led the people righteously.
In the fourth year of King Solomon’s reign, the Temple of Jerusalem was dedicated. (1 Kings 8) Following that ceremony and Solomon’s prayer to God, God responded. (1 Kings 9) God said:
“If you or your sons turn away from following Me and do not keep My commands—My statutes that I have set before you—and if you go and serve other gods and worship them, I will cut off Israel from the land I gave them, and I will reject the temple I have sanctified for My name.” (1 Kings 9:6-7)
As Solomon aged, and as Israel grew wealthier, Solomon fell away from the LORD. We read:
“From the nations that the Lord had told the Israelites about, “Do not intermarry with them, and they must not intermarry with you, because they will turn you away from Me to their gods.” Solomon was deeply attached to these non-Israelite women and loved them. He had 700 wives who were princesses and 300 concubines, and they turned his heart away from the Lord. When Solomon was old, his wives seduced him to follow other gods.” (1 Kings 11:2-4a)
When this future is known (as well into the past now), the wisdom shown by Solomon in his judgment concerning the dispute of two prostitutes becomes a prophecy (as a dream) of the future of Israel. The symbolism can be seen as such:
The two prostitutes living in the same house become the split of the one Israel, under one king, to Israel (the Northern Kingdom) and Judah (the Southern Kingdom).
The sons born to each mother are then the kings ruling over each nation.
The wisdom of Solomon, as the judge, becomes God, the source of that wisdom.
The lack of witnesses becomes the denial of those who intermarried with the Israelites, who failed to believe God gave the land of Canaan to them; as well, it represents a denial that God promised to “cut Israel from the land I gave them,” after Solomon was “seduced to follow other gods.”
The sword called for is then the judgment of God, calling for the death of any connection between the Israelite people and God, as a severing of His Covenant, which had become broken.
The cry of the woman to save the baby is then a plea to keep the Covenant alive, even of that means giving the land away to save that link. The woman is then the prostitute known as the Jewish people, descendants of Judah and Jerusalem.
The cry of the woman to kill the baby, as neither shall be blessed if one cannot steal privilege, is then the death of Israel, the Northern Kingdom, and the scattering of its people to the ends of the earth, losing all distinction as connected to God.
This means the wisdom of Solomon acts as a prophecy of the demise of the Israel under David. However, the same prophecy can still be read as a reflection of the current state of the Middle East, ever since the land of Palestine has been stolen and given to Zionists, to mimic an Israel blessed by God. The symbolism is as follows:
The prostitute whose baby died represents the Jews who maintained the Covenant, as God’s chosen people, but who refused to accept Jesus as their Messiah.
The prostitute whose baby was stolen was the Palestinian people, who were promised a state of self-rule by the United Nations, under a British Protectorate, following the ceding of Middle Eastern vassals by the Ottoman Turks (1918).
The lack of witnesses represents the denial of the illegitimate legal processes (under British overlords) that allowed illegal Jewish (Zionist) immigration, until the point that theft of land is assumed to be from a “fair and square” war and declaration of independence (1948).
The calling for a sword is then the division of Palestine into East Bank (Israel) and West Bank (Palestinian refugee camps in Jordan), with Jerusalem divided between Jews and Arab Muslims.
The wisdom of Solomon is then believed to be the administration of holy justice by the United Nations, when true judgment will be held by God, such that no peace will come when an injustice has taken place.
The woman who cried out to save the baby, even if it meant giving it away to a false mother, is then the Palestinians who allowed the State of Israel to be created, choosing to instead pray for God to right a wrong (while leaving the U.N. legal issue in a continual state of “in adjournment, to be continued”). It is also Jewish Christians who see no need for a recreated State of Israel.
The woman who cried out “death,” if she would not be allowed to steal the baby, to make up for her loss, is the Zionist element that has morphed from Jews who accepted the loss of their once God-given land, maintaining the Covenant and identification as “God’s Chosen People” into those people who would ignite a conflict that will eventually lead to Armageddon.
This makes the purpose of Solomon’s judgment be to forever project what God knew all along: Human beings cannot be truly holy and righteous while being ruled by external laws. They can only be truly holy and righteous by being led by a spirit within. Thus, as well-to-do as young Solomon was, and no matter how dedicated he was as a newly anointed king, his powers of mind were not fed from his heart. In the end, Solomon’s heart (as physical lusts) would corrupt his wisdom, making him a failure to himself, to God, and make him a king whose failure was reflected by the people of Israel. All who would refuse to accept Jesus as their Messiah would sell their souls (prostitution) for material gains, while holding onto an illusion that they were still privileged and special to God.
Jews who would accept Jesus, evolving into Christians, while maintaining their Jewish rituals of Covenant, they would never become prostitutes. While Christians, Jews and Muslims all bow to the same God above, those who deny Christ as the true Son of God have prostituted themselves to lesser gods. The sons of those illegitimate relationships are Judaism and Islam, women of the same house, who long for judgment from God against one another. The woman whose baby died is Islam. The woman whose baby was stolen is Judaism. The true son was not born to a prostitute, but to a true child of God, who would share her son with the world, without crying out to spare his life for selfish reasons.
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