Save The Baby

For a couple of weeks now, I have had the story of King Solomon and the two women with the one baby on my heart/mind.  I have been studying on what God wants me to see from this story.  Let us review it for a moment.

For most people, this is the standard story that bears witness to the wisdom of King Solomon.  Two women come before him, each claiming to be the mother of the baby.  

The story is told in 1 Kings 3.

The women lived together in the same house.  Each had a baby in the most recent past, 3 days apart. They were alone when the babies were born according to their testimonies to King Solomon.

One night, while sleeping, one of the babies died. Thus, the mother of the dead baby, switched her baby with the living baby in the bed with his mother.   When this mother awoke in the morning to discover the dead baby, certainly she panicked.  Then when she looked at the baby “in the light” she recognized that it was not her child.  Thus, the argument ensued.

How or why they took this matter to Solomon … I am not quite clear.  I can only imagine from my own passion, demeanor, and personality, what kind of “strife” might have manifested had I woke up to the same situation.  Maybe indeed, they did get loud, and there was an incredible “protest” and “fight” between them … and law enforcement was called and they were hauled away to stand before the King.

Sound about right?  Yes, I think probably so.  But that is not clear in the Bible story.  We can only assume based upon our “peopleness.”

They argued back and forth in front of Solomon.  Then he finally called a halt to the “nasty-ness” between the two, and he ordered someone to bring him a sword, declaring that he would just “cut the baby in half so that each could have a part of the baby.”

WOW!!!  That is pretty drastic, huh? 

Dramatically … and ironically … the true mother of the baby pleaded, “Please don’t kill my son.  I love him very much but give him to her.  Don’t KILL HIM!”

But the other mother, showed no compassion for the baby.  She said, “Go ahead and cut him in half. Then neither of us will have a baby.”

This takes my breath away … at the thought of someone being so callous, so selfish … so “disconnected” — the motivations of her heart and mind are unfathomable to me.

From this exchange, Solomon declared who the REAL mother to the baby was.  And the people witnessing this were “amazed” that he made this decision … in this way.

Some commentaries say that Solomon knew who the real mother was before he ever asked for the sword.  Studying a bit further, commentaries from Hebrew interpretations use the word for “prostitute” in place of “women.”  I mulled that over a bit.  Since it was just the two women living together … and no man or husband was mentioned at all in the story … this is a safe assumption to make.  That these two single women were both pregnant (and at the same time) and living together, one might conclude that there was “busy-ness” and business taking place in the house.

So … in the past two weeks, since this story was laid on my heart, I have found myself coming back to it over and over again, and asking, “God, what?  Speak clearly to me. What is it about Solomon saving this baby that I need to know?” 

And here I am … with the words, “Save The Baby” clearly visualized in my mind’s eye.

I am even reminded of the ointment that my Granny used to put on me when I was sick as a child.  It was called “Save The Baby.”  I looked it up.  “Save The Baby” was widely used in the flu epidemic of 1918.  (hmmm…) 

Just in case you are interested, Save The Baby (STB) consists of 3.3% alcohol, Canadian Balsam oil, Camphor, Rosemary oil and a “suitable lard base.”  It was meant to treat cough and croup in humans, and respiratory ills in farm animals, as well as crop bound scaley legs and frozen comb in chickens.  The ointment was used mainly as a topical salve, rubbed on chest and throat areas to help with congestion.  The camphor in the ointment served to open passageways (much like Vick’s Salve).  However, some folks tried ingesting the medicine and the camphor is quite toxic when ingested.   This medicine is no longer available in pharmacies, but of course, it can be found on “the Internet.”

All in all, “Save The Baby” was more of a “relief” for symptoms, not the cure for whatever was causing the ailment (be it virus/bacteria/etc.).

So, in his wisdom, Solomon “saved the baby” and gave him back to the true mother. Ever wonder what happened then?   The rest of the story.

Do you think they kept living (working) together?  One Jewish commentary suggested that these women were family.  If so, after this situation was resolved, do you think the family bonds were adversely affected?  Do you think the true mother could ever trust her family member (or “friend”) or co-worker around her child or anything else? 

Do you think the mother whose baby died ever got closure from losing her baby?  Do you think it may have been grief rather than greed/selfishness that caused her to behave the way she did?

The Bible does not give us any more information about these two women or the baby.  The final summation of the chapter says that the result was that they (the people witnessing this), “feared the king: for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him, to do judgment.” (verse 28)

In this respect, “feared” does not mean “frightened of” but rather “respected” or “in awe of” …

I cannot help but think of all the “arguing” and “protesting” and “fighting” that is taking place in our society these days … when I ponder on this story that God has laid on my heart.

In my “mulling over” (discernment) — I think that the two women represent two sides … both having so very much in common and dealing with the same every day life issues.  Much like our own current circumstances in our society, we “live, work, breathe, eat, drink and conduct the business together” but all of the sudden we are faced with something tragic/confusing/devastating that throws us into chaos, polarization and conflict.  Are we there? Yes, we are there!

There was a day when each side “held onto something precious” and for whatever reason, “one side lost it.”  I am not talking about the “politics.”  I am not even talking about a contest or election.  The two women each had a baby — maybe how they cared for the baby differed, but there is no indication of a competition or contest.  The baby could have died by accident.  It could have been “sudden infant death” that we know now happens for unknown reasons.  The mother might have assumed she rolled over on the baby and smothered it.  That could have happened.  It could be chalked up to inexperience, or lack of maturity, or just a birth defect of some sort.  We just do not know how the loss came about for sure.  We just know that suddenly … there was a tragic loss and then the peopleness set in.

The moral of the story, in addition to exemplifying that God had granted Solomon his desire for great wisdom, is that of the two women arguing over the baby (the “precious thing”) — one was willing to make an incredible sacrifice to “save the baby.” The other one was satisfied seeing it destroyed so that neither of them had something precious.

Doesn’t that hurt your heart?  It sure hurts mine.  What an incredible choice that one mom had to make in those drastic moments.  “Please don’t hurt him.  Let her have him.  I love him but please don’t kill him.”

We have such laws and loopholes in our systems these days that it really is a scary thing to be faced with a situation such as this.  Simply basing a decision on “who cares the most” is at least dangerous because “people” care out of varying motivations.  In our peopleness, we mostly “just want to win” at all costs.  And it is frightening to take a good look and truly see what those costs are.

A few nights ago, in prayer, (and even now as I write this), I feel enormous grief by where we are as a nation … a community … as friends and family.  We are faced with a serious decision in these next few months, and my prayer is that God helps us to “save the baby.” 

Winning at all costs is not “winning.” It can be destructive and very difficult to survive, overcome and recover.  We are infected with a kind of croup that may seem quite typical and commonplace to start with, but has dangerously manifested into symptoms inflamed by anxiety and agitation, presenting with a loud hacking bark toward others, and resistance to remedy and mitigation.

Solomon had two choices at hand.  What if he had not taken the chance to see who truly cared for the baby.  What if he had just given the child to the “other” woman because she was “louder” or more passionate or someone he knew.  What do you think would have become of the baby?  We come to find out in his threat to “cut it in half” —that she really had no regard for it in the first place.  She was just trying to “win” at all costs.  Had she been given the baby, most likely it would not have been cared for … it might not have survived either.

We have two choices at hand …

Consider the baby is an allegory for our democracy … and the purpose to which we as a nation have been called to be salt, light and love toward one another … my prayer is that God do whatever it takes to help us “save the baby.”