Lessons I didn’t learn in Sunday School

Like many Christians, I attended Sunday School where teachers shared select stores from the Bible. I thought I knew them but as an adult looking back, there were omissions of facts and focus that are worth examining.

Most people are familiar with the story of Solomon who is confronted by two women who both claim the same baby and ask the king to decide who is the real mother. Solomon shows his wisdom by calling for the baby to be cut in two and each woman given a half. The real mother cries out not to kill the baby and give it to the other woman. Solomon gives the real mother the child.

This lesson was taught to show the wisdom of Solomon. Great, but what is missing? Who are these two women and why are they fighting over a baby? What didn’t our Sunday School teachers tell us?

The story begins in I Kings 3:16

16 Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17 One of them said, “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. 18 The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.

19 “During the night this woman’s son died because she lay on him. 20 So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I your servant was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. 21 The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.”

22 The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.”

But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king.

23 The king said, “This one says, ‘My son is alive and your son is dead,’ while that one says, ‘No! Your son is dead and mine is alive.’”

24 Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. 25 He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”

26 The woman whose son was alive was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give her the living baby! Don’t kill him!”

But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”

27 Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”

The two women were prostitutes and lived together in a house together but appear to be strangers. Was this a house where pregnant women went to deliver a baby? It appears that may be the explanation why they are there together near their due dates. Woman A had a baby and three days later Woman B had a child. Both sons. The story emphasizes that the women are alone in the house, which means there were no witnesses to the crime.

Woman B rolled over on her son while sleeping and suffocated the baby. This story took place thousands of years ago but the modern lesson is to place a baby in a crib or its own bed to prevent the suffocation of an infant.

The rest of the story is about truth versus lies. Each woman argues that the living baby is hers and the dead infant belongs to the other woman. From the story we know Woman A is telling the truth but what is Woman’s B’s motive for lying? Why would she take another woman’s baby and claim it was hers?

I’ve come up with three possibilities:

If she was a widow and married in the past, she could claim the baby was her dead husband’s child and demand that his family take care of her and his son.She could use the baby as a reason to beg instead of resorting to prostitution for money.She loved the idea of having a child and wanted a replacement for her dead child.

None of these motives work because she was willing to have the child killed when Solomon calls for a sword to sever the child in two. Even though one of the options could have been a motive initially, it changed and the reason for that change is important.

A new motive arises because Woman B is a liar and has gone big with her lie, telling it to King Solomon. She has falsely called Woman A a liar in order to justify her story. She doesn’t want to be found out as a liar.

This is something that happens in today’s society as well. One person tells the truth and another tells a lie but they cannot admit it is a lie or they lose power over whatever they are struggling for, whether it is a baby, power, or a position. The lie becomes the truth to many.

Solomon’s test of dividing the baby reveals the truth. Woman A gives in to keep the baby alive, but Woman B is willing to have the baby killed. She would rather Woman A not have the child at all than be called a liar and lose social standing or any credibility before others.

We need to be like Solomon and test the claims to discover the truth and then declare the truth. What if Solomon had divided the baby and given each half to the two women? Then the lie would have won and truth would have failed. Woman B would have gained power through her lies and hurt Woman A, making her less likely to declare the truth again. It took Solomon’s declaration of what was the truth to silence the lie.

What lessons or questions do you take from the story?