Which One Is Telling the Truth?

I Kings 3:27 So the King answered and said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him, she is his mother.

It’s hard sometimes to separate the truth from a lie. Lawyers have put together compelling cases to set people free who should have been locked up, and they have also dressed up a lie to look like the truth and sent innocent people to jail. How do you then rightly discern the truth from a lie?

This was Solomon’s dilemma. He was a young king who had taken over his Daddy’s Kingdom. He didn’t know anything about leading a Kingdom but God showed up in his dreams and asked him to name whatever he wanted. He didn’t ask for Riches, he didn’t ask for the death of his enemies, and he didn’t even ask for long life. But he asked for wisdom and knowledge. Wisdom and Knowledge will help you discern the truth from a lie. Wisdom is the God-given insight into complex situations and knowledge is the accumulation of facts, not opinions. When you put the two together you come up with the truth. Someone quoted Jay Z the other day on my FB Page, “Men Lie, Women lie, but numbers don’t.”

Solomon’s first case as a new King was a perplexing dilemma between two prostitutes. They both had babies around the same age. One of them rolled over on her baby in the night and suffocated the baby. Somewhere in the night she switched out babies with her roommate. In the morning, the other woman noticed that her baby was dead but upon further examination she discovered this was not her baby. So they took their argument to the new King.

This was before the days of birth certificates and DNA testing, so it was one woman’s word against another. They went back and forth saying the baby was the others. Solomon said, “Bring me a sword and I will divide the baby in two. “ The one mean spirited prostitute said, “Yeah go on and cut him in half that way neither one of us will have him.” But the other women threw herself at the King and said, “Please don’t take his life, let her have him.” Wisdom and knowledge begin to kick in to Solomon’s spirit. Flesh and blood didn’t reveal this to him. He said,”Give the baby to this woman, she is the real mother.” When he saw the love in this woman who was wiling to give up her baby so that he could live eventhough she couldn’t keep him, he knew then that this was the real mother and she was telling the truth.

How did he know who was telling the truth?

1. The truth never seeks to harm another. You don’t tell the truth to see another person destroyed. The Prostitute who said, “Go ahead and cut him in half.” Only wanted to see the other woman as miserable as she was. Whenever someone has to tear someone else up to absolve their own misery, that person is a liar.

2. The truth doesn’t divide the living. The lying prostitute wanted to divide the living baby just to prove her point out of her own misery. The real mother was willing to concede just to save the baby. Truth tellers don’t keep ripping innocent people apart just to make themselves look right.

3. The truth always expresses the ugliness of the guilty and the compassion of the innocent. The lying prostitute showed how ugly she was on the inside when she told the King to cut an innocent baby in half. What kind of person would want to put innocent children in danger just to prove they are right?

4. The truth always wants what is best for others not just yourself. The real mother made a conscious decision; even if I lose my baby at least he will get to live. The other mother wanted to win at all cost even the life of an innocent baby.

5. Wisdom and knowledge make the final decision not opinions. King Solomon had to use his wisdom in making the final decision. After you have heard what people have to say, you next have to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying to your heart. Above all else pray for Wisdom and knowledge and turn off ignorance and opinions.

Dear God, the devil only comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Give me wisdom and discernment to separate the real from the fake. Help me to stand for truth and righteousness. Let God be true and every man that lies be exposed. Help us to know the truth not opinions, for the truth will set us free!

In Jesus Name.

Amen.