By Rev Clifford Chisha
A case which had no witnesses was presented to king Solomon.
One child was dead and one was alive.
Each of the two mothers who presented the case before the king claimed to be the rightful mother of the child who was alive.

“But the other woman said, ‘No,the living child is mine,and the dead child is yours.’The first said, ‘No,the dead child is yours,and the living child is mine.’ Thus they spoke before the king.”
(1 Kings 3:22)

#No one claimed to be mother to the dead child.
Oh,child,rejected in death!

#Most likely there was no DNA test laboratories or facilities and no such discovery had been made then.

Justice just had to be done,but how?

#The case needed to be proven beyond any reasonable doubt.
Only one person could be the real mother.

The king needed real evidence and that needed a through forensic investigation which most likely could not be done at that time,owing to issues of technology.

#The king needed something special to draw the right ruling from.

#If he had an option,the king would have avoided the case but he had no option.

√Under normal circumstances,priests and judges would have presided over the case between the two prostitutes.However,because there were no witnesses to the case,the law required them to go before the king.
The king was considered to be the highest court of appeal.

Solomon had to make a ruling.

√There are times in leadership when tricky matters require you, and not another person,to make a decision.
In such cases, you need advisors,yes you do,but you even need more than that because some advisors can be a source of more problems or injustice.

#Solomon had something special to count on, the wisdom God gave him.

√He displayed amazing wisdom.

He asked for a sword to be brought to him and gave an instruction to have the baby divided into two and each of the claimants to be given half of the child’s body.

The real mother asked the king not to kill the child but the other prostitute agreed with the idea to have the living child killed.
(1 Kings 3:24-27)

√The wisdom of the king exposed the wrong mother and the rightful mother was given the living child.

#When two people claim to be rightful owners of something that can only have one rightful owner and there are no witnesses,wisdom remains the best to tap into.

√People who claim what they know deep down their hearts not to be rightly theirs will always be there.
They will try by all means to give you their “dead child” and get your living child.

When that happens, the wisdom from above is what needs to be applied for justice to be given.

√For one to be a great leader,wisdom is inevitable.

In leadership,wisdom has no substitute.

#Seek wisdom, you will be a great leader.
Sincerely ask for it, you will be given.

“If any of you lacks wisdom,let him ask God,….” (James 1:5)

Leaders will always encounter “the living child is mine and the dead child is yours” situations.

Wisdom is what will save them from handing over the living child to a wrong person.