26The woman whose son was alive was filled with compassion 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!”
Grief and jealousy are two very powerful emotions. I see these emotions every day. They drive people to do some very strange things. The smart phone has become an object that encapsulates both of these. So many affairs have started on them. And now the non-participating spouse hates even the look of a phone in the offending partner’s hands. The automatic suspicions rise to the surface. They have lost the relationship they once had. Their world has been shattered. They want what the other person got from their spouse. Grief and jealousy rolled into one. Solomon in this passage is demonstrating the wisdom he has received from the Lord. What might look like an impossible decision now looks easy. Of course the real mom would want her son to live no matter what. And the other mom, stricken with her grief, wants nothing less than her own baby alive.
The Arnold Journey 