Christian Living
Whose Child Is This Dead Baby?
Now two women who were harlots came to the king, and stood before him.
And one woman said, ‘O my lord, this woman and I dwell in the same house; and I gave birth while she was in the house. Then it happened, the third day after I had given birth, that this woman also gave birth. And we were together; no one was with us in the house, except the two of us in the house.
And this woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on him. So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from my side, while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead child in my bosom.
And when I rose in the morning to nurse my son, there he was, dead. But when I had examined him in the morning, indeed, he was not my son whom I had borne’. 1King 3: 16-21;
The above is the account of the first case brought before King Solomon immediately after his coronation as the king of Israel. The case was very significant in the sense that it served as an acid test for the wisdom of King Solomon. Also, it was through this case He actually showcased the wisdom of God bestowed upon him.
I have read this portion of the scriptures several times since I gave my life to Christ over two decades ago, but it was only recently that the Holy Spirit opened my eyes to some truths embedded therein.
Going through the story we see two women who were simply described as harlots. They were women of easy virtue who hopped around with men from bed to bed. Being known harlots, it will not be surprising if they had committed a number of abortions in times past so as to carry on their illegal trade without any obstacle. But this time around, they were not willing to terminate the pregnancy; they actually gave birth to babies whom they desired to keep alive and nurture. The decision of these two harlots to keep their babies must have been born out of a great desire to settle down as mothers. It was this desire that actually prompted them to bring the case before King Solomon. Both of them strogly laid claim to the only living baby because of their burning desire to be mothers and be addressed as one. Mothers? What kind of mother?
Going by the claims of the first woman who spoke before the judgment seat of King Solomon, we see two kinds of mothers. The first being a careless, reckless, passionless, loveless and cruel mother who killed her own baby by herself. She was said to have suffocated the baby to death by laying on him. This is serious! The same baby she was supposed to keep sleepless night over, guard jealously and care for dearly was murdered as a result of her carelessness and much love for sleep and pleasure. Most mothers of newly born babies hardly sleep in the night because of the need to pay passionate attention to their tender babies, but here was a mother who was not prepared to pay such price; her love for sleep and pleasure was more important to her than the life of the tender baby. According to the scriptures, ‘Children are heritage from the LORD and the fruit of the womb is His reward’; It is apparent that this woman placed little or no value on God’s heritage freely given to her bosom to nurture, so she killed her baby by her carelessness and lack of passionate heart. What a shame!
The second mother was the insensitive type; she was anything but vigilant. She was a lover of sleep who was given to slumber so much that her living baby was stolen and replaced with a dead child without waking up or discovering it. This is terrible! It would never have been possible for the enemy to steal her living child if she was vigilant. The thief took advantage of her insensitivity to rob her of God’s heritage. She did not discover the havoc wrought on her life until the following morning when she found out that the baby laying on her chest was a dead child! Obviously, the baby did not have a place in her heart. If the baby actually had a place in her heart, she would have displayed a great deal of vigilance and sensitivity.
These women were never to be regarded as mothers but murderers. Their lifestyle as harlots has impacted so much on their behaviors and characters that they seemed to have lost all sense of womanhood and motherhood. They were not the kind of mothers God could rely on to raise up great people that would be pillars in His program like Jochebed, Moses’ mother, who put her life on line by risking Pharaoh’s order so as to preserve her son for God's purpose. They had no commitment like Moses’ mother whose commitment made her function as a midwife though a mother. They lacked the mother heart.
Although we have one or two things to learn from the above analysis as physical mothers and fathers, but beyond that, the babies God has delivered to the bosom of each and every one of us could be likened to the assignments, ministries, visions and callings we have received from Him. His expectation is that we take care and grow the visions and the calling well till maturity so as to bring glory and honour to Him at His appearing. He does not expect the babies to die in our hands and that is why He bestowed on us all things that pertain to life and godliness.
How well do we take care of God’s heritage, the divine assignment trusted into our hands? How faithful are we as care takers over the flocks of God? Are we not like the reckless, careless and cruel mother, who rather than nurturing her baby tenderly and passionately to maturity killed him by recklessness and carelessness? Or are we like the insensitive mother who allowed her living baby to be exchanged for a dead one? The devil has succeeded in taking away the living visions God delivered to most of His servants in this end time and replaced them with vain pursuits and dead activities. I pray we will not wake up in eternity suddenly to discover that what we have in our hands are dead babies just as the woman did not discover her baby was dead until the following morning! Then it will be too late. The Lord trusted into our cares living babies in form of divine assignments. How can we present dead babies to Him at His appearing? The Lord is expecting to receive from us fully grown men whom we have nurtured faithfully and diligently from childhood unto maturity.
It is better not to receive a ministry from the Lord than to receive and make mess of it. Remember, the unprofitable servant was condemned because he received a talent from the Lord but failed to grow it. Divine assignments come with great responsibilities and require our total commitment, passion, love and everything! As partners with Christ, we must nurture his flocks and the divine assignments trusted into our hands with everything in us. These babies must not die in our hands; we must nurture them unto maturity so that we may meet our master with joy and excitement. To the unfaithful ones the Lord will ask at the end “Whose baby is this dead baby” while other faithful, passionate, focused and committed servants of the Lord lay their trophies at the feet of the Almighty God with excitement and great joy.
Whose baby is this dead baby?
Ezekiel Olukolajo
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Children are the heritage of the Lord.. This is a great though provoking article. It was attention grabbing all the way through. Keep writing for God's Glory. Danette
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