Now two prostitutes came to the king and stood before him. 17One 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. 18The 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. 20So 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. 21The 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.”
22The 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.
23The 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.’ ”
24Then the king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. 25He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
26The 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!”
27Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.”
In order to save her baby, the women we read about in 1 Kings 3:22 has to give it away.
The very thing I so desperately want is what I am asked to give up!
Sacrifice is anything that costs you.
It can cost you your time, finance, and believe it or not your fun. For Jesus it was His life sacrificed on the cross for us. For me a mom of three small children who are at school along with a busy church and personal life it is often a sacrifice of time, finance and often my own will.
Sacrifice is not bad when you know it is for a specific outcome.
Sacrifice is not easy when you are not sure of the reason, or it was not self-inflicted like giving up time to help a sick family member or if someone has misinterpreted your actions and now you live in an emotional unease.
Sacrifice is not something we should avoid at all costs, comforts in this world are enjoyable but it should not become something we cling onto to avoid any sacrifice on our part. It is also important to teach sacrifice to our children. Sacrifice along with pain teaches us important life lessons that as parents we long to keep our children away from but it makes up the very essence of building their character.
Through this scripture God has shown me that when we give our wants and desires up for the sake of another it's an act of dying in order for there to be growth.
Jesus was faced with this same decision.
"Not my will, but Yours be done.” John 5:30
Most of us know or we have a good idea of what it is that God is either calling us into or perhaps calling us out of. If you desire for His will and you can let go of the very things you are holding onto this is when you hear the words...
"Give the baby to the woman who wants him to live, for she is the mother!” 1 Kings 3:27
Just before this case of the two prostitutes was brought to King Solomon, he had a dream in this dream God asked him what he would like. King Solomon asked God to give him wisdom. We know King Solomon was one of the wisest men that has ever lived.
Have you ever asked what got King Solomon to this place where God asked him what it is, He would like?
That day before King Solomon had the dream where God appeared to him, he sacrificed one thousand burnt offerings!
I know there are women and men reading this, and the sacrifice you have put in has been costly not just financially but emotionally and physically in fact you are not the same person you were before the sacrifice, but just as Solomon found breakthrough after his great sacrifice and the women whose baby he later saved because of her great sacrifice is the same breakthrough we will come into.
"Nothing splendid has ever been achieved except by those who dare to believe that something inside of them was superior to circumstance." Bruce Barton
You are stronger than your current sacrifice!
The reward will outweigh the sacrifice. He is a faithful God.
Over this Easter period as you hear the words, "Not my will, but Yours” think of this great sacrifice and take courage that the same Jesus who uttered these words lives inside us and enables us to utter them too.
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