Judge Judy Decides

There are always two sides to the story being told and Judge Judy weaves her judicial wisdom to discern how justice should be served.

1 Kings 3.16-28

Reference:  v.23 The 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.'”(NIV Bible)

Explore:   Judge Judy is an American reality-based court show, featuring former family court judge, Judith Sheindlin, arbitrating over small claims cases (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Judge_Judy).  There are always two sides to the story being told and Judge Judy weaves her judicial wisdom to discern how justice should be served.  These cases usually involve damage to property, lose of money or disagreements regarding who owns certain property.  People love Judge Judy because she is outspoken, charismatic and entertaining.  However at the end of the show you always get a response from the people who were on trail.  The people who ‘won’ are always favourable towards the judge’s veridct but those who ‘lost’ the case never truly believe that justice has been served fairly.
In our passage today we hear King Solomon playing the ‘Judge Judy’ role.  He has two women come to him disagreeing over a baby that each of them claim is their son.  Back in the days before DNA testing, this was quite a challenge to determine.  However Solomon judges with wisdom and very quickly hands over the baby to the correct mother.

Application:  Yesterday we read that Solomon had asked God for wisdom.  Today we read that Solomon uses that wisdom to ‘administer justice’.  With all the gifts that God gives to us, so often we don’t put them into action.  Maybe we feel we need more theological training to understand God before we act; maybe we feel we should be more mature to understand ourselves before we act; maybe we feel we should do more travel to understand the world before we act… and so we end up doing very little, expecting that one day we will have all the answers and it will be easy for us to act.  God used Paul before he knew everything about God, God used David before he was old enough to leave home and God used Mary before she had travelled anywhere.  God wants to use each one of us today.  We will never be smart enough, old enough or wise enough to do everything right.  But God doesn’t want perfection, He desires loving action.  May we not keep putting off until tomorrow what God desires for us today.

Prayer:  Lord, you are the ultimate judge over each of our lives.  May we stand before you knowing we are not perfect but willing to be the best we can be.  Amen.

What are some of the common excuses people give to stay in their comfort zone and not step out and risk?

1 Kings