Two things to note in this ruling. First, it happened soon after the Lord gave Solomon His wisdom, in answer to Solomon’s request (I Kings 3:5-6).. And second, this incident happened centuries before there was any use of DNA and other forensic testing in cases to get the facts straight. So, Solomon only had limited knowledge of what was the truth presented to him. His wisdom was in finding a way to discern the real mother through her natural emotional attachment to her son. Wisdom goes beyond facts to bring justice and grace to situations.

The Biblical writer James describes this kind of wisdom in daily living. He says:

13 If you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with the …17 humility that comes from wisdom. The wisdom from above is first of all pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times, and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. James 3: 13-17, NLT Passion adds, in v. 17: pure,[f] teachable.[g] love[h] But the wisdom from above is always filled with peace, considerate and It is filled with hypocrisy[i] 18 and never displays prejudice or in any form and it always bears the beautiful harvest of righteousness! Good seeds of wisdom’s fruit will be planted with peaceful acts by those who cherish making peace. Unfortunately, knowledge alone does not usually abound in these godly qualities. Wisdom includes these qualities as it teaches us how to use our knowledge in appropriate and redemptive ways. – as in how to use the tomato as a fruit!

But there is another key distinction between knowledge and wisdom. The factor of revelation. When Paul prays for the Ephesian believers, he asks for the Spirit-gifts “of wisdom and revelation from God to know Him better” (Eph.1:17). I expect God’s revelation of the sword may be in play in Solomon’s story. Often His revelation will be what we need in our studies, job choices, money management and relationships as well. Revelation will help us get beyond the presenting facts and go deeper into motivations, real truth, and pertinent research that applies to our particular knowledge quest – in research, in writing papers, in understanding people in conflictual situations, in areas of spiritual warfare, etc.

Don McCurry tells this story of how revelation brought healing to a Christian Indian boy in Costa Rica.

“The summer before we came to live with her, Benjani and her son chose to visit India. After her return home, her son, who had been such a healthy little five-year-old, was now a chronically sick six-year-old. The doctors tried everything under the sun to find out what was wrong but all of their diagnostic techniques had not yielded a clue. It was now a year later and the mom was getting more and more depressed. This was her one and only child. She asked us to pray for her boy. We did but in the prayer we also asked the Lord to show us [revelation] the cause of this chronic illness. Nothing happened until. . . One day it suddenly dawned on me (revelation) that every time we entered Bejani’s living room, our eyes were drawn repeatedly to the shiny elephant on her central mantelpiece. It sparkled with a patina of uncountable tiny mirrors. It seemed to draw every eye to itself. [When I asked her where she had bought it, she told me it was in a shop in India filled with every size and shape and color of elephants.] ‘Ganesh, Ganesh,’ I cried out. ‘You have brought an idol representing the Hindu elephant god, Ganesh, into your home!’. . .After explaining to Benji of the evil spirits that were now residing in this ceramic elephant, she took it outside and smashed it to smithereens and commanded any spirit attached to it to “depart in Jesus’ name and not come back”. . .And her son? He became well from that moment on.” (Don McCurry, Tales That Teach, Ministries to Muslims, 2009, ppg. 385-387). God responded to Don’s prayers for wisdom and added revelation to bring His healing in a spiritual battle with evil.

When God gives wisdom and revelation as a gift, it is like an aha – an unexpected but blessed new understanding – an enlightenment. But other times to gain His wisdom, we have to dig and sift for it. Pastor Tony Evans quotes the Proverbs 2:4 passage “Seek for wisdom as silver and search for her as for hidden treasure.” He says:

Silver and hidden treasure are located underneath the ground. They require digging The fact that the treasures are hidden implies that it is not on top of the ground, obvious to the casual eye. Why would God not make wisdom available for anyone to pick it up easily? It is too valuable. He doesn’t want folks to pick it up who don’t intend on using it. He has placed wisdom as a hidden treasure underneath the ground for those who really want it. Just like people who truly desire to find gold don’t mind digging and working to find it, wisdom is only to be found by people who value it enough to search for it.” (Tony Evans, Tony Evan’s Book of Illustrations, Moody Publishers, 2009, p. 340.)