Bible Study Seattle

“Then two women who were harlots came to the king and stood before him.  The one woman said, “Oh, my lord, this woman and I live in the same house; and I gave birth to a child while she was in the house.  It happened on the third day after I gave birth, that this woman also gave birth to a child, and we were together. There was no stranger with us in the house, only the two of us in the house.  This woman’s son died in the night, because she lay on it.  So she arose in the middle of the night and took my son from beside me while your maidservant slept, and laid him in her bosom, and laid her dead son in my bosom. When I rose in the morning to nurse my son, behold, he was dead; but when I looked at him carefully in the morning, behold, he was not my son, whom I had borne.”  Then the other woman said, “No! For the living one is my son, and the dead one is your son.” But the first woman said, “No! For the dead one is your son, and the living one is my son.” Thus they spoke before the king.

Then the king said, “The one says, ‘This is my son who is living, and your son is the dead one’; and the other says, ‘No! For your son is the dead one, and my son is the living one.’”  The king said, “Get me a sword.” So they brought a sword before the king.  The king said, “Divide the living child in two, and give half to the one and half to the other.”  Then the woman whose child was the living one spoke to the king, for she was deeply stirred over her son and said, “Oh, my lord, give her the living child, and by no means kill him.” But the other said, “He shall be neither mine nor yours; divide him!”  Then the king said, “Give the first woman the living child, and by no means kill him. She is his mother.”  When all Israel heard of the judgment which the king had handed down, they feared the king, for they saw that the wisdom of God was in him to administer justice.”  1 King 3:16-28

No doubt this passage is for an example of how the Lord will judge in that Day (The Millennial reign).  Will Israel have judges that will hear cases in Jerusalem?  Is that who the 144,000 Israelite saints of Revelation 7 are?  Of course the preference is to settle disputes privately before coming to a formal case:

“And why do you not even on your own initiative judge what is right?  For while you are going with your opponent to appear before the magistrate, on your way there make an effort to settle with him, so that he may not drag you before the judge, and the judge turn you over to the officer, and the officer throw you into prison.  I say to you, you will not get out of there until you have paid the very last cent.”  Luke 12:57-59

We can imagine justice being delivered by God speaking directly to people as in the story of Job.  But I think that will be the exception as it is today.  God rarely speaks directly to people.  Instead, the judgment Day will more likely have God directing Jesus, who will direct his bride, who will direct the Israelite saints on earth, who will counsel and judge the people in their ways.