A tiny but mighty bit of scripture: 1 Kings 3:16-28.
King Solomon presided over a controversial matter (of which there were no witnesses). Two women stood before him: they were prostitutes and as such, they lived in the same house. Both had recently given birth to a baby boy.
The first woman gave birth. Three days later, the second woman gave birth. But one of the babies died in the night. At midnight, one of the women noticed that her baby had died; she swapped the deceased baby for the living baby while his mother slept. One of the women woke up in the morning to feed her child but realized he was dead. But she studied the baby in the morning light and realized it was not her baby. At this point, the second woman interjected... she exclaimed that she was the mother of the living baby.
It was King Solomon's duty, his first since becoming king, to discern the truth and judge the matter fairly. To return the living baby to his biological mother. But how? There were no witnesses. There were no fathers to claim their child. There were no DNA tests.
Immediately preceding this case, God visited Solomon in a dream. God granted Solomon the opportunity to ask for anything he wanted. Humbly, Solomon asked for wisdom, which he lacked due to his youth. He asked for the ability to discern good and bad; he asked for the ability to aptly judge the people. God granted this request.
And here was Solomon's first case; his first chance to use the wisdom God gave him. But this was a case that, seemingly, could not be solved with wisdom. That must have been what an onlooker thought, anyway, as they heard Solomon ask for his sword. Solomon commanded that the living child be divided in two; was his thought process that the only justice to be had would be that both mothers' babies died?
Much more clever, and compassionate, and just than that, Solomon's actions keenly exposed the deceitful mother! For his words drew the true mother of the living baby to immediately beg the king to spare the life of the baby; to give the child to the other woman, who was not his biological mother, if only to preserve his life. She preferred to live with the grief of losing her claim to her son rather than with the grief of him losing his life.
The corrupt, deceitful mother exposed herself, too... for she thought the judgment was a fair resolution. The self-sacrifice of the other mother, the one that would save the baby's life, never occurred to her. She was unrighteous because she did not love. She was not of God, for God is love.
Since Solomon could not possibly determine the biological mother, he used a bold and shocking tactic to expose the deceitful mother. The woman who should under no circumstances receive the living child. For certainly he knew that he dealt with one deceitful woman, and one truthful woman. One of them was a liar and he needed to discern between them.
This is a story about love. Love in its truest, rawest form, its self-sacrificing nature. And mingled with that, it is a story about faith; because not only does it foreshadow self-sacrificing nature that was the birth and sacrifice of Jesus, it echoes the near-sacrifice of Isaac by Abraham in faith.
As horrible as it is that we live in a world where atrocities such as this, and worse, could occur... it is also a world in which love can stop it from happening. Solomon's wisdom was unparalleled; it was famously impressive and restorative, but not half as much as that true mother's love.
She embodied the compassion that cannot be taught. She possessed the character that cannot be bought. She expressed a love that cannot be faked. Shunned by society or not (for her trade), this was a woman of integrity and thereby an example to us all.
Love suffers long and is kind; love does not envy; love does not parade itself, is not puffed up; does not behave rudely, does not seek its own, is not provoked, thinks no evil; does not rejoice in iniquity, but rejoices in the truth; bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. 1 Corinthians 12:4-7
She is the very definition of love. Between this woman and Solomon is a wealth of knowledge about how to discern between good and evil, truth and deceit. We learn to discern whether our own love is pure or tainted... subsequently, we learn how to love better, in the righteous way. We learn to let compassion reign, even at the expense of all else.
Perhaps a tiny first case, but not a trivial one. Right out of the gate, this was his first action as king, this matter. For a purpose, undoubtedly: to cleave unrighteousness from righteousness, darkness from light, truth from deceit, good from evil, a loving heart from a hateful heart, a pure spirit from a corrupt spirit... the discernment on which the whole kingdom of God endeavors and rests.