1 Kings 10 - The Queen Of The South Series

When you hear from several people that something is good, what do you do?

It may be a film, or for Malaysians, it could be a restaurant or a particularly good source of durian. Well, of course, you have to check it out yourself.

Possibly because I’m a bit cynical and I’ve been hugely disappointed before. The Star Wars prequels, the Hobbit trilogy, to name a few. Oh, I will check it out, but I will also dampen my expectations. I go in hoping for the best, but expecting the worst. That way I can’t be too let down.

Now have you ever come across an experience that exceeded your expectations?

For me, one of the ones I always talk about, it’s the Grand Canyon. I mean we drove across the desert, and I have to say that Las Vegas, was impressive… in a scary superficial way. Then we cross the Hoover Dam, and that was massive and an amazing human achievement. But then we came to the Grand Canyon… and it took my breath away. The size and beauty of it, words cannot describe.

Today, we are continuing our series on 1 Kings. I’ve talked a lot about Solomon, his good points and his bad. We’ll very briefly touch on Solomon, but we’re going to spend a lot more time on the Queen of Sheba.

READ 1 Kings 10

PRAY

Any who’s studied any overview of the Old Testament knows that it all pivots on these great promises by a faithful God. God’s great promises to Noah, to Abraham, to Moses, to David and now to Solomon. They all find their fulfillment in Jesus Christ.

The great of these is to Abraham, and initially it just straight of the blue. We know nothing about Abram, as he was called originally, and this is the first we hear about him.

Genesis 12

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.

All the families of the earth shall be blessed through you, God says, and we start to see that in hints of those who foreshadow Jesus. We see that in Joseph becoming in charge of the famine aid in Egypt, not just to help Eygpt, but all the nations surrounding it too, including his own family to come to take aid. And we see it here, don’t we?

Verse 23: Thus King Solomon excelled all the kings of the earth in riches and in wisdom. And the whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.

Even those who have never read the bible today, who have sadly grown up with no Christian content in their education, will probably have heard of the Wisdom of Solomon. I know that it’s one of the powers of the superhero Shazam for those who want a nerdy reference.

So in the second half of this chapter we see God keeping his promises to Solomon and blessing him with, not only wisdom, but wealth, power and fame: everything that most men desire and what Solomon chose not to ask for. And by increasing Solomon’s fame and glory, God’s fame and glory was spread far and wide too.

One more thing before I move to the Queen of Sheba. Notice how Solomon didn’t have to go anywhere. He didn’t have to go on a tour of Asia, that notoriously tough nut to crack. He didn’t need to visit other countries and hold court and show off his wisdom. They came to him… and so to did Jesus. The word spread out like wildfire, and soon the whole world knew of his wisdom.

But as I said, I don’t really want to talk about Solomon today. Let’s have a look at the Queen of Sheba. Nobody is certain where Sheba is, but we guess that it’s somewhere around Yemen and Ethiopia. Some have drawn links to the Ethiopian ambassador that was reading the scriptures when he passed by Philip in his chariot, only then to be converted and baptised. Who know whether that ambassador received his scriptures handed down from this Queen.

We do know, even just by her gifts along that she was a Queen and enormously wealthy. She came to hear the famous wisdom of Solomon, but she wasn’t some sycophantic fool, she had come to test him.

I wonder what you would ask if it was you who was coming to test Solomon?