I was blessed to share a sermon today about Solomon’s Wisdom – and Jesus’s Light. [I was dressed as the Queen of Sheba – fancy dress, cape, and crown – and spoke as if being Queen of Sheba]
Theme: Wisdom to Spare and Share: Wisdom over Riches, but Solomon got both. The Queen of Sheba also left with more than she came with (including wisdom and now faith). We also are receiving more than we ask, receiving all eternity into our hearts because of Jesus.
Scripture reading: The Queen of Sheba Visits Solomon, 2nd Chronicles 9:1-9, 12
When the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame, she came to Jerusalem to test him with hard questions. Arriving with a very great caravan—with camels carrying spices, large quantities of gold, and precious stones—she came to Solomon and talked with him about all she had on her mind. Solomon answered all her questions; nothing was too hard for him to explain to her. When the queen of Sheba saw the wisdom of Solomon, as well as the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, the cupbearers in their robes and the burnt offerings he made at[a] the temple of the Lord, she was overwhelmed. She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your achievements and your wisdom is true. But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own eyes. Indeed, not even half the greatness of your wisdom was told me; you have far exceeded the report I heard. How happy your people must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.”
Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. There had never been such spices as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.
King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba all she desired and asked for; he gave her more than she had brought to him. Then she left and returned with her retinue to her own country.
Oh – Fancy meeting all of you here at Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem! Isn’t it fun to travel????
YES, I have travelled a LONG way – WOW – oh it was so very long – Do you know how HARD it is to have people carry you all the way from Africa ?? WHEW, but I’m an easy traveler especially because there are plenty of my lovely people to come with me – yes yes – but it wasn’t always easy – some of our camels “check engine lights” came on along the way – whew – but now that I am here I can see it was SO very worth it to come.
I have brought you all these gifts of spices! I am SO happy to share – I really brought them to my now friend, your great King Solomon!! Oh you Israelites are SO fortunate to have him as your King – I had to come see for myself what the whole buzz was about…
YES – I am the Queen of Sheba – I have a vast kingdom myself which you may be more familiar with by the newer names of Yemen and Ethiopia in the North part of Africa – yes I travelled so long – some say it was 3 years maybe 7 years for me to arrive to see Solomon – but all I know is that it was SO WORTH IT – to come learn and see for myself all about your Solomon – wow – I brought him 120 Talents of God – say you young man – you are about 75lbs right? Yes a talent of gold is about 75lbs – and I brought King Solomon 120 of them – yes brought 120 of you!!! AND we also brought the finest spices and precious stones too.
Ah – why did I come? What’s all the buzz? Let me tell you all about the great WISDOM I heard with my own ears – oh yes I had LOTS AND LOTS OF QUESTIONS – HARD QUESTIONS – and he answered them all with ease from gaining this wisdom. And what wealth I saw in his house and in the temple for God – and the great treatment of the people – by your King Solomon – yes that I saw with my own eyes – such majestic kingly power and firm control by your King Solomon here!!! You folks must really love your God of you Israelites – and He must REALLY LOVE YOU!!! An ark too? You are saying that your ancestors carried a whole box of material that Your God said to keep to remember what He provided since Moses’s time – wow – but now you have this magnificent temple to store it in – awesome. Hope that ark doesn’t get lost – I imagine that Raiders would like to steal an Ark like that… KEEP THAT LID CLOSED!
And oh my, I heard that Solomon’s dad, King David, collected all the supplies ahead of time to build this awe-inspiring temple – Now isn’t that a story in in itself of David killing Goliath – being just a shepherd boy picked to be King – and sure we heard all the gossip of the crazy ways of David – and yet he always turned back to God – he was a man after God’s heart – and WOW – I heard that eventually someone from the House of David is going to bear you a Savior – an even greater king – a Light in the Darkness – but wow – how can you exceed a man like King Solomon – must have to be a Lord Almighty Who will be coming – and Oh what wonderful music you folks have been singing from these Psalms of David – keep on singing them – it gives people hope!
So this is what I heard about your Solomon – that he didn’t even ask for any of these amazing gold finds and these riches – NO – that he asked your God – the God of the Israelites for WISDOM and Discernment when he was very young – just a boy king – not for riches but wisdom in order to lead you as his people – oh yes, he said to God:
“You have shown great kindness to your servant, my father David, because he was faithful to you and righteous and upright in heart. You have continued this great kindness to him and have given him a son to sit on his throne this very day. Now, Lord my God, you have made me, your servant, a king in place of my father David. But I am only a little child and do not know how to carry out my duties. Your servant is here among the people you have chosen, a great people, too numerous to count or number.So give your servant a discerning heart to govern your people and to distinguish between right and wrong. For who is able to govern this great people of yours?”
Oh yes – the Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this wisdom over riches. So God said to him in a dream: “Since you have asked for this and not for long life or wealth for yourself, nor have asked for the death of your enemies but for discernment in administering justice, I will do what you have asked. I will give you a wise and discerning heart, so that there will never have been anyone like you, nor will there ever be. Moreover, I will give you what you have not asked for—both wealth and honor—so that in your lifetime you will have no equal among kings. And if you walk in obedience to me and keep my decrees and commands as David your father did, I will give you a long life.”
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WOW! I love his poems and sayings about wisdom: -The heart of the discerning acquires knowledge, for the ears of the wise seek it out.
–Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?
–The Lord brought me [wisdom] forth as the first of his works, before his deeds of old;
–I was formed long ages ago, at the very beginning, when the world came to be.
-Blessed are those who keep my ways… For those who find me find life…
Yes, I also heard this amazing story about Solomon’s Wisdom in action – it was showed how the people needed Solomon and God’s wisdom – they sought it out –
*** Here is the story: Now two women came to King Solomon and stood before him. One of them said, “Pardon me, my lord. This woman and I live in the same house, and I had a baby while she was there with me. The third day after my child was born, this woman also had a baby. We were alone; there was no one in the house but the two of us.
“During the night this woman’s son died. So she got up in the middle of the night and took my son from my side while I was asleep. She put him by her breast and put her dead son by my breast. The next morning, I got up to nurse my son—and he was dead! But when I looked at him closely in the morning light, I saw that it wasn’t the son I had borne.” The other woman said, “No! The living one is my son; the dead one is yours.” But the first one insisted, “No! The dead one is yours; the living one is mine.” And so they argued before the king… The king said, “Bring me a sword.” So they brought a sword for the king. He then gave an order: “Cut the living child in two and give half to one and half to the other.”
The woman whose son was alive (the real mother) was deeply moved out of love for her son and said to the king, “Please, my lord, give the living baby to her! Don’t kill him!” But the other said, “Neither I nor you shall have him. Cut him in two!”
Then the king gave his ruling: “Give the living baby to the first woman. Do not kill him; she is his mother.” When all Israel heard the verdict the king had given, they held the king in awe, because they saw that he had wisdom from God to administer justice.
Oh how amazing – once I heard this story, I certainly told Solomon that I respected what this God of his did for him – and I am also amazed in this God – He is truly a God of mercy and power to instill such wisdom into this king and help all these people – I hope they keep listening – you know how kingdoms fall apart so easily these days!!!
I said to the king, “Praise be to the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on his throne as king to rule for the Lord your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.”
Then I gave to the King: the gold the spices the gemstones… Your King Solomon gave to me, the Queen of Sheba, all that I desired and asked for, and then some…; he gave me more than I had brought to him as I left and returned to my own country.
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[now speaking as Debbie, not the Queen] Let me take my crown off now and remember how blessed we ALL are when we ALSO take advantage of seeking out and listening to God’s Wisdom – even if we can’t imagine or understand it all… I have a wonderful conversation this week about how FINITE we are and how INFINITE God is – and yet how much He loves us to complete us – we will be in AWE of Him.
Wisdom and Discernment, knowledge and decisions, there is no greater prayer that I could have about myself and life then to ask the Lord to help me with discernment. We have many choices, we need His help and Direction. We have the ability to tap into His Wisdom.
Wisdom was given to Solomon to Spare and to Share – unfortunately Solomon did not always honor or reach back to God to stay close – but he was known for his wisdom and that temple. Sadly the Kingdom itself was split into two after Solomons time and the Israelites were exiled again – temple plundered – carried off to Babylon – after that time, the people always looked again for an earthly King – but one did not arrive – there was, however, a HEAVENLY KING, who was to rise from that “remnant of the House of David” – to be the LIGHT – to come out of Judah of all places – a king born in Bethlehem.
This was, and is, Jesus and He Himself is our amazing teacher and the reacher to us – Our Light – I was reminded in the story of the 2 mothers that one carried the Light even in her sacrifice of saying she would rather give up the child than see him killed – this same mother was the one who reached for wisdom and the other one was in darkness – how sad that she remained in darkness as she even said that neither of them should have the child… This is a sad and we should not judge the pain she was in – but acknowledge that darkness can cloud our own thinking. We need the Light always – in good times and in bad – we need Jesus both for forgiveness and for the understanding that following Him is best – SHINE HIS LIGHT.
The Queen of Sheba had all material things but what is that she went to find? The Wisdom – the Light – the amazement of God. Remember the Queen of Sheba gained more than she came with – this is us too – listen to Jesus and we gain ALL of eternity in our hearts…
Jesus taught us (Luke 12:25-31): Who of you by worrying can add a single hour to your life? Since you cannot do this very little thing, why do you worry about the rest? Consider how the wild flowers grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today, and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, how much more will he clothe you…
Let us Pray: Certainly, we are BLESSED, we LIKE the QUEEN OF SHEBA, gain much more from God than we brought to this earth – we started as dust and You Lord added Your Living Water to help our dust be re-born – how exciting that we will be worship YOU LORD – the Real Temple – in Heaven forever.
AMEN
In the Children’s Message, I shared about the Queen of Sheba having so much but wanting to come hear about the amazing wisdom that Solomon had – also in the children’s message I mentioned that Solomon was young and he had to be a ruler – a king – so he called on God to help and God will ALWAYS help us.
I told the children about Wisdom – a big word Discernment – and that we pray and we ask God to help us decide on things – we ask for his help. We talk to God and listen.
[We also smelled some of the spices she may have brought – and I gave out a gold crown to each child.]
I read part of one of Solomon’s poems: Proverbs 3 13-17
Blessed are those who find wisdom, those who gain understanding,
for she is more profitable than silver and yields better returns than gold.
She is more precious than rubies; nothing you desire can compare with her.
Long life is in her right hand; in her left hand are riches and honor.
Her ways are pleasant ways, and all her paths are peace.
Debbie Upper 