"What's the Scoop on.......The Queen of Sheba"

Today Janet taught on the Queen of Sheba.  So exactly who was the Queen of Sheba? One of my very dear sisters had frank reply to the question. To paraphrase my friend, "I don’t know who she was but as a child I must have been having an identity crisis as my mom asked me “Who do you think you are….the Queen of Sheba??” Funny – I think my mother had said the same thing to me!

Very little is actually known about this woman – not even her name.  According to some of the sources I looked at, she was probably a queen in Arabia – possibly Ethiopia or Yemen.  What we do know about her can be found in 1 Kings 10. The bible says that she was exceedingly wealthy.  It also says that  she had heard about King Solomon of Israel.  “When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions. She wanted to see for herself if what was being said about him was true” (1 Kings 10:1).  Janet pointed out that this queen traveled a great distance to attain something she desired. 

  

But what was it she actually desired? The queen had brought King Solomon extravagant gifts – the worth of which is probably beyond our comprehension.  I don't think that she was seeking Solomon for a physical blessing.  He had something that she did not. The bible says in 1 Kings 4:34 “Men of all nations came to listen to Solomon's wisdom, sent by all the kings of the world, who had heard of his wisdom” .

Something that caught my attention in the above verse was that she and other kings had heard about Solomon.  Solomon had a reputation.  There are quite a few references to this is in 1 Kings: “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” (1 Kings 3:28), and  “Solomon's wisdom was greater than the wisdom of all the men of the East, and greater than all the wisdom of Egypt” (1 Kings 4:30).

Solomon was a man of influence because of the wisdom he possessed. In our bible study this year a recurring theme has been ‘influence’. If you remember, we ARE women of influence.  We have a choice of the kind of influence we are going to be.  A woman with the reputation of godly wisdom….that is something we all want to be!

I am sure that there are volumes written on the subject of wisdom. The bible has an entire book, Proverbs, dedicated to this very subject (written primarily by King Solomon) not to mention 100’s of verses that speak of it!   A blog entry can certainly not do this subject justice.  As I was reading these passages I saw three basic things that I thought might help us in becoming women of wisdom.

1)   Fear of the Lord:  “And he said to man, 'The fear of the Lord--that is wisdom, and to shun evil is understanding (Job 28:28)’”. "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding “ (Proverbs 9:10).  The ‘fear’ in these passages does not mean being afraid. It means to have reverence and awe for the Lord God Almighty.

2)   Ask for it:  Solomon asks of God “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?" The Lord was pleased that Solomon had asked for this.  So God said to him, "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” (1 Kings 3:9-12a). In James we also see the precedent for asking for wisdom:  “If any of you lacks wisdom, he should ask God, who gives generously to all without finding fault, and it will be given to him” (James 1:5).

3)   Study God’s Word:  “These are the proverbs of Solomon, David’s son, king of Israel. Their purpose is to teach people wisdom and discipline, to help them understand the insights of the wise. Their purpose is to teach people to live disciplined and successful lives, to help them do what is right, just, and fair. These proverbs will give insight to the simple,  knowledge and discernment to the young” (Proverbs 1:1-4, NLT).  As I have heard many times, God’s word is like a manual on how God wants us to live. If we want to know what pleases God and what is best for us we need to know what God says.

  

There is something important that we don’t want to miss about the queen of Sheba.  She realized that the wisdom Solomon possessed was not of himself. “Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD's eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness” (1 Kings 10:9). The queen recognized that what Solomon had was from God. Going back to 1 Kings 10:10a, we also see this “And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD,”. She was probably a pagan queen, from a pagan land…..yet she saw God in Solomon.  And is that not the point? To make God recognizable to the world around us. Halleluiah!