Queen of Sheba ~ Woman of the Week

I started studying Herodias last week and decided I needed a more positive story to balance out the previous week!  I decided to take a look at the Queen of Sheba.

 

Verses: 1 Kings 10:1-13

 

Background – parents, husband, children, siblings

I couldn't find anything about the family of the Queen of Sheba.  There is no mention of parents, husband or children.  There is quite a bit of disagreement regarding where she was queen - Ethiopia, Egypt, Nigeria, and southern Arabia in modern day Yemen all claim her.

 

What is she most known for? Victories? Defeats? How can I be like her? How can I avoid being like her?

1 Kings 10:1 says, "And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions."  I think the important part of that verse is not the fame of Solomon, but the name of the Lord.

 

John Gill's Exposition of the Bible says, "His knowledge of the true God, the favor he was in with Him, the excellent wisdom he had received from Him, and what he had done for His honor and glory."

Expositions of Holy Scripture by Alexander MacLaren put it this way, "The queen had heard the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, by which seems to be meant his reputation of being gifted with deep knowledge of the divine character as revealed to him. The questions which occupy earnest souls in all lands and ages were stirring in the heart of this woman-chief. The only way, in these old days, to learn the wisdom of the wise, was to go to them. So the streets of Jerusalem saw the strange sight of the long train which had come toiling up from Arabia, laden with its characteristic produce, gold and spices and precious stones, in the enumeration of which is reflected the wonder of the beholders at the unaccustomed procession. But better than all her wealth was the eager woman’s thirst for truth. Surely it is a very unworthy and unlikely explanation of her ‘hard questions’ and purpose to suppose that she came only for a duel of wit,-to pose Solomon with half-playful riddles. The journey was too toilsome, the gifts too large, the accent of conviction in her subsequent words too grave, for that. She was a seeker after truth, and probably after God, and had known the torture of the eternal questions which rise in the mind, and, once having risen, leave no rest till they are answered."

 

Did she reach a place when she needed to reset?  If so, did she?  For good or evil?

The Queen of Sheba is a beautiful example of being a hearer of the word and believing it.  She didn't come for an argument and she heard and saw for herself.

I Kings 10:4-10, "And when the queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon's wisdom, and the house that he had built, And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the LORD; there was no more spirit in her.  And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceedeth the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.  Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.  And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon."

It would be easy to focus on the outward trappings that she saw, but there was more to Solomon than just wealth.  More than once she says, "thy wisdom."  Her final conclusion was, "Blessed be the LORD thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the LORD loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice."

 

Finally, in Matthew 12:42 Jesus speaks of the Queen of Sheba as He rebukes certain scribes and Pharisees: "The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here."