Well, good afternoon to you all.
Early on our brother Chopo was speaking about spiritual warfare and when you are the last speaker at a conference, at the end of the day you are wrestling with not only principalities and powers but also the effects of lunch. So, I pray that the Lord would grant us grace to pay attention well this afternoon.
Let me invite our attention to the book of 1 Kings 10:1-13. 1 Kings 10:1-13. Did I say chapter 1? Yeah, as you can see the warfare has begun. 1Kings 10:1-13. If you’re able to let me request us to stand for the reading of God’s word. I’m reading from the English Standard Version.
1 Kings 10:1-13
“Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones. And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.
And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices and precious stones. Never again came such an abundance of spices as these that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. Moreover, the fleet of Hiram, which brought gold from Ophir, brought from Ophir a very great amount of almug wood and precious stones. And the king made of the almug wood supports for the house of the Lord and for the king’s house, also lyres and harps for the singers. No such almug wood has come or been seen to this day. And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So, she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.”
And this is the Word of the Lord.
A Good Impression
You may have your seats. They say, you can never get a second chance at a first impression. The reason they say that is because they know whoever they are, they know the value of a good impression – a good impression is valuable for getting a job, it is valuable for if you’re a guy convincing a lady to date you and hopefully marry you. A good impression is valuable for getting a man to notice you if you are a lady. A bad impression can be quite costly. Now sometimes we try so hard to impress others and our efforts collapse under their own weight. Think of a man who is trying to sound more intelligent than he actually is, and who ends up embarrassing himself by uttering something quite ridiculous or the person who tries to be funny and ends up telling a completely flat joke more flat than a coke that has been opened for two days.
We all want to make a good impression on others. But have you ever been truly impressed? Have you ever met someone that deeply and profoundly impressed you? I mean impressed you to the core of your soul. That kind of an impression is a powerful force. It is the kind of impression that influences and shapes how you live. Have you noticed that the people you imitate are the people you admire? They impress you into imitating them – taking on their behaviour, their habits, their way of thinking. To be impressed is to have our hearts captured and captivated, to be thrilled, to have our boredom vanquished. It is to be so caught up in another person as to find ourselves becoming less of ourselves and more like them. To be truly impressed is to be transformed. Question before us therefore is; Is there someone impressive enough to captivate our hearts away from what we are into what we should be? Away from our sin and selfishness, away from our despair, away from our lust and pornography, away from our unforgiveness and resentment, away from our doubts and scepticism.
Three Major Moves
My hope Is that in this passage we will discover a person so impressive as to transform us. Our passage helps us probe this question through the experience of the Queen of Sheba with King Solomon. There are three major moves in this passage: She came, she saw, he conquered. For those of you who are taking notes that’s our outline. She came, she saw, he conquered.
She Came
First, she came: Our narrative begins with a state visit. It details the coming to Jerusalem of the Queen of Sheba. Three times in the passage we are told, ‘she came’; Middle of 1 Kings 10:1, “…. she came to test him.” Beginning of 1 Kings 10:2, “……she came to Jerusalem.” At the end of 1 Kings 10:2, “….and when she came to Solomon…” This coming is significant that’s why it’s repeated three times; she came, she came, she came – it’s significant for several reasons. First, the journey itself was long and would have taken many months, some commentators say as much as three years. Now, Sheba was most probably a kingdom not in Africa as Africans like to claim but in Arabia. Second, this coming is significant because of who it is that comes. It is none other than the queen herself – the leader of an entire nation, it is not an emissary, an ambassador that comes (a representative) but it is the big boss herself. Third, this coming is significant because of what she comes with. As was custom in those days, she comes bearing gifts. So, look at 1 Kings 10:2, “She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones.” Great retinue, very much gold. Later we’ll be told these spices are the greatest amount of spices ever seen in Jerusalem brought by this queen. This tells us something of the wealth of her own kingdom. She is not a small player on the global scene. She’s a major figure – she is quite impressive herself. She has a great retinue that she comes with and it is reflected in the quality of the gifts that she comes with. But fourthly, and most significantly, this coming is significant because of the reason why she comes. Why is a queen of another nation traveling for such a long distance to come to Jerusalem? Well, we are told in 1 Kings 10:1, look there, “She (Queen of Sheba), heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord.” So, she came because she heard of the fame of Solomon. The fame of Solomon is the impetus behind this journey. The fame of Solomon is the fuel driving a whole Queen across a desert on a long journey to see Solomon the fame of Solomon. It’s not the camels, it’s the fame of Solomon that is bearing her across the desert. Solomon was a kind of ancient near Eastern rock star, kind of Michael Jackson of his day. His reputation had spread to places where he himself had never gone. His fame had reached the ears of this queen and what she heard was enough to make her pack, rise, and head to Jerusalem. What was Solomon famous for? Again 1 Kings 10:1, his fame was concerning the name of the Lord. It’s a cryptic phrase which could mean one of two things; it could mean all the things that God had done through Solomon, or the building stuff that he has done, or it could mean Solomon’s great knowledge of God and of the things of God, or it could mean both. The bottom line is, Solomon’s fame had God’s name on it. And so, driven by the fame of Solomon, she came.
Now we ask the question: What did she intend to do when she came? What’s going on in her mind and her heart all those months possibly years weathering the vicissitudes, the vagaries of journey? Look at the second part of 1 Kings 10:1, “…. she came to test him with hard questions.” She was not fully convinced that Solomon was as impressive as she was hearing. “He can’t really be that great, can he? Is it possible that they have oversold him? Might it be that there is some exaggeration here?” She wanted to confirm for herself so she came. She came armed with hard questions we are told, to test him not just with any kinds of questions, hard questions. For she had heard that Solomon was wise. The fame of Solomon seemed to rest on how he conducted himself, how he governed with wisdom. The Queen of Sheba wants to see just how deep, and far, and wide this famed wisdom of Solomon goes and so she comes. What happened when she finally got there? Look at the end of 1 Kings 10:2, “…. when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind.” So presumably after some rest I’m assuming she said, “Hi, my name is the Queen of Sheba….” All that stuff, rested, refreshed, she went right to work with her hard questions – nothing was left out, all that was on her mind. Nothing was withheld. Every question, every scenario, every riddle was asked. Can you hear her? “What do you think of the geopolitical situation in the Middle East Solomon? How would you handle the fighting between Nation X and Nation Y? What about this issue over there? I have often wondered about this governance issue, what are your thoughts on it Solomon? How do you manage this over here?” And on, and on she went until remarkably she had nothing left to ask and she’s a she. The well of her inquisition was dried up completely. Her mind…
