QUEEN OF SHEBA

1 Kings 10:1-8 (KJV)

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.

And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.

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.

I do not know if you have ever spent any time trying to figure out what happened to King Solomon.

On the one hand, we come to the New Testament where we find nothing but positive things said about him.

On the other hand there was obviously a significant point of time when Solomon was messed up in idolatry and other wicked things.

The Bible says that his wives turned away his heart from the Lord.

As I look at it I think it went a little bit like this:

Solomon starts out on a spiritually high note that 

• Climbs
• Crescendos, and then
• Crashes 

after he marries his many wives.

Solomon then entered a very dark period in his life where he challenged everything about God and His Word.

• He described it in the book of Ecclesiastes.
• He sees everything as vanity – useless and empty.

Solomon finally repented of that and came back into fellowship with the Lord toward the end of his life. 

I find at least two lessons from his life story:

First, never give up on a person

There are some people that seem so hopeless and so far away from God that we can’t imagine them returning.

We especially feel that way if they used to be faithful to the things of God and they walk away.

• Sometimes they tell you that they don’t believe any of the Bible is true any more
• Sometimes they tell you that they used to be Christians and now they are atheists
• Sometimes we see their blatant life of sin and don’t even want God to forgive them

Solomon teaches us that anyone can repent and return to the Lord.

• They may tell us they don’t believe any of the Bible any more
• They may live as if they hate everything they used to say they loved

But we do not know what God is telling them to the heart.

Don’t give up on them.

• Don’t stop praying for them
• Don’t stop loving them
• Don’t stop urging them to return to Christ

The second lesson is

God a message of God’s grace

The New Testament – the Lord Jesus Christ, does not recall Solomon’s venture into sin and cynicism. Only 

• His wisdom, 
• His splendor and 
• His riches

Ezekiel 3:20-21 (KJV) says,

Again, When a righteous man doth turn from his righteousness, and commit iniquity, and I lay a stumblingblock before him, he shall die: because thou hast not given him warning, he shall die in his sin, and his righteousness which he hath done shall not be remembered; but his blood will I require at thine hand.

Nevertheless if thou warn the righteous man, that the righteous sin not, and he doth not sin, he shall surely live, because he is warned; also thou hast delivered thy soul.

There are a couple of lessons in this passage but the one I want to show you is this:

Here is a righteous man who gets caught up in sin.

• You warn him and he stays in his sin – the Bible says that the righteousness that he did will not be remembered.
• But if you warn him and he repents, his sin isn’t remembered, but his righteousness at the end.

Back to our text in 1 Kings 10 

Solomon is, in this context, in the height of his reign.

It is before his foray into vanity.

At this moment in history:

• He is popular with God
• He is popular with his countrymen and apparently
• He is popular with world leaders

The word has gotten out about 

• His wealth
• His wisdom 
• His political savvy and
• His spiritual liveliness

I can’t imagine she is the only visitor he has entertained but the Bible tells us that he entertains the queen of Sheba.

He shows her everything.

And when the tour was finished the queen of Sheba responded by saying, 1 Kings 10:7-8

… 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.

I read a paragraph in a commentary I would like to read to you,

“Christians in the world, and thoughtful Christians among nominal ones, are like those very men whom the queen so envied. We stand about the throne of Christ. Happy are we if we know and realize our privileges.” 

The word “if” caught my attention.

“Happy are we “if” we know and realize our privileges.”

Allow me to work my way through my message by observing first of all that,

I. SOLOMON IS A TYPE OF CHRIST

I do not mean that he is a perfect type of Christ. If he was, he would be Christ.

But he does represent many of the qualities that Christ possesses.

Like Solomon,

A. Christ is wise

Proverbs 3:13-19 (KJV)

Happy is the man that findeth wisdom, and the man that getteth understanding.

For the merchandise of it is better than the merchandise of silver, and the gain thereof than fine gold.

She is more precious than rubies: and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared unto her.

Length of days is in her right hand; and in her left hand riches and honour.

Her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths are peace.

She is a tree of life to them that lay hold upon her: and happy is every one that retaineth her.

The LORD by wisdom hath founded the earth; by understanding hath he established the heavens.

Everything this passage says about wisdom can be equally said of Jesus Christ:

• Christ founded (created) the earth
• Christ is the tree of or the way to eternal life
• Christ’s ways are ways of peace that passeth understanding
• Christ is better than anything this world can give us and
• Happy are those who find Christ as their Saviour

• Solomon possessed wisdom.
• Christ is wisdom.

Like Solomon,

B. Christ possesses the riches of glory

Philippians 4:19 KJV

But my God shall supply all your need according to his riches in glory by Christ Jesus.

May I ask you to consider, “What does not belong to Jesus Christ?”

• All the gold is His
• All the silver is His
• All the wealth in every mine is His

• All the cattle are His
• All the sheep are His

• Every tree is His
• Every sort of herb is His

• The precious stones are His
• The oil is His

Everything that you and I might associate with wealth and riches, the Bible in some place tells us it belongs to the Lord.

• Our souls are His
• Our life is His
• Our bodies are His

The queen of Sheba got to Jerusalem, saw the wealth of Solomon and reported, the half has not been told me.

There is no way I can describe to you all the wealth that belongs to Christ.

Like Solomon,

C. Christ is a King and has subjects

 1 Timothy 6:15 KJV

Which in his times he shall shew, who is the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords;

Satan believed he could offer Christ the kingdoms of this world.

Truth is, He is King of those kings.

Solomon represents Jesus Christ.

The word I want to use for the queen of Sheba is “seeker” but it has been over used by the sickly “seeker friendly” churches in our world. 

I will just say of the, 

II. QUEEN OF SHEBA - "COME AND SEE"

1 Kings 10:1 (KJV)

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.

• She heard about Solomon
• She came to find out for herself and
• She wasn’t afraid to ask hard questions

A. I see in her story the ministry of the: 

• Missionary
• Evangelist or 
• Soul winner

Someone told her about Solomon.

I do not know who that was.

• It may have been a Jewish family traveling and talking about their homeland on their way.
• It may have been a businessman who had gone to Jerusalem and saw what was going on there
• It might have been an ambassador of Solomon’s sent there to represent the king of Jerusalem

Whoever it was could not convince her of all the truth.

If she is going to know Solomon in his full glory, She is going to have to come see for herself.

She can ask the hard questions. Solomon can handle it.

And so can Christ.

• I cannot ever convince a person that Jesus Christ is the Saviour of their soul.
• I might be able to convince a person to say a prayer, but that will not save anyone.

No one is ever saved until they meet with Jesus Christ for themselves.

• I can tell them about Jesus
• I can urge them to go meet Jesus
• I can guide them to the answers for their questions

But the truth is, I will never be able to tell them half the truth about the Lord.

A soul in need of salvation needs to see Jesus.

B. She got to Solomon and found that he is:

• Wealthier than she could have imagined
• Wiser than she could have imagined 

and his subjects were,

• Happier than she could have imagined

Who would not have been happy?

They live in a time of great peace – no wars at all under Solomon.

They live under a king whose wisdom is already supernatural; given to him of God.

Can you imagine how their government must have been conducted?

This is a judge who can settle every grievance fairly

• There is nobody in jail who shouldn’t be
• There is no one who has had an ought with a neighbor that hasn’t been handled equitably 
• There were no speeding tickets unjustly given
• There was no police officer who had abused his authority
• There was no one who had cheated on their Social Security

And, with all the wealth that was pouring into the country, the economy must have been booming.

• Unemployment would have been nearly 0%
• New businesses were opening and thriving
• Established businesses were expanding and hiring

Who wouldn’t be happy?

However may I remind you that, 

III. NOT EVERYONE WAS HAPPY UNDER SOLOMON

1 Kings 11:26 (KJV)

And Jeroboam the son of Nebat, an Ephrathite of Zereda, Solomon's servant, whose mother's name was Zeruah, a widow woman, even he lifted up his hand against the king.

It took him a while to do it, and he never really succeeded until Solomon was dead and his son was on the throne, but

A. Jeroboam had a problem with Solomon.

He wasn’t happy.

And finally he was able to find the thing that made other people unhappy too.

B. He got them to complain about their taxes.

1 Kings 12:4 (KJV)

Thy father made our yoke grievous: now therefore make thou the grievous service of thy father, and his heavy yoke which he put upon us, lighter, and we will serve thee.

The commentaries say that this yoke was taxes.

I imagine it goes back to Samuel’s warning to Israel when they wanted a king in the first place, 1 Samuel 8:11-17 (KJV)

And he said, This will be the manner of the king that shall reign over you: He will take your sons, and appoint them for himself, for his chariots, and to be his horsemen; and some shall run before his chariots.

And he will appoint him captains over thousands, and captains over fifties; and will set them to ear his ground, and to reap his harvest, and to make his instruments of war, and instruments of his chariots.

And he will take your daughters to be confectionaries, and to be cooks, and to be bakers.

And he will take your fields, and your vineyards, and your oliveyards, even the best of them, and give them to his servants.

And he will take the tenth of your seed, and of your vineyards, and give to his officers, and to his servants.

And he will take your menservants, and your maidservants, and your goodliest young men, and your asses, and put them to his work.

He will take the tenth of your sheep: and ye shall be his servants.

I think Solomon was a wonderful king.

But he was a king.

• He had authority
• He had expectations and
• He used his authority to meet his expectations

I want to conclude this message by pointing out that, 

C. The only unhappy Christians are those who don't want to give anything to Christ

• They want wealth without work
• They want wisdom without study
• They want sonship without standards
• They want blessings without blessing
• They want rewards without righteousness
• They want encouragement without expectations
• They want peace without pressure (battle)

• Christianity is liberty but it is not license.

• Christians are forgiven of our sin but we are not allowed to continue in our sin
• Christians in this world but we are not to be of this world

The only unhappy Christian will be the Christian who defies the authority of Christ in his or her life.

Jesus said, Matthew 16:25

For whosoever will save his life shall lose it: and whosoever will lose his life for my sake shall find it.

The only unhappy Christian will be the one who doesn’t want to give himself or herself completely to the Lord.