A Blessed People for a Blessed God
“Have you ever thought about how we use some words so often, that they lose the effect they’re actually intended to have?”
. . . I think the word, “awesome” is one of those words.
So about 3 years ago, I decided to stop using the word “awesome” so flippantly . . .
. . . because I wanted it to be reserved to describe things that are actually awesome.
Awesome isn’t a scoop of ice cream that I really enjoy.
The ice cream might be “good;” it might even be “great”.
But “awesome . . .”
. . . that explains something so GRAND that whatever’s being talked about actually leads people to a state of awe.
Awesome is:
· What happens when we experience something that leaves us with limited words to describe it so we’re forced to use a word like “awesome” . . .
· Awesome is when you hike to the top of a mountain at just the right time of day, and you witness the sun either rising or setting to begin or end the day . . . and you can’t help but think to yourself “The God who created this is an awesome God.”
Right before my wife and I got married, my best man threw me a bachelor party . . . and he thought it’d be a good idea for us to go skydiving.
I tried to explain to my white best man that black people don’t typically do that kinda stuff but he set it up anyways . . .
So a few of us did it; all of us lived; praise be to God.
But man, I remember sitting on the edge of the plane.
Yanno, I was strapped to the front of my guide because it was a tandem jump . . .
. . . and so there were a few seconds where he was getting himself situated on the edge of the plane . . .
. . . which meant that I was strapped to his chest, legit hanging outside of the plane.
And during that time . . .
Man, I was looking at the clouds that I was about to jump into . . .
. . . scanning the horizon and just kinda taking it in.
There was all of this beautiful Tennessee landscape that God had designed and placed exactly where He desired it to be.
. . . And I’m thinking to myself: “THIS is awesome! GOD is awesome!”
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And now what’s interesting about this is that:
The men who were our guides for the skydiving . . .
. . . their conversation; the jokes they cracked; the hobbies they talked about enjoying.
None of those things led me to think that these were men who lived to worship God . . .
. . . but after we were on the ground and I went on and on about how awesome God was because of what I’d just witnessed.
All of these men would agree.
“Yea, God is awesome for creating what we just saw.”
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And I think that’s what awesome is, yanno?
See, awesome is those things that might lead even those who don’t know or worship God to be in awe of God because of what they see.
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In our passage today, we’re gonna be introduced to a woman who was the Queen of Sheba.
And this Queen . . . at witnessing God’s work amongst one of God’s people . . . is gonna be led to acknowledge how awesome God is, without actually knowing who God is.
And I wanna propose to us, that as the people of God . . .
. . . our lives, our testimonies of salvation, every single thing about who we are . . .
. . . should collectively form evidence that God could hold and present to the world as something that would lead them to awe of Him . . .
. . . because of their witnessing His work, amongst His people.
1 KINGS 10:1-13
POINT 1: THE WORLD’S SKEPTICISM
So the first thing I want us to notice in looking at this passage is that the Queen of Sheba is unnamed.
The text tells us that she’s a queen, and it names the nation that she’s the queen of . . . but it doesn’t actually tell us what her name is.
And I think that’s somewhat intentional by the author.
It seems that from the outset of this passage, he’s mostly concerned with us understanding—not who the queen is . . .
. . . but that King Solomon has such a level of fame and popularity that the queen of any nation would have known who he was.
The text says she had “heard about Solomon’s fame connected with the name of the Lord.”
And now back then there was no social media or Linkedin accounts; people didn’t have their employment listed on their Facebook profiles.
. . . So if someone was so famous that foreign rulers were hearing about them in foreign nations . . . then they must’ve been a pretty big deal.
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And here you’ve got this queen of Sheba.
She has heard of Solomon’s fame . . .
. . . and the text says that she heard of it “connected with the name of the Lord.”
That was the case because during this time, there was such a heightened focus on spiritual powers and the worship of false gods . . .
. . . that if a nation’s ruler was evidently blessed, foreign rulers would assume that whatever god this nation worshiped was a god worth looking into and potentially following.
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So she has heard of Solomon’s fame and she has heard of Solomon’s God.
And it says that she wanted to come and test all of this by giving Solomon riddles to see how wise he actually was.
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The author tells us all of this in the first verse alone.
And I think the reason he sets us up with all of these key phrases and indicators . . .
. . . is because he wants us as readers to see that this unnamed queen, who has heard of Solomon’s fame, and heard of the God he worships . . .
. . . she wants to come “test” his wisdom . . .
. . . which means she’s also testing the God who gave him the wisdom . . . . . . . . . . . . .
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I think the author wants us to see that this queen of Sheba represents the world and their skepticism towards both—God and God’s people.
So this is point #1. This is the first thing we’re making note of from the text.
The world’s skepticism.
Something I think we must be aware of as we continue living in a secular, anti-God world . . . is that there are people in this world watching those who call themselves Christians . . . . . .
. . . and it’s not always with the benefit of doubt or with good intentions in mind.
There are some people in this world who are so anti-God that they make their lives about watching, waiting, and trying to witness God’s people slip.
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And I think that’s a bit of what we have here with the Queen of Sheba.
She shows up in Jerusalem; she has her entourage; she brought all of these riches with her
(likely because she wants to make a political deal with Solomon if he proves to be what everyone says he is . . .)
. . . . . . . . . . . . And in verse 4, the text tells us that after she got there and Solomon answered all of her questions . . .
. . . she OBSERVED: his wisdom, his palace, the temple, so on and so forth.
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I love the fact that the CSB translation uses the word “observe.”
See to observe something doesn’t mean to make a passive glimpse at it.
This means that the queen was intentionally looking at all Solomon had to offer.
She was paying attention to the details of his fortune.
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This was likely the kind of observation that your mother-in-law does when she comes to your house and drags her finger along your furniture to see how much dust there is.
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The Queen is looking intently as she walks throughout Solomon’s palace.
This makes me think of when I was buying my wife’s engagement ring, I went to a jeweler that some friends of mine recommended.
They said he sold really good diamonds and was well-educated about his work.
So I go and I’m talking with him about what it is that I think I wanna get.
And I’m like “Yea, I think she wants this cut of diamond, on this kind of gold.”
And he says “Ok. Are you looking for more size, or are you looking more for clarity?”
And I’m like “Uhhh. English please. I don’t even know what that means?”
And so what he does is, he goes and gets a few diamonds.
And he begins teaching me about the different levels of clarity within a diamond.
And he explained how the size of a diamond isn’t actually the top indicator of value, but the clarity—meaning how crystal clear . . . and how much capacity a diamond has to shine brightly . . .
. . . That’s what actually makes a stone more valuable.
So we do the whole thing where he gets the microscope and pulls out his lil flashlight, then he starts twirling these diamonds under the microscope.
And what I see is like, “Man, some of these diamonds shine so much more brightly than the other ones do.”
I was learning to see the true value of diamonds because I paused to give intentional observation to them.
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You and I both know that there are a lot of things in life that may appear a certain way until you get up close with intentional observation.
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And here we have the Queen of Sheba . . . observing Solomon’s palace in this way.
Remember she represents the skepticism of the world.
So as we continue thinking about how the world is skeptical of us as God’s people, and how they’re purposefully watching us to see if we’re actually who we say we are . . .
We should ask ourselves the question:
What will people see when they get up close and observe our lives?
· Will they find that we’re faithful in our jobs and in our schoolwork because we do all things for the Lord and not for man?
· Will they find that we have healthy marriages where we seek to serve one another because that’s what God calls spouses to do?
· Will they find that we enjoy being with our church family because we wanna be joined together in love and fellowship like God says we should?
· Would they find dating relationships that honor the Lord behind closed doors . . . because He calls us to pursue purity and abstinence outside of marriage?
What would people see if they got up close and observed our lives?
I’m sure we can all attest that you don’t have to live very long to find out that it’s really easy to live a life that appears vibrant from afar . . .
. . . while having all kinds of ungodly stuff going on up close.
If people were to know our thoughts or what goes on in our hearts, would they think the same way about us that we can lead them to think from afar?
We should wanna be people who repent for those sins that are hidden so deep that the world would never know they were there without getting up close and observing through a microscope?
. . . Let’s search our hearts for those sins so that we can be deeply pure before the Lord, with a diamond like clarity that makes God smile when He twirls our life under His microscope?
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I think God cares about the details that become clear with close observation.
And if the world is gonna be skeptical . . . then shouldn’t our lives be evidence of who God is?
So the next thing I want us to look at is: “The King’s evidence.”
We’ve seen the world’s skepticism. Now I want us to notice “The King’s evidence.”
POINT 2: THE KING’S EVIDENCE
If you look at what’s listed about the queen’s observations in verse 3, you’ll notice that she covers a broad range of categories with what she observes.
She observes Solomon’s wisdom; the palace he lives in; the temple he built for the Lord . . .
. . . all the way down to the clothing of his servants.
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And now I think the author listed these things because he wants us to know that these are details that God Himself had given instructions about.
If you go read 1 Chronicles 28 you’ll see where David—Solomon’s father and the king before him—
. . . he gives instructions for building the temple, and the houses that go along with the temple, and all the details for what this grand establishment in Jerusalem should be like . . .
. . . then in 1 Chronicles 28:19, you’ll read: 19 “All this,” said David, “the Lord made me understand in writing, by His hand upon me, all the works of these plans.”
So David says He understood all of this because God Himself had made the instructions clear to Him.
At this point in the outline, we’re talking about “the King’s evidence.”
But there’s a capital “K” on this point.
That’s because I’m not referring to “lowercase ‘k’ King Solomon,” but to “capital ‘k’ King Jehovah.”
I’m talking about the King of kings, and how this is His own proof of who He is.
See Solomon had a prominent stance in society because God had given it to Him.
Solomon had been given influence because he was called to act on behalf of God.
All throughout the Old Testament we see this theme.
In Exodus 7, we see that God rescues the Israelites out of captivity in Egypt . . . and He tells His people, “I’m doing this so that even Egypt will know that I am the Lord.”
And then later in Exodus 16, the people are complaining because they don’t trust God to provide for them,
. . . then God blesses His people with an abundance of food and He says “through this provision, you will know that I am the Lord your God.”
And then all throughout Leviticus and Deuteronomy, God tells the people, “Teach these truths to your children so that your future generations will continue knowing that I am the Lord God!”
And later, its prophesied several times like in Isaiah 45:3, or Ezekiel 28:24, or in Joel 2:27 . . .
“I’ll give you rescue; I’ll give you riches; I’ll give you provision; I’ll give you protection . . .
. . . but might everything I give you, and might everything I allow you to be primarily result in the end of you and all other people knowing that I am the Lord YOUR God, and I am the Lord who rules over ALL!”
Everything the Lord gives and does for us, He gives and does so that we can use it for His glory.
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The queen herself hints at this in verse 9.
She sees all of Solomon’s wisdom and wealth, and she recognizes that he has it because His God has given it to Him.
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Saints, do we live knowing that we’re called to point to God in everything we do?
It’s been that way since the beginning of time.
“I give you this; I make you this . . . so that all will know I am the Lord.”
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See in the same way that God had given Solomon instructions for how he should build the temple, God has given us instructions for how we should build our lives.
2 Peter 1:3 says that God’s divine power has given us everything required for life and godliness.
We are to be God’s evidence to the skeptical world, and He’s given us the instructions we need right here in His Word.
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If you're like me . . . you may read this passage and think to yourself, "I can shake these applications; this sermon aint for me because I don't have a whole lot of wealth to show off.
. . . I don’t have a lot of material possessions so this passage misses me.”
Well to that I say 'No. We're wrong. We may not have a lot of materials, but we do have life.'
The entirety of our beings; the totality of who we are; should be aimed at making a big deal of who God is.
The Queen of Sheba heard about Solomon's fame in connection with the Lord.
In the OT, fame and fortune was considered an indicator of blessing and favor . . . and in the New Testament, SOME of us may have fame and fortune . . .
. . . but all of us who are followers of Christ have the #1, more significant indicator of blessing and favor from God.
We have new life in Jesus and an infilling of God's Holy Spirit.
And it’s this, saints, that we’re to leverage and steward and put on the forefront for the glory of our great God.
When we gain new life in Christ, we gain the most valuable thing ever worthy of having . . .
. . . and we should steward that blessing as one received to be used for the praise of the One who gave it to us!
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See what the queen witnesses in Old Testament Jerusalem, God is calling us to be in 21st century Rock Hill.
Notice that one of the things she observes in verse 5 is the Lord’s temple.
It says: “she observed the burnt offerings Solomon offered at the Lord’s temple, and it took her breath away.”
Now the temple, in the Old Testament, was the architectural structure that represented God’s presence.
If you go back and read chapter 8 you’ll see where Solomon has this long dedication of the temple, as a place where God would dwell and His people would worship Him.
But in the New Testament, Christ comes and there is no more temple.
Thankfully there isn’t one place that represents God’s presence anymore.
We, the people of God, carry God’s presence with us because He fills us with His Spirit when He saves us.
And Ephesians 2 tells us that we do this as individual bricks, which come together to form a holy temple for the Lord.
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Do we see the joy in this, friends?
We glorify the Lord as individual bricks that come together to form a breath-taking, Spirit-filled house of God.
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And the clearest way we see this now-a-days is through our involvement with a local church.
So when you:
· Come together and sing worshipful songs like we’ve done today, that glorifies God.
· Outside the church walls, when you provide a meal for a church family that is in a rough spot.
· Or when we choose to intentionally love church members that voted differently than us in the presidential election.
· Or when you simply call one another to check in and offer accountability and encouragement.
. . . All of this brings much glory to the Lord God, and it might just lead someone like the Queen of Sheba to be awestruck at the wonder of God.
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In John 13, Jesus says that we’ll be known by our love for one another.
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Well how great would it be if the people of Rock were able to look at the people of Park Baptist and say to themselves: “Who are these folks and why do they love one another in such a radical way?!”
. . . . . . Especially during polarizing times, right?
I’ve been so encouraged by our church fam here, because amidst so much in our society that could drive us apart . . .
. . . it seems that we’ve been extra intentional . . . and extra careful not to let the glory of God and the beauty of His temple be tainted by division or a lack of love for one another!
Let’s press on with more of this, saints.
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We as individuals—and as church family—are our King’s evidence of His glory.
. . . And when the world witnesses this evidence through us as the people of God, we give them a testimony that cannot be denied.
. . . . . . So the next thing I want us to look at is how the queen responds to this evidence.
We’ve seen the world’s skepticism. We’ve seen the King’s evidence. Now we’re gonna look at the world’s response.
POINT 3: THE WORLD’S RESPONSE
In verse 9 we see that the queen of Sheba tells Solomon: “Blessed be the Lord your God!” after she witnesses all of his fortune.
Now I don’t think this is the queen of Sheba worshiping, but I think this is the queen of Sheba realizing that making friends with Solomon and his God would be a good political move for her.
Some scholars argue that Jesus’ reference to this queen in Matthew 12 is an indication of salvation.
I don’t know if that’s the case or not; she may have been saved later on.
But it seems that the majority of evidence in this passage suggests that this is more about politics than it is about worship.
This was during a time where foreign rulers would form alliances and act as if they respected one another’s gods . . .
. . . solely for the purpose of securing favor and feeling as though they would be helped if they ever went to war and needed it.
She doesn’t even point out that God Himself is great.
She blesses His name and points out all that He has given Solomon.
So she’s more focused on the wisdom and wealth and prosperity and power of Solomon . . .
. . . and she thinks that paying him the right amount of this stuff she brought will have him help her if she ever needs him to go to war for her.
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But she does notice that God has eternal love for His people, and she sees that all she heard about God giving Solomon wisdom is indeed true . . .
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. . . it just leads her to admire what God gives His people in physical form, instead of desiring what God gives His people in . . . spiritual form.
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And listen to me, saints . . .
. . . there will be some who understand God to be a sovereign ruler . . . without understanding Him to be their sovereign ruler.
There will be some who have a cognitive understanding of God, without a heartfelt understanding of Him.
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There may be some here today who can identify with this.
You see all that God is, but you don’t acknowledge Him as all of this FOR YOU.
Or might it be that you’re moved by how powerful God is . . . but you’re not actually moved by how His power has forever changed YOUR life in affording you the chance at salvation?
Do you live with joyful obedience because of what God has done, or do you merely confess with your lips “Blessed be the Lord your God.”
Do you call yourself Christian because that’s what your grandma told you to be . . . or do you actually worship God because you have personal love for Him?
And are you like Queen of Sheba, forced to say “Blessed be YOUR God because you don’t know Him in a way that allows you to say blessed be the Lord, MY GOD?”
The queen of Sheba recognizes that Solomon’s God is magnificent . . . then she makes an investment into Solomon’s kingdom . . .
. . . and if you look quickly at the last verse of our passage, you see it tells us that she then returned home to her country.
I think the author wrote it in that way to reinforce that this was her making a political move, then returning home to continue worshiping her false gods.
This is an unnamed queen. That’s likely another sign that she wasn’t one of God’s people.
The author doesn’t name her because without her name being written in God’s Book of Life, she’d have no lasting significance.
. . . . . . . there will be some, who come with skepticism, witness the evidence, then respond by acknowledging God’s power without giving their life to Him.
And what we have to remember in those situations is that there isn’t a whole lot we can do about it.
God will save who He saves; we’re just called to be faithful in presenting evidence for them to have a chance at knowing Him.
. . . And that brings us to my last point.
The last thing I want us to look at is what Solomon does with the queen’s gifts.
So point #4: The king’s responsibility.
POINT 4: THE [K]ING’S RESPONSIBILITY
This point in the outline is no longer talking about uppercase “K” King God, but I’m now referring to lowercase “k” king Solomon.
Solomon shows us how we as the people of God should steward the blessings and influence that God gives.
And there isn’t any fascinating stuff that Solomon does here.
Verses 9-11 show us that the queen of Sheba gives Solomon one of the largest gifts he has ever seen, then another political ruler comes along and does the same thing in verse 11.
So Solomon has gotten these two large gifts of valuables, and verse 12 tells us that he begins using it to make the Lord’s temple more beautiful.
Look at verse 12: “The king made the almug wood into steps for the Lord’s temple and the king’s palace and into lyres and harps for the singers. Never before did such almug wood arrive, and the like has not been seen again.”
So Solomon took this platform and the wisdom and the fame and the fortune that God had given him, and he used it all to prove that God was worthy of worship . . .
. . . and then, he takes what is given to him as a result of his fame, and he immediately uses it in a way that would bring God more glory.
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Can you say you’d do the same, friend?
Do you live your life, taking all that God has given you and made you, seeking to be a blessed people for the sake of blessing God?
. . . or are you more about using God’s gifts for your own comfort and gain?
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When people look at your life and how you use your gifts from God, are they left breathless at God’s glory like the Queen of Sheba was?
Is there a level of holiness and love for God that would take someone’s breath away?
That’s the only worthy way of living, saints.
Solomon knew that, and that’s why he instantly invested this stuff into the Lord’s temple.
. . . but now what I DON’T wanna do . . .
. . . is to make it seem like Solomon is ALL GOOD in this passage.
Because I do have bad news.
Look at your neighbor and say, “Uhoh.”
This passage doesn’t end by continuing on with the good, holy Solomon that we’ve seen thus far.
This passage ends with a demonstration of Solomon’s humanity and imperfection.
Verse 13 was one of those verses that, man in my sermon prep . . . my commentaries just kinda let me down.
There are some passages you preach, & in your process of studying what commentators say about it . . .
. . . you sometimes come to a verse that seems like nobody’s got a single thing to say.
So I got to verse 13 and read: 13 King Solomon gave the queen of Sheba her every desire—whatever she asked—besides what he had given her out of his royal bounty.
And no commentators seemed to wanna explain why this was there.
So I’m like: “Ok, either there’s something extremely obvious here that I’m missing. . . or . . . the commentators themselves are as confused as I am.
So I start asking myself questions like:
· Why is this here?
· Why would God have inspired this verse be written?
· What is the author trying to communicate by writing this particular verse?
· Who is it that the verse is talking about?”
Yanno I’m working through all of the layers and asking all of the questions that lead to good Biblical interpretation.
And then it dawns on me . . . this is King Solomon.
This queen is a foreign woman.
And what we see when we look at the entire story of King Solomon’s life is that although he was a great king who did many great things for God . . .
. . . and he was the king who built this glorious temple for God . . .
. . . and he was a great king who God gave exponential wisdom to . . .
. . . and he was the king who established this extravagant lifestyle that we’ve just read about . . .
. . . and he was the great king who rulers from foreign nations admired and traveled to spend time with . . .
. . . he was a human king, with human flaws, and King Solomon had a problem saying “no” to foreign women.
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The very next chapter tells us that God had forbidden King Solomon from marrying foreign women because they would lead him to worship foreign gods.
. . . and then we see this strange devotion to the Queen of Sheba in verse 13 . . . and it doesn’t tell us that she becomes his wife, or that they become lovers or anything . . .
. . . but what we do see is that King Solomon has a liking for this woman.
Not only does he give her whatever she wants . . . but he gives to her beyond his royal bounty.
And then the rest of chapter 10 tells us a little more about Solomon’s riches . . .
. . . but I think the author, in chapter 10 verse 13, is showing us how king Solomon would give up anything for this foreign queen . . .
. . . in order to prepare us for what he writes at the beginning of chapter 11.
Thus far this book has only been about King Solomon’s wealth and wisdom and faithfulness to God . . .
. . . but then we come to Chapter 11, verses 1-3 . . . and we see King Solomon’s kryptonite.
700 wives and 300 concubines.
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So King Solomon fails. And despite all of the good he has done, he ends up disobeying direct orders from the Lord.
I told you this was bad news.
But now here’s why this is bad news, not only for King Solomon . . . but also for you and I.
Because in this passage . . .
. . . if we’re gonna compare ourselves to King Solomon at any other point . . . we’d better not forget to compare ourselves to him right here.
What we’re seeing is that King Solomon was flawed and sinful, and incapable of living in perfect obedience to God.
And the exact same thing is true about every one of us.
We’re flawed; we’re sinful; we’re incapable of living in perfect obedience to God.
And the very bad news . . . is that God demands perfection of us.
God is the Creator of all things, and He created all things for the worship and glory of His great name . . .
. . . but we as mankind fall short of that glory, we sin, and we fail to fulfill the purpose that He created us with.
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And this is the reason that none of us should be arrogant in our faith.
We shouldn’t look at the world and other sinners with a condescending way of thinking . . .
. . . but we should instead be humble and evangelize . . . and invite others to this joyful, holy life before God that we all get to live because of His grace towards us in Christ.
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And more than anything else, it’s also for this reason that we must say “Praise be to God for OUR salvation in Christ!”
See in Christ, what we’re incapable of doing for ourselves . . . God has done for us.
Christ came from Heaven, put on human flesh, lived a perfect life without sin, and then died a death as if He had not . . .
. . . all so that we, who do sin, could be seen in light of His perfection, be saved from eternal damnation, and be reconciled to God our Father if we believe this truth and make Christ our Lord.
So in conclusion, saints . . .
. . . my encouragement is not for you to go and try mustering up strength to live a perfect life and be the King Solomon who doesn’t fail . . .
My encouragement is for you to go reckon with the fact that you can’t be a perfect King Solomon . . . but know that God has provided the perfect King Jesus.
And when we reckon with that truth, we should become compelled—not only to live lives of worship . . .
. . . but to steward our blessings as a blessed people for a blessed God . . . both as individuals, and as the corporate people of God.
Ponder what God has done for you . . . and in your pondering, strive to make sure that all you have is stewarded so that He’s glorified to the world . . . as the Great Giver who is worthy of worship.