The Lord be pleased to bless
us together this evening as we consider his word. Let us turn
to the first book of the Kings chapter 10 and read in the first
verse. The first book of the Kings chapter
10 and reading the first verse. 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. There are of course two accounts
of this occasion in the word of God in this book of Kings
and also in the second book of the Chronicles and there are
variations. But in this particular instance
we have a very important view of the Queen of Sheba. And that important view is this,
that she heard of the famous Solomon concerning the name of
the Lord. I suppose we tend to always assume
that the Queen of Sheba came to see Solomon to view all his
wealth and all the wonderful wisdom that he had and everything
that surrounded him. Well, that is true, but it's
good that we realise here we have a very important and a very
clear statement that she came because of the fame of him concerning
the name of the Lord. Now, we're not certain where
this Queen lived. We're not certain where a place
called Sheba was. It may have been Ethiopia, it
may have been in the Middle East, but where it is, it is not too
important. The fact is that what had occurred
in Solomon's life had obviously been relayed across many, many
miles. and as it had been relayed across
many, many miles, it had had this effect, that it had clearly
exalted the name of the Lord. And here we have a very clear
definition, the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. What a wonderful blessing there
is in a testimony like that. What a wonderful blessing that
would be if people spoke about us in our lives in a similar
vein. If they were desirous to come
and meet with us, to speak to us because of those things concerning
the name of the Lord. I know Solomon of course was
a king in a very eminent position and obviously there were very,
very many people that heard him proclaim the truths and many
people witnessed his life and what had occurred. But nonetheless
we should not just say, well of course that was King Solomon
and it doesn't have any relevance to my life today. I believe that's
one of the problems that we have today, and indeed has occurred
down through the ages. That there hasn't been that clear
evidence and that clear testimony of the name of the Lord. Now Solomon was only a man like
we are. He wasn't any different. And
of course we know, as we read on in Solomon's life, He sinned greatly and had many,
many wives and allowed them to take him away, not completely,
but they did detract him from the things of God to such an
extent that he even built idols and places of worship for his
wives' gods. It's almost impossible for us
to believe that a man like this, so wonderfully blessed, could
be allowed to fall into such evil. But we're thankful that
he was delivered and we know he was a godly king and we're
thankful for it. But nonetheless, it is a very
big lesson for us to consider that whatever state we should
be in, to never ever think that we would be able to continue
in the way, in a godly way, without the help of God. We are only what we are by the
grace of God and the help of God. Never forget Solomon, never
forget the example like we have of Peter who was so zealous in
his life for the Lord Jesus and yet when he was left to himself
how easily he denied his Lord and Master, not once, not twice,
but three times. So never assume that we are strong. Never assume you are somebody
that can stand firm. My friends, the devil is ever
at our elbow, looking for an opportunity to direct us in some
other way. We see how Both of these people
became weak when faced with a certain situation. And we are no better
left to ourselves. So let us remember then the life
of Solomon. But nevertheless, we would desire
to consider those positive things also. And there were of course
many positive things in his life. And it may be that The Queen
of Sheba had heard of some of those positive things that God
had indeed done for him. Soon after he was king, the Lord
met with him. The Lord appeared to him in a
dream by night. And God said, ask what I shall
give thee. Now naturally that's a tremendous
temptation, isn't it? If you had a dream tonight, and
God said, what would you like? Well, we can imagine, can't we?
We've got a list of things that we would like. But Solomon, you
see, he didn't respond in that way. He just asked that the Lord
indeed would give him wisdom. And he spoke in this way. that
thou hast showed unto thy servant David my father great mercy according
as he walked before thee in truth and in righteousness and in uprightness
of heart with thee and thou hast kept for him this great kindness
thou hast given him a son to sit on his throne as it is this
day there was the testimony that he was able to refer to of his
father and that's a blessing if you and I can look back in
our lives and refer to a testimony of our Father. Well, be that
as it may, here was this situation. He moves on to say, And now,
O LORD my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David
my father, and I am but a little child. Well, of course, he wasn't
a little child, he was a grown man. But that's how he viewed
himself. And again, it's a good testimony
that you and I find ourselves, viewing ourselves just like this.
Solomon was the king. He was the ruler of Israel. He was in a very eminent position. But before God, he made this
statement, I am a little child, just like a little child. Well,
let us remember such a statement in our lives and never assume
that we're anything greater than a little child. And so he tells
the Lord, I know not how to go out or come in. He wasn't relying
upon his own ability. No, he was honest and he said
he didn't know. It's a great blessing when you
and I are favoured to come to that position and confess that
we don't know. Sometimes we may be unwilling
to say, well, I don't know. We may think it's perhaps a sign
of weakness. In actual fact, it's the opposite.
It's a sign of strength because we know our weakness. And so
here he comes and he says, I know not how to go out or come in. And thy servant is in the midst
of thy people, which thou hast chosen a great people that cannot
be numbered nor counted amongst you give therefore thy servant
an understanding heart to judge thy people that I may discern
between good and bad for who is able to judge this thy so
great a people well to be blessed with understanding it's a wonderful
favour isn't it Good it will be if we come and ask the Lord
for this. Not ask the Lord for great riches,
not ask the Lord for great favours in this world, but to come and
to pray that we may be given an understanding heart. An understanding
heart. What a blessing it is to have
an understanding heart. Now we read, and the speech pleased
the Lord that Solomon had asked this thing. Now it's recorded
here. in the word of God. No doubt it was known, no doubt
he told people about it. It may have been partly on that
account why the Queen of Sheba was able to come and to say that
she heard the famous Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. Because this was concerning the
name of the Lord. And then that request which the Lord said
he would be granted was very quickly put to the test. Sometimes
in our lives things are very quickly put to the test. And so there were those two women
that came and they both had babies and one had laid on one and it
had died and the other one was alive. And the woman whose baby
had died took the living child and gave her dead child into
the bosom of the other woman. And then they both claimed the
living child was there. And Solomon was given wisdom
how to deal with this. You may remember, it's a well-known
story, he called for a sword and he said, divide it in two,
give half to each one. And of course the mother whose
child it was couldn't bear to think that her little babe would
be killed, and she therefore said, O my Lord, give her the
living child. And of course the king knew immediately
who was the true mother. And that account therefore went
forth and was known, and again may have been another reason
why this Queen of Sheba was able to come and say, that she had
heard of the famous Solomon concerning the name of the Lord. Well, she came many years after, of
course, Solomon had come to the throne, because he had built
the temple, he had also built his own house, and there had
been some 20 years or so which had elapsed covering this period.
Plenty of time for the message to get safely through, the message
to get safely through to the King. And so, the message safely
arrived to the Queen of Sheba. And so, no doubt, what had occurred,
especially with regards to the building of the temple, and how
Solomon had built this temple so that there could be that permanent
place wherein could reside the Ark of the Covenant and the Ort
of Incense and the Golden Candlestick and the Ort of Incense etc. All
those things could be placed then in a permanent dwelling
place. And it was of course a most remarkable
and it was a most amazing building. And so here again would have
been the evidence of Solomon serving the Lord the famous one
concerning the name of the Lord. She may have been questioning,
was this Lord that Solomon was worshipping so great that he
should build him such an amazing building and take so long over
it and be so costly in its completion? Well, it was again the evidence
of David's desire and Solomon fulfilling the desire of David
to complete this building, which would be for the Lord God. And then as we read together
in the 8th chapter, that prayer that Solomon prayed, that prayer
when all the people came together, there were of course the priests,
and it was a wonderful occasion and it was an occasion after
everything had been placed inside the new temple and what had occurred
and it came to pass when the priests would come out of the
holy place and the cloud filled the house of the Lord. God came
down and displayed his glory It was a wonderful evidence of
God's approval of all that had occurred. God honoured all these
efforts with his presence in this cloud coming down. And it
was so great that the priest could not stand to minister before
the cloud for the glory of the Lord had filled the house of
the Lord. What an occasion that must have
been, to have seen the glory of the Lord in that cloud, filling
the house of the Lord. It is referred to, it was a temple,
it is referred to as the house of the Lord. Again, no doubt,
another evidence of what the Queen of Sheba had heard by word
of mouth being transferred across through all those many, many
miles. And then Solomon came and he
spoke to the Lord. He spoke and he said, The Lord
said that he would dwell in thick darkness. I have surely built
thee a house to dwell in, a settled place for thee to abide forever. And the king turned his face
about and blessed all the congregation of Israel and all the congregation
of Israel stood. And he said, Blessed be the Lord
God of Israel, which spake with his mouth unto David my father,
and hath with his hand fulfilled its saying. And so we could read
on until we come down to the beginning of that, the actual
prayer which commences in the 22nd verse of this 8th chapter. And his desire therefore was
to come to the Lord in prayer and there were all the people
gathered together they were all there and as we read Solomon
stood before the altar of the Lord in the presence of all the
congregation of Israel spread forth his hands toward heaven
and said and we have the prayer in detail that he prayed to God
and that detail has been recorded We're thankful for it and some
of that detail may well have gone across all those miles so
that the Queen of Sheba had heard of those things that Solomon
had prayed to his God. So the famous Solomon concerning
the name of the Lord. Now, she'd come then, all those
miles, and we're told she came to prove him with hard questions. We're not told in detail what
those hard questions were. What those hard questions were
with regard to the Lord his God. But we can be sure that he gave
good answers because we know the response that she was able
to come to and she said, it was a true report that I heard in
my own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom, albeit 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." And then she says, Blessed be the Lord
thy God, which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne
of Israel. Because the Lord loved Israel
forever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice."
If we think of those, they're really quite amazing words, aren't
they? This woman, come from miles away,
Generally speaking, it was an alien country, it would have
been a dark land, there wouldn't have been the light of the gospel
there, there wouldn't have been the knowledge of God there really,
apart from that which had been translated across to them. But
now having met the King, and here she comes to prove him with
hard questions, and she's able to tell and to say, blessed be
the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne
of Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made
he thee king to do judgment and justice." So it's very clear
that Solomon was able to declare clearly to her the Lord whom
he worshipped. The Lord who was his God. and the evidence to be able to
show forth that his God delighted in him. It's a very wonderful
statement, isn't it? As we think of such words like
that. And then as we come today and
try to apply these things to our own lives. Our own lives. Because although we're not king,
although we're not a queen, Nevertheless, we live on this earth at the
present time, and how important it is that we're able to give
a good testimony of those things which have reference to the Lord
God. Now, we haven't built a temple,
we haven't built a magnificent house for ourselves, but nonetheless,
have there been those occasions in our life when the Lord has
clearly gone before us, when the Lord has clearly appeared
for us, when the Lord has helped us, when the Lord has directed
us, when the Lord has caused us to call upon His name, to
pray unto our God honestly, fervently, truthfully, and to have our hearts
directed to our Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ. Let us not forget, the building
of the temple directed the people to the Messiah. All those articles contained
in the temple, evidenced the Messiah spoke of that just one
who would come and it would seem therefore that if the Queen of
Sheba was to come to this knowledge that she has here surely the
King would have spoken to her of the reason why he built this
temple and the God who he worshipped and the God who had appeared
to him. The God who had appeared to him
on that initial occasion in Gibeon, that same God also appears to
him again in an earlier place as we spoke of already. He appeared
to him. What a blessing it is when the
Lord comes and appears for his people and directs them and encourages
them and enables them to testify of what the Lord has done and
how the Lord has directed and how the Lord has blessed. Now
Solomon would have worshipped the Lord And my friends, if you
and I have come and worshipped the Lord, if we have known something
of what it is to bow down and worship, because Solomon, of
course, worshipped by bringing all those many, many sacrifices. There were hundreds of animals
that were slain, which were offered up in sacrifice. and the Queen
of Sheba no doubt would have questioned why this was done. Why were all those sacrifices?
What did they achieve? And Solomon would have been able
to have told her what they meant, how needful it was. If sin was
to be atoned for, it was necessary that sacrifice should be made. And then of course, there was
that annual wonderful day of atonement when the high priest
went in to the holy place, not without blood. And all these
things were evident. And as the Queen came and proved
him with hard questions, it really seems impossible for Solomon
not to have referred to some of these wonderful and glorious
testimonies and occasions which occurred in the Jewish calendar,
and also those daily sacrifices, that morning and evening sacrifice,
what they represented. And surely it was because of
some of these evidences that the Queen Yeshiva had come all
these miles, all these miles to know something concerning
the name of the Lord. And as such she came to prove
him with hard questions. And she asked him those questions
which he was able to answer and she was thankful and acknowledged
the wisdom that he had and the truth of those things and the
happy state that he was in and the happy state that his people
were in. And so it is today, if we are amongst those who truly
worship the Lord God and truly acknowledge who He is and what
He means to us, that He is our God and our Saviour. Surely this
is true. Happy are thy men and happy are
thy servants. It is a happy situation to be
in, if we are blessed with that knowledge of the Lord as our
Saviour. It is a happy situation to be
in, and it is a blessed situation to be in, to know the truth concerning
the Lord Jesus Christ. You see, today we have the revelation
of what all these things meant with regard to those ceremonies
carried out in the temple. And of course, previous to that,
the tabernacle. Not forgetting there was the
tabernacle which existed for some almost 500 years before
the temple was erected. All those years then. There were these ceremonies which
were carried out, and now today, our blessing is that they are
revealed to us in the face of Jesus Christ. So we might ask
ourselves, what does this really mean to us today with regards
to the Lord Jesus Christ, concerning the name of the Lord? Well, we would have heard, weren't
we? We would have heard about the
Lord Jesus Christ. We would have heard. People have
spoken to us about the Lord Jesus Christ. We've come and we've
heard the preaching of the Gospel about the Lord Jesus Christ.
But you see, can we come in and confirm in words like this that
it is concerning the name of the Lord. And we want to know
about it. We want to know about the Lord
Jesus Christ. We have a concern. She clearly
had a concern to know about these things. Well, have we a concern
to know about these things? It may be that we've got questions
that we want to ask. Now, you young people, you may
have questions you want to ask. It may be that you've heard about
the Lord Jesus Christ, and there may be those questions or those
situations which are puzzling to you, and you want to ask the
question. You want to come and to ask what
may seem hard questions. Now then, there's nothing wrong
Is everything right in coming to ask questions if you are really
concerned? If you really desire to know
about the Lord? You see the woman here, she heard
the famous Solomon concerning the name of the Lord and she
came to prove him. with hard questions. She wanted
to prove that what she heard was true. Now, if we come with
a wrong attitude, if we come with an attitude of just trying
to trip people up, well that's not the right way. But if we
are really seeking, if we are really concerned to know what
the truth is, and to know about the Lord God, to know about the
Lord Jesus Christ. And we have here this example.
She came to prove Him with hard questions. And I'm sure those
of us who have made a profession, perhaps would be very willing
for people to come and to question us about our faith, about what
we believe, about the Lord Himself, what we know of the Lord Jesus
Christ. And it will be a blessing, will
it not, if we are able to give good answers, if we are able
to answer the questions that are put to us, so that it brings
forth a response like it did with the Queen of Sheba, when
she came and said, Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighteth
in me. to set thee on the throne of
Israel, because the Lord loved Israel forever, therefore made
he thee king to do judgment and justice." It is a great favor
and blessing if there are those who desire to know and if there
are those who are willing to be questioned with regard to
their faith. Those who are inquiring, There
aren't perhaps many questions today. Perhaps people are too
nervous. Perhaps they're too embarrassed
to ask questions. Well, we should never be too
nervous. And we should never be too embarrassed to ask questions. Often people are embarrassed
because they're afraid to show their ignorance. I don't want
people to know that they don't really know hardly anything.
Perhaps they don't want to know they know virtually nothing.
Well, we shouldn't be embarrassed by that. Because the only thing
that is affected is our pride. And we might gain great benefit
through asking questions. So therefore, let us never be
afraid to ask questions. We might come, but it's come
to prove, to prove the truth. And that you see is really what
we want, isn't it? We want the truth. We want the
truth with regard to ourselves. We want to know the truth with
regard to the Lord Jesus Christ. And it may appear to us very
hard questions that we've got to ask. In fact, they may not
be hard questions. I'm sure that Solomon was able
to very easily and adequately answer the questions that the
Queen of Sheba put to him. First of all, he knew where his
wisdom came from to answer. And again, that's necessary for
each one of us, as we may be faced with questions, not to
rely on our own ability, but to remember we have a God who
can give us answers, who can speak to us, who can help us
in our time of need. But also, we should not be unwilling
to confess perhaps that we don't know the answer. Again, that
doesn't show any weakness. We should not pretend to know
what we do not know. If we are asked questions and
we do not know the answer, we should not pretend to know the
answer. But we should prayerfully desire and say, I will prayerfully
consider what you have asked. and hope to be able to give you
an adequate answer. Now, there is benefit in these
things, because this is testing the reality of our religion.
And if it drives us in prayer to God that we might be able
to answer questions adequately, it would be a good thing. And
also it would be a good thing for those who ask the questions
to receive a good and a right answer. We should always desire
to be able to answer properly and fully and in accordance with
the word of God and not to put our own interpretation on things. There can be a temptation that
if we don't know the answer we might put our own interpretation
on things. Well that would be of no value. And again remembering, if we
are to be asked questions, we need to feel ourselves to not
be some great knowledgeable hero, but to just be as a little child,
as Solomon confessed he was. And to be able then to answer
in a childlike manner, not with any complex answer, using words
that are not understood. It's a great gift to be able
to answer very simply, in simple words, that the youngest can
understand. And so, we have this account
here of this Queen of Sheba. May we realize that that's a
very interesting account, which of course it is, as we see what
she did, and we see what Solomon was like, and yet to know, to
believe there was this real desire to know the truth, a real concern
to know the truth, know that that might be in each of our
hearts, the concern to know the truth with regards to the Lord
Jesus Christ, to know why he died upon the cross at Calvary,
why it was necessary that he should shed his precious blood,
why He should be therefore crucified, and why he should rise again
from the dead, and why he should ascend to his father, and why
he should intercede for his people today. You see, all these are
very wonderful and instructive points, and as we may not perhaps
fully understand them, to ask questions, because there is food
for the soul in these questions. in these answers rather. As the
answers are received, there is food for the soul. Know that
we may therefore be concerned with regard to our spiritual
standing, our spiritual knowledge and desire to bring honour and
glory to our God and to have the end result and be able to
say like this Queen of Sheba, Blessed be the Lord thy God,
which delighteth in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel,
because the Lord loved Israel forever. Therefore made he thee
king to do judgment and justice. Amen.