Let me just press this little
button here. 1 Kings chapter 10 and reading
from verse 1. And this is the account of the
visit of the Queen of Sheba to King Solomon. This is the word
of God. 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 bear 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 anything 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 cup
bearers, 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 account 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 have 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
adhere 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 forever. Therefore made he thee
king, to do judgment and justice. And she gave the king 120 talents
of gold and spices, 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. And the navy also of Hiram that
brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of
almug trees and precious stones. And the king made of the almog
trees pillars for the house of the Lord, and for the king's
house, harps also, and psalteries for singers. There came no such
almog trees, nor were seen unto this day. And King Solomon gave
unto the Queen of Sheba all her desire. Whatsoever she asked,
beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty, So she
turned and went to her own country, she and her servants. Amen. May the Lord bless to us this
reading from his word. Now, we have here before us the
account of this visit by the Queen of Sheba. The only problem
is, No one is really certain where this land of Sheba actually
was. So although this lady came to
Solomon, came to Jerusalem to visit Solomon, and she's called
the Queen of Sheba, no one really knows, no one is certain where
that country or that land of Sheba was. Some think it was
from a North African country, such as Ethiopia or Eritrea. And others suggest that it was
from Yemen, which is on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula
and sort of looks out into the Indian Ocean. In the New Testament,
this lady is called the Queen of the South. And the truth is
that nobody really knows where she came from. It's even possible
that she was from much further away because now you'll remember
Solomon had a navy and it was trading with other nations and
the fame and the reputation of Israel and their king travelled
far and wide. We ought not to imagine that
because this was a long time ago, the people were backward
or uncivilized in any way. Remember that Solomon was reputed
to be the wisest man who ever lived. And while these people
did not have the technology that we have today, they were able
to accomplish great things with the equipment and expertise that
they had available to them. We're told, for example, that
Solomon's navy was at sea for three years. And you can sail
a long, long way in three years, even in a sailing ship. So the
fame and reputation of Solomon likely stretched very far indeed. And who knows how far this Queen
of the South, this Queen of Sheba, travelled in order to meet with
Solomon. The final section of this chapter,
which we didn't read together, goes on to speak about the riches
and the wealth of Solomon and his court and his kingdom. And
what we realize is that God had fulfilled his promise to Solomon. He was very wise, he was very
rich, and he was very famous. And this was a time of great
prosperity in Israel and the Lord blessed the nation under
Solomon's leadership so that all the nations around about
and for great distance acknowledged Solomon's greatness as the Lord
had promised. And this is why this woman comes
to see Solomon. She had heard about Solomon's
wisdom and the accomplishments that he had made. And she's called
the Queen of Sheba. She appears to have been a woman
of some wisdom herself, because she had many questions that were
troubling her. And she evidently hoped that
Solomon would be able to supply some answers for her questions. And I want you to note something
very significant here. Her curiosity about Solomon was
triggered because she heard of the fame of Solomon concerning
the name of the Lord. And I think that that's an important
statement. She heard of the fame of Solomon
concerning the name of the Lord. And I take this to mean that
this woman's burden, this woman's desire, this woman's questions
and curiosity was essentially spiritual. In her heart, she
wanted to speak to Solomon about the Lord. She wanted to speak
about the God of Israel. And I say that for two reasons. The first reason is, as we have
noted, that she heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the
name of the Lord. She had heard that Almighty God
had met with and spoken to Solomon and revealed himself in the temple. He came to the temple in Jerusalem
and revealed himself there where he was worshipped and he was
approachable. And I think that this woman knew
in her soul that she had to deal with this Lord, this God of the
Israelites. And she sought out Solomon as
one who could direct her and answer her questions and teach
her about the one true God. The second reason is the way
in which the Lord Jesus himself speaks of this lady in the New
Testament. The Lord was speaking to the
Pharisees and the Pharisees would not listen to what the Lord was
saying. And the Lord, of course, was
greater than Solomon. And yet they would not listen
to what he was saying. And so the Lord, in Luke 11,
verse 31, spoke about this Queen of Sheba in this way. He said,
the Queen of the South, that's what he called her, the Queen
of the South shall rise up in the judgment with the men of
this generation and condemn them. For she came from the utmost
parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon. And behold,
a greater than Solomon is here. The Lord says this woman came
from the utmost parts of the earth. So wherever it was she
came from, it was the utmost parts of the earth to hear the
wisdom of Solomon. while the Pharisees would not
listen to Christ, though he was present with them. So for these
two reasons, I think that this woman's interest was spiritual. And I don't imagine that she
came and was content simply to admire the architecture in Jerusalem
or wonder at what Solomon had built or his songs and his proverbs
or his science and all the books that he had written. I don't
think it was simply an intellectual exercise. I feel sure her interest
was about holy things and her questions spiritual. And it would
surprise me very much if Solomon did not explain to her the importance
of the altar in the temple, and the significance of the blood
sacrifice that was being made daily, and the true meaning of
the worship that took place there. And he surely pointed her to
the Lord Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit tells us Solomon
told her all things, told her all her questions. There was
not anything hid from the king which he told her not. So whatever
it was that Solomon knew about the Lord, he told this woman. Now it's possible that we might
think about this account as far as some of the types and the
pictures that are granted to us here. For example, it has
been suggested that the Queen of Sheba can be compared to the
coming of the Gentiles in the Gospel age to Christ. And that's
quite possible. If we're right in thinking that
this woman was anxious for her soul, then I hope that she found
peace with God through speaking to Solomon. And I hope that she
took that news of covenant grace of salvation in Christ back to
her home in the south country, back to her own kingdom, to the
utmost parts of the earth. I hope that she took it with
her to her own land and her own people when she returned home.
In a few years, not so very long after Solomon, we find that there
was another man, a man called Naaman, and he would take the
gospel. He would come to Israel and he
would take the gospel west with him to Syria. Jonah, we spoke
about Jonah a few months ago, Jonah took it east to Nineveh. And we learn also from the Old
Testament scriptures that Esther and Mordecai, they lived, they
dwelt in the North and they worshipped God in the North. So the point
is this, whether we're thinking about South, North, East or West,
the Lord has always had his people scattered throughout this world,
likely in places we could never imagine. Yet he always found
a way of taking the message of grace to those for whom it was
intended, even in these Old Testament times. And he still does. He causes his elect people to
search for truth and find salvation in Christ. I've got a question
for you. Have you ever wondered why you
have had the privilege of hearing the gospel when so many of your
friends know nothing about grace, nothing about forgiveness, or
the blood of Jesus Christ? That's not just a random chance. It's the will of God. It's the
will of God that you have heard this gospel. You have been blessed
above so many others, like this Queen of Sheba was blessed, among
so many others, to know these things, to hear this gospel. And I pray that these truths
will be a step in bringing you to faith and into a personal
relationship with God in Christ. Let me just mention a couple
of little applications here and then we will be done. When this
Queen of Sheba, Queen of the South, came to visit Solomon,
we're told that she brought a lot a very great amount of gifts
and treasures with her to give to Solomon. She brought gold,
she brought spices, she brought precious stones. And sometimes
when we first come to the Lord Jesus, seeking his help and his
blessing, We come with our hands full of all the things that we
think are valuable. All the things that we think
we can offer the Lord, that we can bring to his service. And I don't criticize the Queen
for doing this. She was doing what was expected
in those days when she was coming into the presence of a great
personage. It would have been rude for her
not to have come with gifts for Solomon. Nevertheless, there
is a little lesson here for us, I think. A little lesson for
us to know when we come to the Lord. When we come trusting in
Him, there's nothing that we can bring that the Lord needs
from us. There's nothing that we can bring
to Christ of our skills or our abilities or our wealth or anything
good about us. The only thing that we have is
our need and our sin. And that is why the Lord tells
us that we need to come to Him as little children. Little children
have nothing of their own. They're dependent on the care
and the love of others. And we are dependent on the care
and the love of God. Some preachers, when they are
speaking, make it sound as if we're doing God a favour by coming
to him and putting our trust in the Lord Jesus. But I don't
want you to think like that. If we are saved, if we are blessed
of God, it's because he's done something for us. If we have
a mansion in heaven prepared for us, it's because God has
done us good and shown us grace by saving us and by taking away
our sin in the blood of Christ. Another thing that this woman
tells us is that she came to Solomon to hear his wisdom. And that's a good pattern because
if we would know about spiritual things, if we would know about
God and about the Lord Jesus, we need to hear his heavenly
wisdom and we need to believe what he teaches. Now, I don't
claim to be a wise man like Solomon, but I do know the wisdom of God. I know the gospel that makes
a man and a woman and a boy and a girl wise unto salvation. And if you have questions about
your soul and about worshipping God and about serving the Lord
Jesus Christ, then ask those questions like the Queen of Sheba
asked them of Solomon. You ask them of me. Ask them of someone that might
be able to help and direct you. I will try to help. Send me a
note. Write me a letter. Speak to me
in person if you can. Ask what you will and I will
try to answer your questions in the same way as Solomon answered
the questions of the Queen of Sheba. This was not an easy journey
for the Queen of Sheba. There were lots of hurdles in
her way, but she was blessed in coming. And I want you to
know that there will be great blessing in coming to the Lord
Jesus Christ. Excuse me. Finally, here's my
last point. The Queen of Sheba said in verses
six and seven, she said, it was a true report that I heard in
mine own land of thy acts and thy wisdom. she was speaking
to Solomon. "'Howbeit,' she said, "'I believed
not the words until I came, "'and mine eyes had seen it, and behold,
"'half was not told me. "'Thy wisdom and prosperity "'exceedeth
the fame which I heard.'" And what the Queen of Sheba was able
to say and convey to Solomon is true about coming to Christ. Whatever I can tell you to encourage
you and to advise you to come to the Lord Jesus Christ, when
you come, you will discover that the half was not told. Yes, there is blessing. of salvation
and forgiveness for sin. Yes, there is glory to be had
someday in heaven, but there is so much more in the Lord Jesus
Christ too. There is daily help. There's
a personal friend. There's the joy of the Lord. There are so many things that
the Lord gives his people. And I often speak too long and
even then feel as though I missed out something important. But
just know this, there are more riches in Christ than Solomon
with all of his riches and wealth and grandeur ever possessed. And those riches are yours in
Christ. him. Paul said, Unto me is this
grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable
riches of Christ. There are unsearchable riches
in Christ for all who believe on him, and you may be sure Even
yet the half has not been told. May the Lord bless these thoughts
to us today. Amen.