God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 9:5-8
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Friday, October 25, 2024
5 She said to the king, “The report I heard in my own country about your accomplishments and about your wisdom is true. 6 But I did not believe what they said until I came and saw with my own eyes. I see now that not even half the greatness of your wisdom was described. You have surpassed the report that I heard. 7 Your people are blessed! Your officials are blessed, who always stand before you and hear your wisdom! 8 Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and set you on his throne as king to rule for the LORD your God. Because of the love of your God for Israel and his desire to uphold them forever, he has made you king over them, to maintain justice and righteousness.”
It was probably from a nation like Sheba that the wise men came to visit the baby Jesus, unless they came from Persia. Luther thinks that they came from Sheba on account of the gifts they brought, since the kingdom of Sheba was known for its monopoly of frankincense (Isaiah 60:6; Jeremiah 6:20) and its richness in myrrh and gold (Psalm 72:10). “Their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh” (Matthew 2:11) indicate that they certainly came from rich Arabia or Sheba, for, all three of these are precious in that country. It is inconceivable that they bought them elsewhere, for it is the custom in those eastern countries to offer gifts and show veneration with the finest products of the land and the best of one’s possessions, just as Jacob, too (Genesis 43:11) commanded his sons to take the best products to the land of Egypt as a present to Joseph” (LW 52:160). The queen of this land was used to impressing other people. She was not used to being impressed by anybody else.
The queen of this wealthy land gushed with praise for Solomon. Her country’s merchants and traveling caravans brought news from many places (Job 6:19), but when they brought reports about Solomon and this new kingdom of Israel, she had not believed it. Now her speech shows how her mind was changed.
She had not believed the report (9:5-6). The news she heard was about Solomon’s accomplishments and also about his wisdom. The Pharaohs of Egypt sometimes built magnificent structures, but they were tombs; shrines for their own memory. Solomon had built a fabulous temple for his God and not for himself. It was not a temple of bribery, but of prayer and forgiveness; a place of promises to God and of vows of thanks and devotion—“the incense of a vow, a holy vow;” for such “incense doth perfume the sky.” The wisdom of certain men of the east was well known (Job 12:12), but could this king of this upstart land have such wisdom?
She came and saw for herself. She saw the buildings, the temple, the palace—indeed, palaces, for there were many—and she understood that Solomon’s accomplishments were greater than she had heard. And as for his wisdom? The secret of wisdom is sound judgment that must look at both sides of a matter (Job 11:6a), but Solomon and his people, all of his people, worshiped the God who forgives sins, who forgets about man’s guilt (Job 11:6b)! “Who can forgive sins but God alone?” (Mark 2:7), and the people of Solomon did not worship their king as a god as so many of the pagan people did, but they were led by their king to worship the one true God. They were guided by the wisdom of their king to enjoy their lives, “the days of life that God has given them” (Ecclesiastes 5:18), for that small reward is only a glimmer of the greater reward of everlasting life.
Overwhelmed and breathless over what she found, the queen burst into praise. “Blessed! Your people are blessed by God!” The happiest men in the land, she observed, are the servants who get to listen to their king’s wisdom every day. A case would come before this king, and he would judge in fairness and wisdom, and find the perfect truth of every matter.
A thief would be found out, but would repent and repay what he had taken, and the king said, “Ill-gotten treasures are of no value, but righteousness delivers from death” (Proverbs 10:2).
A wicked gossip would try to ruin a man, but the accused would not retaliate and simply stand firmly on the truth, and the king would say: “With his mouth the godless destroys his neighbor, but through knowledge the righteous escape” (Proverbs 11:9).
A case would come before him in which men’s wives were brought as witnesses, one to her husband’s benefit and the other to her husband’s shame, and the king would say, “A heroic wife is her husband’s crown, but a disgraceful wife is like decay in his bones” (Proverbs 12:4).
The queen saw the delight of God in Solomon’s reign. His accomplishments and his wisdom gave God glory. She saw that Solomon himself was a blessing to Israel, and that God had set him on the throne of Israel not for Solomon’s benefit, but for the benefit of the people. This was the love of God, the blessing of God, and the will of God.
This visit from the Queen of Sheba isn’t over yet, but let this reaction and our application sink in. The life of the godly can change the outlook, the attitude, and the life of the heathen, the one who doesn’t know God. Think of such people as those who don’t know God, at least not yet. How might the Lord of grace use my little life in his great work of calling souls to heaven? Is there something I should keep doing? Is there something I should change? Is there something else to consider? These are marvelous questions to take to the Lord in prayer.
In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith
Pastor Smith serves St. Paul’s Lutheran Church in New Ulm, Minnesota. To receive God’s Word for You via e-mail, please visit the St. Paul’s Lutheran Church website.