God’s Word for You
2 Chronicles 9:9-12 The work of your hands
by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, October 28, 2024
9 Then she gave the king 120 talents of gold, and a very great quantity of spices, and precious stones. There was nothing like those spices that the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. 10 Also, the servants of Hiram and the servants of Solomon, who brought gold from Ophir, brought algum wood and precious stones. 11 It was from this algum wood that the king made supports for the house of the LORD and for the king’s house, and also lyres and harps for the singers. Nothing like them had been seen before in the land of Judah. 12 King Solomon gave to the Queen of Sheba everything that she desired, whatever she asked, more than what she had brought to the king. So she returned to her own land with her servants.
We were already told about the queen’s gold (verse 1), but now we find that it weighed about 4½ tons, or almost ten thousand pounds. Ancient spices included henna and nard (Song of Solomon 4:13), cinnamon (Proverbs 7:17), the exotic and rare amomum (ἄμωμον), called the “queen of spices,” from the Himalayas (Revelation 18:13), sweet cane (Exodus 30:23), cassia (Exodus 30:24), coriander (Numbers 11:7), saffron and calamus (Song 4:14), mustard (Matthew 13:31), dill and cumin (Isaiah 28:25), mint (Matthew 23:23), hyssop (Leviticus 14:4), balsam (2 Samuel 5:23) and other things. It is also possible that the Queen of Sheba would have come into contact with black pepper, which dates back several centuries before Solomon’s time, used in India and in Egypt, but there is no reference to pepper in the Bible, in the apocrypha, nor in the Apostolic Fathers.
Our author makes a point of describing how the lumber was used that was brought in by Solomon’s fleet. At this point (verses 10-11), the Queen of Sheba story seems to have come to an end, but then her departure is described in verse 12. So verses 10-11 are an aside, describing some things we’ve already encountered but now we’re being informed of how they were imported. It’s as if, in his mind, the author has taken a trip down to Ezion Geber, accompanying the queen, as it were, back to her ships for her trip home, and he has noticed more of Solomon’s trading fleet in the harbor.
When we teach the Seventh Commandment, we begin with passages about moving boundary stones (Deuteronomy 27:17; Proverbs 23:10) and about stealing in general (Exodus 22:7; Psalm 50:18). But we also talk about the many ways God provides for us, through work, pay, gifts, discovery, inheritance, and (sometimes) invention. But we also teach that waste and destroying property break the commandment against stealing just as much as cheating one’s employees, fudging the times on your time card, or refusing to help people who are in need. Solomon used the things God gave him and made the nation prosper in many ways. He was not one to waste anything. In a very real sense, he is one of the best examples of someone who took the talents his master gave him, and used them to produce many more (Matthew 25:20). He took the kingdom David had secured and increased its borders, its economy, its strength, and its reputation.
It is not the focus of the present book to tell the other side of Solomon’s story; 1 Kings tells us how his many wives led him astray into worshiping false gods and setting up shrines for many false gods on all the hilltops surrounding Jerusalem. But we will consider the account before us: God used Solomon to prosper his people, including the writing of a few Psalms (72, 127) as well as the books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and many other things both religious and secular for the benefit of the people of his time which have not come down to us: “He spoke three thousand proverbs and his songs numbered a thousand and five. He described plant life, from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of walls. He also taught about animals and birds, reptiles and fish” (1 Kings 4:32-33). Solomon used the gifts that he had for the good of his people. We can learn to do the same, using our gifts and talents for the good of our family or the good of the church or for the good of some other group of people who constitutes “our neighbor” in the sense of the Second Table of the Law. Solomon said: “There is nothing better for men than to be happy and to do good while they live” (Ecclesiastes 3:12), and again, “Do not withhold good from those who deserve it, when it is in your power to act” (Proverbs 3:27).
And Solomon also showed the value of listening to the wisdom of his parents. In his book of Proverbs, he quotes them both. “When I was a boy in my father’s house, still tender… he taught me and said, ‘Lay hold of my words with all your heart,’” and then he presents all of chapter 4 as the words to him from David. Then once again at the end of the book, he seems to recall a pet name his mother used to call him by saying, “The sayings of King Lemuel—an oracle his mother taught him,” and then he presents all of chapter 31 as wisdom given to him by his mother Bathsheba.
Pass on the wisdom of your parents to your children. Pass on the wisdom of the Lord to them, too, and teach them the good habit of studying and learning the word of God in the house of the Lord, so that they will not turn away from that wise path as long as they live. Let them put their faith in Christ for salvation, for forgiveness, and for the resurrection from the dead, so that you will hold them in your arms for all eternity. And the Lord will bless the work of your hands, of your heart, and that comes from your faith, to sanctify and glorify his creation.
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.