The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba (Sandy Roger) Friday 11th April 2025

AN UNPREACHED SERMON (222)

Before a television arrived in our home in 1956, the radio was never off. One programme my parents seldom missed was Desert Island Discs. Started in 1942 by Roy Plumley, it is still going strong with only the minimum of change to its original format. Sometime in the 60’s I recall the “castaway” being Tessie O’Shea. I vividly remember the last piece of music she chose. It was Handel’s “The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba”. Her claim was that this was the piece of music to which she did somersaults as a child. If you remember her, you will recall that she was a woman of ample proportions. Envisaging Tessie O’Shea performing somersaults at all, took an enormous stretch of the imagination. But she insisted that Handel’s magnificent score provided just the inspiration she needed to perform her incredible acrobatics. It still makes me laugh to think of it.

Among the few Old Testament characters mentioned in the Gospels, the Queen of Sheba along with King Solomon manage to secure a prominent place in the teaching of Jesus (Matthew 6:28, 29; I Kings 10:1-29; 2 Chronicles 9:1-28). The Queen of Sheba’s outstanding attitude to life was to better herself. Her strong desires are much in evidence in the way she manipulated Solomon to satisfy her own desires. In itself, desire is not necessarily a bad thing; it is part of what it means to be human. The American psychologist Abraham Maslow reckoned that “man is a desiring animal”. On this he built his whole theory of self-actualisation. We want happiness and fulfilment and, like the Queen of Sheba, are prepared to hunt them down; maybe even go to great lengths to get what we want.

When Jesus refers to the Queen of Sheba, he isn’t suggesting the desires she exemplified are wrong in themselves. It is a question of focus and balance. Ultimately, human desire only finds fulfilment in Christ. His argument is that if she was willing to travel such a great distance to see Solomon, how much more desirous should we be to seek, find and know Christ. “The Queen of Sheba will rise up at the judgement with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, someone greater than Solomon is here” (Matthew 12:42).

The Queen of the south travelled hundreds of miles motivated by three desires which are much to the fore in today’s society.

First, THE DESIRE FOR WEALTH.

A woman of great wealth herself, the Queen of Sheba was attracted to Solomon by his vast riches.  Solomon had so much he didn’t know what to do with it, so he just flashed it around for all to see.

• Conquered states under his control paid him in gold (10:14)

• Caravans arriving home from great distances were weighed down with gold (10:15)

• He artistically used it as shields to decorate his summer residence (10:16, 17)

• The purest gold embellished his ivory throne (10:18)

• Golden lions guarded the King’s person (10:20)

In some people’s eyes, wealth is the popular test of greatness. Money, money, money is the anthem of the day whether earning it, making it, investing it, saving it, gambling it, or stealing it. But Jesus reckoned that even Solomon in all his glory was nothing compared to the grandeur of a fragile lily (Luke 12:27). People who place simple trust in Jesus, whether wealthy or poor, are the wealthiest of all. They love to sing about the real focus of their heart’s desire:

“I’d rather have Jesus than silver or gold,

I’d rather be His than have riches untold”

Every believer knows there is such a thing in this world, and most certainly in the next, as “the immeasurable riches of His grace” (Ephesians 2:7).

Next, THE DESIRE FOR WISDOM.

Solomon’s wisdom was basic to his fame, which is another reason the Queen of Sheba came all those miles to find him. She was thirsting for knowledge.

• She tested him with hard questions (10:1).

• She told him all that was in her mind (10:3)

• She was looking for answers (10:3)

The whole experience of meeting and conversing with Solomon took her breath away. She discovered what she had heard about him was true, but the half of it hadn’t been told (10:6,7). She must have been overwhelmed.

It’s possible to go through life accumulating lots of knowledge, but very little wisdom. All of us gain knowledge through experience and acquiring basic facts about things. But wisdom is another matter. It has to do with how we use these facts. Wisdom is much more practical than mere knowledge.  Quite conceivably, I could read and fully understand the instruction manual for your car.  But you would not want me to do the car’s MOT. I wouldn’t know how to apply the knowledge, and you certainly wouldn’t be wise to “let me have a go”. It is the same with divine wisdom. It is concerned to apply knowledge in a way that glorifies God and benefits others. Ultimately, it is God given. So “tune your ears to wisdom and concentrate on understanding. Cry out for insight and understanding. Search for them as you would for lost money or hidden treasure” (Proverbs 2:2-4 NLT). Aspire to be like the men of Issachar who had “an understanding of the times to know what to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32). To her credit, the Queen of Sheba came looking for wisdom not just knowledge.

Last, THE DESIRE FOR WORSHIP.

She may not have been fully aware of the real desire within her as she journeyed to meet up with Solomon, but no matter how superficial her questions, this Queen was being driven unknowingly by the most basic need and instinct in human nature. She had heard at least something of Solomon’s knowledge “concerning the Name of the Lord” (10:1).

Within everyone’s heart there is a desire for God. It has been implanted there by God Himself, even though we do all we can to suppress it (Romans 1:20-23). “He has set eternity within the human heart” (Ecclesiastes 3:11).

It seems, however, that we will worship anything but God. Even the legitimate desires for wealth and wisdom become the be all and end all of living. If we are taken up with making money or gaining knowledge for their own ends, then we have already broken the second commandment: “Thou shalt have no other gods beside Me”.

In the time the Queen of Sheba spent with Solomon, she came to the realisation that Solomon’s God was the real source of his greatness. “Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel” (10:9). There is no clear evidence that she was fully converted to the God of Israel, but we can learn from her.

If we are to keep our wealth and wisdom in check, then worship must take priority. Recognising there is Someone greater than ourselves helps us to use our wealth and wisdom rightly. In fact, whether we are worshipping privately or publicly, the steps she took to find Solomon are the same steps we should always take to find Christ who is greater than Solomon. Reverent worship is all the wealth and wisdom we need. The same attitude the Queen of Sheba showed, should be present in us every time we come before the Lord:

•  I heard (10:6)

• I came and saw (10:7),

• I believed (10:7)

• I gave (10:10).

These, I suggest, are the basic ingredient of worship. This is the only way to keep our desire for wealth and wisdom within the bounds of His will for our lives.