Regardless of all that we have heard about the love God had for the Israelites, I was touched as I read the words of Queen Sheba to King Solomon. It made me think about how different we tend to be today when we look for God’s reciprocal blessings for all we think we are doing in His service. But it may be that He’s blessing us, so that we might be the best employees, or the best pastor, or the best boss, because the folk we serve while in those positions might be the ‘apple of God’s eye’ – very special to Him.
DATE POSTED Tuesday, 2022-10-18
WRITTEN AT: Okeechobee, FL
BY: Ed Algreen
SCRIPTURE FROM: 1 Kings 10:6-7; 9
TRANSLATION: Living Bible (TLB)
BIBLE TEXT: 6 She exclaimed to him, “Everything I heard in my own country about your wisdom and about the wonderful things going on here is all true. 7 I didn’t believe it until I came, but now I have seen it for myself! And really! The half had not been told me! Your wisdom and prosperity are far greater than anything I’ve ever heard of!
9 Blessed be the Lord your God who chose you and set you on the throne of Israel. How the Lord must love Israel—for he gave you to them as their king! And you give your people a just, good government!”
APPLICATION: Queen Sheba heard of all the good things happening to King Solomon and how successful his reign was. However, she didn’t look for ways to seek to harm him or pull him down so that she might look greater than he was. Instead, she chose to go a see for herself, perhaps hoping that Solomon could give her a few words of good advice. But the main thing I appreciated about her visit, can be found in our focal verses. Notice that the queen probably didn’t find the king gloating in his riches, or too busy trying to hoard additional riches, but instead her eyes were opened to the fact that God didn’t just bless the king to be the richest king in all the world, as he was, but that God wanted His chosen people, who Solomon reigned over, to have the best. That made me think about life today. We visit a church today and we immediately think of the rich folk that must attend church there, because it is evident that the leadership spared no expense in erecting the best building and filling it with nothing but the best in fixtures and material goods. If visiting from a small, average income community, we may feel intimidated by all the lush furnishings, the lavish outfitting of all rooms, etc. But what if we did like Sheba and met with the leadership of that church, do you suppose that we may find out that perhaps God does have a purpose in providing the very best for that community? Friends, I believe that when unbelievers are used to going to the lavish stores, restaurants, and theaters in their community, and we invite them to come and worship with us in a dilapidated building where we meet for church, might they not resort to picturing God as one who does nothing to help His people who meet in His name to worship Him? I visited a Christian-based theme park once, and I was almost thrown off by the lavish gold, or gold-plated bathroom fixtures, the outstanding costumes worn by the actors and the buildings erected. But then, it was like God spoke to me and asked, ‘why not?’. If we visited a worldly king, like Sheba did, and found old, outdated buildings and fixtures, we would think that country must be in bad shape financially and about to fold. So, as we think of a place that we meet with the King of all kings, the God of this whole universe, shouldn’t we expect to meet His royalty in a place fit for a King? Surely, we don’t want to be embarrassed if an earthly king entered our sanctuary. How much more should we want to be proud of opening the doors for our heavenly King? Queen Sheba was convinced that God was blessing King Solomon because of His love for the people that he served, protected and judged. Should we expect anything less today? We must get our sights off self and everything we could do, and instead set our sights on meeting the needs of our community as we introduce them to the Great I Am. Construction is super expensive today, so let me encourage you to give from the very bottom of your heart as you seek to do your part, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, to minister to your respective communities. They need the Lord, perhaps worse than anyone sitting in your church on a regular basis.
BLESSING(S) NOTED: We will often look inward for reasons why God should bless or has been blessing our efforts. But I was reminded that God has a much bigger picture in mind when He blesses His church. There’s a community of unchurched people out there that are in desperate need of a Savior.
PRAYER: Lord Jesus, I was reminded that Your ways are much greater than our ways, and that Your purpose is always to win the heart of Your people – even those who we may feel are not worth our time. We may boast of our multimillion-dollar church buildings, but Lord, I pray that You would open our eyes so that we may catch a glimpse of the souls that will be touched in our community through the services from these church buildings. Please help us to realize very early in life many of the things that we claim as ours, are actually designed for Your glory and to benefit Your Kingdom. Teach us Lord to not claim ownership of anything that we dedicate to You. Solomon spent many years building the temple, but in the end, He surrendered it all for your service only. May we learn to do the same Lord, for only what’s don’t for Jesus will last and have eternal benefit. Be glorified Lord in everything that we do, and in anything that we take part in, so that others may see Jesus and be filled with Your glory for all eternity. AMEN!