1 Kings 3:13 “13 I give you also what you have not asked, both riches and honor, so that no other king shall compare with you, all your days.” Last week we talked about Solomon’s wisdom. Today we will learn about his wealth. When God said there would be no one who came before him and no one that would come after him who would compare to him, God wasn’t kidding. The numbers are difficult to wrap your head around. 1 Kings 10:14 “14 Now the weight of gold that came to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold, 15 besides that which came from the explorers and from the business of the merchants, and from all the kings of the west and from the governors of the land.” If you don’t know how much a “talent” of gold is, it’s impossible to know how much money King Solomon had. Let me put it in modern terms. $2.1 Trillion dollars. That is the net worth of King Solomon in today’s currency. This made him the richest person who has ever lived in history of the world. King Solomon reigned for 40 years and each year, he received 25 tons of gold. If you rank the modern GDP of all the countries of the world. Solomon, all by himself, would currently be positioned at number 11. By comparison Bernard Arnault, currently the richest man in the world has a net worth of $215 Billion dollars. It’s difficult to imagine that kind of wealth, but King Solomon was 10 times richer than this guy. As you can imagine, this made him very famous. People came from all over the world to see his wealth and hear his wisdom.
1 Kings 4:34 “34 And people of all nations came to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and from all the kings of the earth, who had heard of his wisdom.” Let’s look at one specific world leader who came to visit King Solomon. 1 Kings 10:1-2 “Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. 2 She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones...” The queen of Sheba arrived with a very great retinue, which was her assistants, advisors and attendants. That is the same way world leaders travel today. She didn’t show up empty handed, she brought a large entourage including gifts to show off her wealth. But she had no idea what she was about to see. 1 Kings 10:2-5 “...And when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind. 3 And Solomon answered all her questions; there was nothing hidden from the king that he could not explain to her. 4 And when the queen of Sheba had seen all the wisdom of Solomon, the house that he had built, 5 the food of his table, the seating of his officials, and the attendance of his servants, their clothing, his cupbearers, and his burnt offerings that he offered at the house of the Lord, there was no more breath in her.” Did you catch that last line? The overwhelming sight of all that God had given to Solomon took her breath away. She couldn’t hide her reaction to what she saw.
1 Kings 10:6-8 “6 And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom, 7 but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes had seen it. And behold, the half was not told me. Your wisdom and prosperity surpass the report that I heard. 8 Happy are your men! Happy are your servants, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! She was overwhelmingly impressed, to say the least. Now we have to remember, she was a queen herself. She was used to the royal treatment and her lifestyle would have been very lavish. But this Solomon guy, in every way, was so much greater than anything she had ever seen...it just blew her mind. 1 Kings 10:13 “13 And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what was given her by the bounty of King Solomon. So she turned and went back to her own land with her servants.” Of course, King Solomon being a gracious host didn’t allow her to leave empty handed after she gave him all the gifts she brought. She, more than likely, left with more gold and gifts than she had arrived with. Solomon was generous king. We see that over and over in the book of Proverbs. But how do we know if we are being generous? If you gave $100,000 would you consider that generous? Not if you had $100 million in the bank. Generosity is only established by considering percentages. If one guy gets paid $1,000 a week and gives $100, then he has given 10%. If another guy get’s paid $10,000 a week and he gives $500, he has only given 5%. One gave $100 and the other gave $500, but who was more generous? Do you see how it works?
The generosity of Solomon is how the story of King Solomon and the queen of Sheba ends in 1 Kings. But before we continue, we have to ask some important questions. Who was the Queen of Sheba? We are not given her name, only her title. Also, where is the ancient country of Sheba? And most importantly, of all the world leaders who came to visit King Solomon, why is this queen the only one who is specifically called out and given this much attention in the Bible? When I talk about studying your Bible this is the kind of thing I’m talking about. If you will ask some questions that require you to dig for the answers, you will find that the scripture opens up to you more knowledge than just reading the verses. Is there great information and insight contained in this story? Yes, there is. Is there more to the story? Yes, there is... but you have to ask some questions and then go looking for the answers. Let me take you to another example of what I’m talking about. The passage is found in Acts. Acts 8:26-28 “26 Now an angel of the Lord said to Philip, “Rise and go toward the south to the road that goes down from Jerusalem to Gaza.” This is a desert place. 27 And he rose and went. And there was an Ethiopian, a eunuch, a court official of Candace, queen of the Ethiopians, who was in charge of all her treasure. He had come to Jerusalem to worship 28 and was returning, seated in his chariot, and he was reading the prophet Isaiah. The section of Isaiah he was reading was chapter 53, verses 7&8. This is the perfect set up for God to bring Philip in to explain it to him.
Acts 8:29-35 “29 And the Spirit said to Philip, “Go over and join this chariot.” 30 So Philip ran to him and heard him reading Isaiah the prophet and asked, “Do you understand what you are reading?” 31 And he said, “How can I, unless someone guides me?” And he invited Philip to come up and sit with him. 32 Now the passage of the Scripture that he was reading was this: “Like a sheep he was led to the slaughter and like a lamb before its shearer is silent, so he opens not his mouth. 33 In his humiliation justice was denied him. Who can describe his generation? For his life is taken away from the earth.” 34 And the eunuch said to Philip, “About whom, I ask you, does the prophet say this, about himself or about someone else?” 35 Then Philip opened his mouth, and beginning with this Scripture he told him the good news about Jesus. But here’s something to think about. Why was the eunuch reading from Isaiah 53? (Besides the obvious fact that it was planned by God for him to be reading that section, at that specific moment.) I imagine he read from Isaiah often. It was probably his favorite book of the scripture because of the passage that comes only a little later. Isaiah 56:3-5 “3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the Lord say, “The Lord will surely separate me from his people”; and let not the eunuch say, “Behold, I am a dry tree.” 4 For thus says the Lord: “To the eunuchs who keep my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me and hold fast my covenant, 5 I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters; I will give them an everlasting name that shall not be cut off.” That would be pretty amazing, if you were not an Israelite, but you believe in The Lord...and are a eunuch.
Ok, is there anything else we could learn about this event? Let’s go back and read on in the story from Acts. Acts 8:36-40 “36 And as they were going along the road they came to some water, and the eunuch said, “See, here is water! What prevents me from being baptized?” 38 And he commanded the chariot to stop, and they both went down into the water, Philip and the eunuch, and he baptized him. 39 And when they came up out of the water, the Spirit of the Lord carried Philip away, and the eunuch saw him no more, and went on his way rejoicing. 40 But Philip found himself at Azotus, and as he passed through he preached the gospel to all the towns until he came to Caesarea. The miracle of supernatural travel that took Philip from baptizing the eunuch to a town 40 miles away is what gets most of the press and commentary, but what else is going on? Let’s go back to the beginning of the story when God tells Philip to go meet a guy from Ethiopia in a chariot, who had been in Jerusalem worshipping. Here is the first question you might want to ask. What was a court official of the queen of Ethiopia doing in Jerusalem worshiping the God of Israel? Secondly, where did he get a hand written scroll of the scriptures that would allow him to be reading from Isaiah? This would have been a months long journey to get from Ethiopia to Jerusalem and back. So he obviously had permission from Queen Candice to leave his duties as treasurer and travel to Jerusalem. And I’d say, not only permission, but a mandate to go to Jerusalem for worship during a feast like Passover. And to take with him the scroll of scripture they had in the palace.
But why would there be an Ethiopian royal mandate to travel with scripture all the way to Jerusalem in order to worship the God of Israel? Because Yahweh was the one true God and Candice the queen knew it. But how was that possible? She knew because Ethiopia had been worshipping Yahweh, the God of Israel, for about 1,000 years. And how was that possible? Because a queen from that region had traveled to Jerusalem about a thousand years before and brought back word that the God of Israel was the one true God. What could possibly motivate a foreign Queen to travel to Jerusalem and investigate what was there? Her motivation was the stories she had heard about their king and His God. And who was that, you might ask? It was Solomon. And who was the queen? It was the Queen of Sheba. 1 Kings 10:1-2 “Now when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to test him with hard questions. The country of biblical Ethiopia was called Cush in the Hebrew Old Testament, and was also called Sabea or Sheba. Yes, the ancient country of Sheba was the same region as the ancient area of Ethiopia. From the Encyclopedia Britannica: The Queen of Sheba appears as a prominent figure in the Kebra Nagast (“Glory of King”), the Ethiopian national epic and foundation story. According to this tradition, the Queen of Sheba (called Makeda) visited Solomon’s court after hearing about his wisdom. She stayed and learned from him for six months.
That would make Candice the Queen of Ethiopia a descendent of the Queen of Sheba who visited King Solomon. You see, after her time with Solomon, the queen of Sheba acknowledges that The Lord God is the source of all his wisdom and wealth. Here is what she said before she left. 1 Kings 10:9 “9 Blessed be the Lord your God, who has delighted in you and set you on the throne of Israel! Because the Lord loved Israel forever, he has made you king, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” The queen of Sheba now understands who the one true God is and she takes that knowledge back to Sheba...or Ethiopia. And then 1,000 years later Candice, Queen of Ethiopia continues the tradition and sends the eunuch in charge of all the treasury of her country to Jerusalem to worship...and while he is on his way home God sends Philip to meet him and explain to him that there is a new covenant through Jesus. And now the good news of Jesus will be spread through Ethiopia. Today Ethiopia is 60% Christian. Before that, for many centuries, Judaism coexisted along with paganism, until the institutionalization of Christianity in 330 AD. Ethiopia knew about Yahweh and people there had been worshiping Him for a long time, just like the Jewish people. But now there was new information. The Messiah had come, Jesus has risen and is Lord. God was working His plan to get the message of salvation into Ethiopia a thousand years earlier, when He made Solomon rich and famous.
Can you imagine the impact that God wants you to have for His kingdom? You may not see it in your lifetime. It may take generations to come to pass, but the harvest is not up to you. You just have to be faithful to do what He’s called you to do. Who would have thought that King Solomon and the Apostle Philip were connected? This is the kind of revelation you can receive if you start asking questions and you start researching the answers.
