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May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit Rom 15:13 |
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Dear
Friend,
If you do not already have a habit of gathering daily manna the first thing in the morning (we can look at the example given to us in Exodus 16 and find the pattern for make it a habit. Establish your life and your schedule to allow you the necessary time to do your daily collection first thing every morning to give you the strength to make it through the day. And remember that today’s manna will not be sufficient for tomorrow; tomorrow’s manna must be collected tomorrow morning. Thursday, April 10, 2025
Today's Passage : Today'sPassage:The Story of Solomon (19) — The Queen of Sheba BibleVerse:2 Chronicles 9:1-10 (ESV) "And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon, she came to prove Solomon with hard questions at Jerusalem, with a very great company, and camels that bare spices, and gold in abundance, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart. And Solomon told her all her questions: and there was nothing hid from Solomon which he told her not. And when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel; his cupbearers also, and their apparel; and his ascent by which he went up into the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her. And she said to the king, “It was a true report which I heard in mine own land of thine acts, and of thy wisdom: howbeit I believed not their words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the one half of the greatness of thy wisdom was not told me: for thou exceedest the fame that I heard. Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and hear thy wisdom. Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God: because thy God loved Israel, to establish them for ever, therefore made he thee king over them, to do judgment and justice.” And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon. " Message:
The Bible gives us comparatively little about this legendary Queen. She appears to have come both to investigate Solomon and to pay him homage. When she arrives, she tests him with difficult questions; but Solomon is up for the challenge. Both his wisdom and the splendor of his court impress her beyond her greatest expectation. She is, in a word, cowed. She blesses the Lord and gives Solomon great treasure, including spices that exceeded any that Israel would see again.
Medieval Queen of Sheba
The accounts of Sheba outside the Bible are more colorful and detailed. We might guess she came from the south, both from her use of camels and her possession of spices; and indeed, all outside sources agree on that one detail.
In the Koran, the kingdom of Sheba is in southern Arabia, in the vicinity of modern-day Yemen. She worships a sun god. When she hears of Solomon (Suleiman in Arabic), she fears conquest; her journey is more clearly one of homage and diplomacy. She explicitly adopts Abrahamic monotheism in the Koran account; while the Bible tells us only that she praised and blessed the Lord. Whether or not this implies conversion is debatable.
African legends are much more fun. In the Ethiopian version, “Makeda”, a black African woman, is the Queen in Sheba, now Ethiopia. She travels to Jerusalem in search of God. Solomon seduces her and she bears a son by him: Menelik I, the founder of the Ethiopian imperial dynasty. Haile Selassie, an Orthodox Christian who was deposed in 1974 by Marxists, was accepted in Ethiopia as a direct descendant of Menelik I and thus Solomon. (He is still worshipped today as a divine incarnation by Rastafarians).
The Yoruban people of western Africa (Nigeria, Togo, and Benin) also claim Makeda/Sheba as their dynastic source. They have identified an impressive ruins of walls and canals as her capital city.
There are two implications about the Queen and her nation that might be drawn from the Bible. First, Christological theologians (who view practically the entire Old Testament as a prophecy of Christ) see today’s passage as a harbinger of Christ’s mission to the Gentiles. Secondly, and with more tangible support, she is connected to the Magi who brought similar gifts — gold and spices — to the infant Jesus. One may fairly find prophetic support in Isaiah 60, which is undoubtedly a messianic prophecy:
The multitude of camels shall cover thee,
the dromedaries of Midian and Ephah;
all they from Sheba shall come:
they shall bring gold and incense;
and they shall shew forth the praises of the Lord. (Isaiah 60:1-6)
Meditation : Prayer : Now all glory to you, mighty God, who is able to keep me from falling away and will bring me with great joy into your glorious presence without a single fault. All glory to you who alone are God, our Savior through Jesus Christ our Lord. All glory, majesty, power, and authority are yours before all time, and in the present, and beyond all time, Amen. |
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