1 Kings 10:1-13, 2 Chronicles 9:1-12, Mathew 12:42
If a fairy came to you, waved her magic wand and said “you may have 1 wish”, what would you wish for? (ask for a few ideas).
The Bible tells a true story of a man called Solomon. He had just become king. He was fairly young and probably quite scared of the responsibility that meant. One day God spoke to him. God said, “Solomon I want to give you a special present. You can choose whatever you like and I will give it to you” WOW! You have told me some of the things you might choose – but this really did happen to Solomon. So let’s see what he chose.
Well, Solomon replied, “God I am very young and have suddenly become the king. I don’t know how to rule. There are thousands of people in my land and they have lots of problems. I want to be a fair and just ruler. I want to know what is right and what is wrong. I want to know who is telling the truth and who is telling a lie. How can I ever know these things? I don’t want to get it wrong and hurt innocent people. God, please would you give me WISDOM”.
God was so pleased with this request from Solomon. Because Solomon didn’t ask selfishly for money, or fame, God said to him, “Solomon I will make you the wisest person ever to live on this earth. And because you were not greedy or selfish in what you asked for, I will also give you great fame and untold riches. You will be one of the richest people ever. And Solomon was.
That’s why one day, about 3,000 years ago, a long, long camel train wandered along the desert road. There were soldiers everywhere, and servants, officials, and camels by the thousands. There may have been elephants too. All the camels were laden with bags and containers. Some camels carried people. Some carried the containers with the food, clothing, tents, supplies for the journey and also lots of gifts. There was gold, silver, precious stones and spices. It had taken weeks and probably months, to walk the 1,500 miles. And it wasn’t easy country to walk through either. Arabia is all desert. It was scorching hot in the daytime and freezing cold at night. Mind you there might have been some forests there in those days. This was a long time ago. But if it was then, like it is today, there were not many trees, very little water, sandstorms and strong winds. But the most impressive thing about this whole expedition was the beautifully decorated canopy and the fabulous figure inside. This may have been on the back of an elephant, camel or carried by strong men. The lady was lovely to look at, gorgeously dressed and covered in jewels. She was the Queen of Sheba.
But why on earth was such a rich and important person travelling all this way in such uncomfortable and difficult conditions? Well, she was going to see Solomon. She had heard so much about Solomon’s riches and his wisdom. It was talked about all over the known world. So the queen of Sheba was off to see for herself. It was worth the travel if all she had heard was true. The queen of Sheba liked to learn all she could, and she wanted to be a wise queen too. So she was coming to visit Solomon, and also to hear about the God who had made him so rich and wise.
When she finally arrived Solomon showed her all around his cities, his palaces, his buildings, he talked about the earth, the animals, how to understand people, and showed her his wealth. The visit would have lasted about a year, so she had lots of time to see it all. She was a queen herself and well used to riches. But Solomon showed her such wonderful things the Bible tells us she was amazed. It was more than she ever imagined or was told. When they sat down to eat she asked Solomon questions. ANY questions she asked him he could answer. Anything she wanted to know about he could tell her. And of course he told her about God too. She would have listened very carefully because she had travelled so far to learn all these things.
How well do we listen to rally devotions? To our teachers? To our parents? There is heaps you can learn – if you are willing to listen! The queen of Sheba had a very busy life, was willing to spend ages travelling uncomfortably to another country, and sit listening to a man talk – all so she could learn about God and how to be wise.
Wisdom is a very important thing. If we read the Bible, we can learn to be wise too. Solomon has written many wise things in the book of Proverbs in the Bible. All of the Bible is really given to us from God – but God got many men to write things down so we could know them too.
When the queen of Sheba went back to her own country, Solomon gave her lots of wonderful gifts, plus EVERYTHING she wanted. She went home with heaps more than she brought to Solomon for he was very generous.
And so is God generous. He wants to give us many blessings and good things. But it depends on us obeying him first. We need to find out what God says in the Bible. We are lucky we don’t all have to make a long, difficult and expensive journey to find out what God says to us. All we have to do is read the Bible. We can come to Rally to learn, go to Sunday school or church. And we can read the Bible ourselves at home. The queen of Sheba set us a good example – she wanted to learn about God. We can too – anytime we want.
Here are some wise saying of Solomon. (Look them up and read them- explain any you need to)
Proverbs 4:13
Proverbs 4:23,24
“ “ 12:15
“ “ 14:23
“ “ 16:24
“ “ 28:24
