Preachers have frequently used the story of the queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon to describe the awesome opportunity of having an experiential relationship with Jesus. The queen is an excellent picture of what happens when mere hearing about someone becomes an experience.
The Visit of the Queen of Sheba
The queen came from Sheba (modern-day Yemen), because she heard about Solomon and wasn’t content with second-hand information. She wanted to see him for herself.
When the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon (fame due to the name of the Lord), she came to test him with riddles (1 Kings 10:1).
Children today are experts at playing video games. Similarly, in Solomon’s time in the Middle East, asking people to solve riddles or puzzling questions was a popular form of entertainment.
The queen came to play this “game” with Solomon, but also to engage in trade.
She came to Jerusalem with a very great retinue, with camels bearing spices and very much gold and precious stones, and when she came to Solomon, she told him all that was on her mind (1 Kings 10:2).
Solomon didn’t disappoint the queen. In addition to being able to solve all of her riddles, he displayed abundant wealth and prosperity.
The Half Has Not Been Told
When the queen moved from hearing to experience, she declared that Solomon’s glory exceeded her wildest imagination.
So she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your accomplishments and of your wisdom, but I did not believe the reports until I came and my own eyes saw it.
Not even half had been told me; your wisdom and prosperity far surpass the report that I had heard” (1 Kings 10:6-7).
It is one thing for the queen to experience the wisdom and wealth of a human king. It is something exponentially different to go from hearing about God to a personal encounter with Him.
The Psalmist had it right and wrote about the excellence of an experience with the Lord.
O taste and see that the Lord is good;
happy are those who take refuge in him. (Psalm 34:8)
Moving from Hearing to Experience
The queen who came to Solomon from Sheba gives us a good picture of how to move from hearing about God to experiencing Him.
It seems quite elementary, but she had to leave Sheba and travel to Jerusalem for her encounter with the king.
Henry Blackaby, who is well-known for writing about experiencing God, puts it like this: “You can’t stay where you are, and go where Jesus is.”
Jesus emphasized this fundamental principle and made it central to His preaching: “The time is fulfilled, and the kingdom of God has come near; repent, and believe in the good news” (Mark 1:17).
During one of Dallas Willard’s sermons, he walked over to a woman, picked up her purse, and asked her, “You don’t mind if I look through your purse, do you?”
She replied, “Yes, I do mind. It’s my purse.”
Willard used that moment to teach about God’s kingdom. The woman’s purse belonged to her kingdom, and she was unwilling to give up her kingdom to Willard so he could look through it in front of a congregation of people.
God has a kingdom, too. His rule is at hand, whether we recognize it or not. We can’t stay where we are, clinging to our personal kingdoms, and live in God’s kingdom at the same time.
That’s why it’s necessary to repent. The Greek word for “repent” comprises two words: “change” and “mind.” To repent is to change our mind, which results in a change of behavior.
We have to believe that the presence of God’s kingdom is good news. Otherwise, we won’t change our minds and behavior in relation to God’s rule.
God asks for more than a quick look at our purse for a sermon illustration. He wants our entire life surrendered to His kingdom.
Paul understood this: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship” (Romans 12:1).
If we are willing to leave service to self as a living sacrifice to God’s rule, we must believe that doing so is good news and respond accordingly.
Unfortunately, G.K. Chesterton is correct about the difficulty of full surrender. He wrote, “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.”
It is challenging to surrender our personal kingdoms to God’s rule, but that is a necessary step in moving from merely hearing about the Lord to having an experiential relationship with Him.
Further Steps
The queen posed questions to Solomon and discovered his legendary wisdom to be more than she imagined being true.
God invites us to interact with Him in a conversational relationship. Some aspects of our encounters with God will involve asking questions and receiving answers.
One of the old hymns invites us to bring our tithes, tears, and burdens to the Lord with the promise of God’s blessing.
“Prove me now,” saith the Lord of Hosts divine,
“Prove me now, and see if I be true;
Open wide the windows of the heavens,
I will pour out blessings upon you.”
There is one difference between the queen’s experience of Solomon and ours. She first came to Solomon.
In His love and grace, God always comes to us before we encounter Him. God was looking for us, before we ever thought to turn our attention toward Him. Praise God.
YouTube Discussion
Rudy Ross and I discussed this passage on YouTube today.
Real Voices 