When the Queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon,
and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his
officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and
the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the Lord, she was
overwhelmed. 1 Kings 10:4-5
Jesus said, “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.” Matthew 6:28-29
Writers and film-makers have always loved embellishing Bible stories. I remember, many years ago, Charlton Heston playing Moses in The Ten Commandments. And there was a film about Simon Peter called The Big Fisherman. And many more since, that I haven’t remotely kept up with.
Well, the Bible certainly gives us some very dramatic stories. But I must admit that the liberties taken by these later creations rather annoy me. Why not just let the Bible speak to us as it is!
You probably know all about the historic visit, about a thousand years before Jesus, of the magnificent Queen of Sheba (stunningly beautiful, of course) to the even more magnificent King Solomon of Israel. How she was overwhelmed by the splendour of his court, his city of Jerusalem, and the opulence of his buildings. How she melted adoringly into his arms, and how they fell passionately in love with one another and had one of history’s great romances. How (have I got this right?) they had a child who grew up to be… oh dear, I can’t remember now.
Yes? You remember that? Well, sorry, but a lot of it is pure moonshine.
The actual story is told in1 Kings 12 (and the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 9), and takes up just thirteen verses; the slushy stuff simply isn’t there. In the New Testament King Solomon is mentioned only a handful of times, and the Queen of Sheba not at all.
So forget what the later story-tellers have done with the story: what does Jesus make of it?
Matthew 6 is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and in verses 25-34 he is telling his followers to keep their minds free of worry. Don’t be anxious about food, drink and clothes, he says. Won’t your heavenly Father look after you and provide for you? He points to the wild flowers growing in the fields and on the hill-sides. Aren’t they beautiful? he says. They look magnificent – and do you think they ever worried about how they would look? Of course not! And then: “Even Solomon in all his splendour was not dressed like one of these.”
Staying free of worry is not easy; most of us find anxiety gnarling away at our innards, especially when things get tough. The key, of course, is to believe – to really believe; to really, really believe – that God is our loving heavenly Father.
But that kind of faith can only take root within us as a result of experience: we take the risk of faith over perhaps relatively minor things in our lives, and then, as we discover that the promises of God really are reliable, we move on to a greater depth of faith. Trusting God, which once seemed naive and unrealistic, becomes a habit of mind, and our whole approach to our lives changes. For most of us this process takes time – but, like most things, with time and practice it actually happens.
Apart from the call to trust God as our Father, three other things strike me about Jesus’ use of the Solomon/Queen of Sheba story.
First, Jesus knew his Bible.
It was instinctive to him to reach for a scriptural passage to press home his point, and that can only have happened because his mind was soaked in scripture. Could that be said of you and me?
Second, Jesus obviously took delight in the beauty of nature.
In order to encourage us not to give way to anxiety he uses the birds of the air and the flowers of the field as examples. Do the birds “sow or reap or store in barns” (verse 26)? Of course not! Do the flowers “labour or spin” (verse 28)? Of course not! How good are we at opening our eyes and our ears to see and listen to all the miraculous things God has surrounded us with?
Third, Jesus clearly refused to be over-awed even by great King Solomon.
Quite likely he, like many others, had gasped with wonder when he first saw the later, even more glorious, temple in Jerusalem. But his words here show that he doesn’t let himself be dazzled by this sight – in fact, he goes on to sadly predict the destruction of this temple too (Matthew 24:1-2).
And so we are reminded that while man-made beauty – architecture, art, music, sport, the rest – is wonderful and worthy of admiration, what ultimately matters is the beauty of the human soul and character.
Oh yes, they were great temples, those ones built in Jerusalem by Solomon and then by Herod. But where are they now? Gone.
As Paul points out (1 Corinthians 6:19), the temple that matters most is your own body – for it is nothing less than “a temple of the Holy Spirit”.
Now, that really is something to marvel at!
Lord God, even if I never remotely rival King Solomon in all his splendour, may I learn from the birds of the air and the flowers of the field to live a life free from anxiety and fear. Amen.
Jesus said, “And why do you worry about clothes? See how the flowers of the field grow. They do not labour or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendour was dressed like one of these.” Matthew 6:28-29
Writers and film-makers have always loved embellishing Bible stories. I remember, many years ago, Charlton Heston playing Moses in The Ten Commandments. And there was a film about Simon Peter called The Big Fisherman. And many more since, that I haven’t remotely kept up with.
Well, the Bible certainly gives us some very dramatic stories. But I must admit that the liberties taken by these later creations rather annoy me. Why not just let the Bible speak to us as it is!
You probably know all about the historic visit, about a thousand years before Jesus, of the magnificent Queen of Sheba (stunningly beautiful, of course) to the even more magnificent King Solomon of Israel. How she was overwhelmed by the splendour of his court, his city of Jerusalem, and the opulence of his buildings. How she melted adoringly into his arms, and how they fell passionately in love with one another and had one of history’s great romances. How (have I got this right?) they had a child who grew up to be… oh dear, I can’t remember now.
Yes? You remember that? Well, sorry, but a lot of it is pure moonshine.
The actual story is told in1 Kings 12 (and the parallel passage in 2 Chronicles 9), and takes up just thirteen verses; the slushy stuff simply isn’t there. In the New Testament King Solomon is mentioned only a handful of times, and the Queen of Sheba not at all.
So forget what the later story-tellers have done with the story: what does Jesus make of it?
Matthew 6 is part of the Sermon on the Mount, and in verses 25-34 he is telling his followers to keep their minds free of worry. Don’t be anxious about food, drink and clothes, he says. Won’t your heavenly Father look after you and provide for you? He points to the wild flowers growing in the fields and on the hill-sides. Aren’t they beautiful? he says. They look magnificent – and do you think they ever worried about how they would look? Of course not! And then: “Even Solomon in all his splendour was not dressed like one of these.”
Staying free of worry is not easy; most of us find anxiety gnarling away at our innards, especially when things get tough. The key, of course, is to believe – to really believe; to really, really believe – that God is our loving heavenly Father.
But that kind of faith can only take root within us as a result of experience: we take the risk of faith over perhaps relatively minor things in our lives, and then, as we discover that the promises of God really are reliable, we move on to a greater depth of faith. Trusting God, which once seemed naive and unrealistic, becomes a habit of mind, and our whole approach to our lives changes. For most of us this process takes time – but, like most things, with time and practice it actually happens.
Apart from the call to trust God as our Father, three other things strike me about Jesus’ use of the Solomon/Queen of Sheba story.
First, Jesus knew his Bible.
It was instinctive to him to reach for a scriptural passage to press home his point, and that can only have happened because his mind was soaked in scripture. Could that be said of you and me?
Second, Jesus obviously took delight in the beauty of nature.
In order to encourage us not to give way to anxiety he uses the birds of the air and the flowers of the field as examples. Do the birds “sow or reap or store in barns” (verse 26)? Of course not! Do the flowers “labour or spin” (verse 28)? Of course not! How good are we at opening our eyes and our ears to see and listen to all the miraculous things God has surrounded us with?
Third, Jesus clearly refused to be over-awed even by great King Solomon.
Quite likely he, like many others, had gasped with wonder when he first saw the later, even more glorious, temple in Jerusalem. But his words here show that he doesn’t let himself be dazzled by this sight – in fact, he goes on to sadly predict the destruction of this temple too (Matthew 24:1-2).
And so we are reminded that while man-made beauty – architecture, art, music, sport, the rest – is wonderful and worthy of admiration, what ultimately matters is the beauty of the human soul and character.
Oh yes, they were great temples, those ones built in Jerusalem by Solomon and then by Herod. But where are they now? Gone.
As Paul points out (1 Corinthians 6:19), the temple that matters most is your own body – for it is nothing less than “a temple of the Holy Spirit”.
Now, that really is something to marvel at!
Lord God, even if I never remotely rival King Solomon in all his splendour, may I learn from the birds of the air and the flowers of the field to live a life free from anxiety and fear. Amen.
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