That Kind of Hope

Tuesday, February 1, 2022

Harmonia Rosales, King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba

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INVOCATION

Spirit, we are here. Enrich us with the true blessings of hope. 

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CLOUD OF WITNESS

1 Kings 10:1-13, The Voice:

The queen of Sheba was fascinated when she heard about the famous Solomon and his devotion to the name of the Eternal One. She traveled a long way to meet him and to challenge him with her difficult questions. She arrived in Jerusalem accompanied by many advisors, assistants, and camels carrying spices and a lot of gold and rare jewels. When she met Solomon, she asked him about everything she could think of.

Solomon gave her an answer to every question. The king knew all the answers, and he explained all she asked. When the queen recognized Solomon’s wisdom and observed the palace he had envisioned and constructed, the food on his table, the orderly arrangement of his servants, the attentive service and fine dress of his waiters, his wine servers, and the beautiful stairway that led up to the Eternal’s temple, she was in complete awe.

The Queen of Sheba said to the king: 

So it is true, everything I’ve heard about you in my land. Your words and wisdom are beyond extraordinary. I confess that when I first heard of your renown, I did not believe such a man could really be alive on the earth. But I have witnessed your greatness with my own eyes, and I believe. You are twice as wise and wealthy as is reported in faraway lands. Your people have been blessed as a result of living under your reign. Those who serve you continually are richly blessed to hear your wisdom day in and day out. Praise the Eternal One your God, who believed in you enough to give you Israel’s throne. He is devoted to Israel forever; that is why He has made such a great man as you king. He knows you will dispense righteousness and justice fairly and wisely.

The queen then presented Solomon with 9,000 pounds of gold and a large gift of spices and rare jewels. No other gift of spices given to the king ever compared to the gift the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. King Solomon granted the queen of Sheba everything her heart desired (besides the usual royal gift). She then departed and returned to her own country with all those who were in her service

But I wonder what the queen would have thought of Jesus, a Galilean teacher, preaching outside the opulent and prestigious temple to the huddled masses who could never fathom an ounce of gold, let alone 9,000 pounds. 

Would she have relented in her line of questioning had she not been so enamored of the palace, the food and wine, the staff in all its finery, the grand staircase? What if she’d come all that way only to find Solomon dressed in a loincloth, sitting in a cave, eating locusts and honey as John the Baptist did? 

Did the Queen of Sheba truly find hope and a reason to believe that God was indeed good, as expressed to her by King Solomon’s wisdom, or was she only seduced by the bling? And to her, was Solomon’s bling proof enough of his God being superior to all the others she’d encountered? 

Where did her hope truly lie? 

Or did King Solomon, who was very vain and often despaired at his wealth, create a story to tell people that made him feel more worthy of his kingship? Could he have told a tall tale to stroke his ego? 

And what would both the King of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba make of Jesus’s solution for those whose last hope was overcast with worries? 

Learn a lesson from the way the wildflowers grow. They don’t work; they don’t spin. Yet I tell you, not even Solomon in full splendor was arrayed like one of these. If God can clothe in such splendor the grasses of the field, which bloom today and are thrown on the fire tomorrow, won’t God do so much more for you—you who have so little faith?

Stop worrying, then, over questions such as, ‘What are we to eat,’ or ‘what are we to drink,’ or ‘what are we to wear?’ Those without faith are always running after these things. God knows everything you need.

Seek first God’s reign, and God’s justice, and all these things will be given to you besides. Enough of worrying about tomorrow! Let tomorrow take care of itself. Today has troubles enough of its own.

Matthew 6: 28-34, The Inclusive Bible 

Our hope doesn’t come from obtaining good food, good wine or even wisdom. Our hope resides in every blessing that Jesus bestowed: Blessed be the poor in spirit, the mourners, the peacemakers, the pure in heart, the merciful, the hungry and thirsty, the gentle, the persecuted and reviled. 

I wonder if King Solomon or the Queen of Sheba ever discovered that kind of hope.

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BENEDICTION

From Ecclesiastes 3:12-14, The Voice 

There is nothing better for us than to be joyful and to do good throughout our lives; to eat and drink and see that the good in all of our hard work is a gift from God. 

Everything God does endures for all time. Nothing can be added to it; nothing can be taken away from it. We humans can only stand in awe of all God has done. 

What has been and what is to be, already is. And God holds accountable all the pursuits of humanity.

So may it be.