The Queen of Sheba visits King Solomon

The visit to Solomon of the Queen of Sheba fills a lot of Chapter 9 of II Chronicles.

The entry about her on PBS.com appears in their series titled, In search of myths and heroes, and tells us that the Queen of Sheba story is recorded in the sacred writings of the Jews, the Christians, and the Muslims, and that she may have come from Ethiopia.

She decides to see for herself Solomon’s amazingly rich kingdom. She goes by camel to Jerusalem. This version of her story has her having relations with Solomon and becoming pregnant. She goes home and has a son, Menelik. When he grows up, he decides that he would like to meet his father and travels to Israel for that purpose.

Here is the way the story ends in the In Search of myths and heroes version:

When he returns, he takes with him the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred container that contained the Ten Commandments. In Ethiopian legend, the Ark has remained in Ethiopia ever since and Ethiopians see Menelik as the first in an unbroken line of Ethiopian kings that stretches into the 20th century.

I wondered if the Islamic scriptures included the Queen of Ethiopia story. (Seeking information about Muhammad and the date of his revelation, I consulted Britannica, namely https://www.britannica.com/biography/Muhammad. He was born c. 570 at Mecca, Arabia, and died Medina 632. It seems it is difficult to find biographical information on his life. That site is well worth a read.)  

Then, in the Wikipedia entry under Islamic View of the Bible, I was delighted to find this information about the sacred writings and the coincidence of some parts of them; it satisfied some of my wonderings:

Among the books considered to be revealed by God in the Quran, the three mentioned by name are the Tawrat (Torah) revealed to Musa (Moses), the Zabur (Psalms) revealed to Dawud (David), and the Injil (Gospel) revealed to Isa (Jesus). The Quran mentions the Torah, Psalms, and Gospel as being revealed by God in the same way the Quran was revealed to Muhammad, the final prophet and messenger of God according to Muslims.

                                                                                                                                     Joyce Voysey

Dwellings - simple and elaborate

There is a lot of repetition from I and II Kings in II Chronicles. Students will notice this early on, for the story of King Solomon’s asking for wisdom and an understanding heart is very familiar. (II Chronicles 1:10 “Now give me wisdom and knowledge to rule them properly, for who is able to govern by himself such a great nation as this one of yours?” [Living Bible] and also I Kings 3:5-15.)

I am heartened by the possibility that men and women in authority wish for wisdom in carrying out their duties. Yes, some may even pray for it. As in every aspect of life, we need to be unselfish in our asking, not asking for personal power.

The story offers great detail on the sumptuousness of the temple fit-out. I recall when I was First Reader in a Christian Science church many years ago, that, because we had a fine artist (painting and craft) in our membership, I once prepared readings on the beauty of arts and crafts.

Of interest: the phrase “and he made” appears often in the story, “he” being Hiram, king of Tyre.

How come Solomon was so rich?  Trade, gifts (e.g. Queen of Sheba), heavy taxes, and the use of resident aliens as forced labour on public works were some of the means available to him. One commentator tells us that he even charged a hefty yearly set fee for anyone who desired to hear his wisdom.

Incidentally, after Solomon passed from the scene, under his son Rehoboam the people revolted against the high taxes.

Tabernacle (Moses) and Temple (Solomon) Comparison 

It may be worthwhile to compare the tabernacle with the temple. After Moses gave the Ten Commandments to the people, he invited them to bring him materials out of which a travelling tabernacle (a movable tent) would be built. This they did willingly. Exodus 35-40 give full details. These chapters describe tent curtains of fine twined linen in blue, purple, and scarlet with cherubims of cunning work, and the “bars of shittim wood for the tabernacle sides, overlaid with gold”. 

^{Exodus 35: 25-26} The women skilled in sewing and spinning prepared blue, purple, and scarlet thread and cloth, and fine-twined linen, and brought them in. Some other women gladly used their special skill to spin the goats’ hair into cloth. (Living Bible)

One Bezaleel made the Ark of shittim wood: two cubits and a half in length, a cubit and a half in breadth, and a cubit and a half in height. It was overlaid with pure gold within and without, with a crown of gold to it round about. This Ark of the Covenant held Moses’ two tablets of stone inscribed with the Ten Commandments.

Figure 1: Tabernacle (top) and Temple (below) – uploaded by Michael Hickenbotham on quora.com.

 

The spiritual significance of the tabernacle is explained by Louise Mattheus Martin in her article “The Tabernacle of God” (Christian Science Sentinel March 19, 1927):

“…The interpretations of God as a mighty lawgiver, which had come to humanity through Moses, the great Hebrew leader, were clarified and beatified by the spiritual revelations of God which Christ Jesus unfolded; and thus the ancient tabernacle built by Moses and his people stands in the dim perspective of the centuries as a type and shadow of better things to come. The Man of Galilee rent the veil of ignorance and doubt which had hidden the Holy of Holies for so long, and opened the sacred sanctuary to all mankind by his abundant interpretation of God as Love, universal and ever present. He revealed the nature and character of God, without mystery or limitation, and unveiled the glories of divine Being…” 

Joyce Voysey

Ed. Contemplating the tabernacle information above, I came across a most interesting article by Fred H. Wight called “excerpts from Manners and Customs of Bible Lands: Tent dwellings”. Here is the image that accompanies that article from the Ancient Hebrew Research Centre website:

      Figure 2: Tents such as people may have used in Bible times

A temple and wisdom

And so on to II Chronicles and Solomon's story. Of course, most are aware of his great wealth - so much so that he is regarded as the wealthiest of all the kings. He is, however, also attributed great wisdom. In fact, his specific prayer is to be wise:

II Chron. 1:10 Now give me wisdom and knowledge to rule them properly, for who is able to govern by himself such a great nation as this one of yours?” (the Living Bible)

The temple is now to be built. Solomon needs thousands of workers and an extraordinary array of materials. The Jerusalem-sited temple will be huge: the foundations were 90 x 30 feet and the roof 180 feet high. When King Solomon contacts King Hiram in neighbouring Tyre and asks his for help, the response is warm. Britannica explains that Tyre “was a Major Phoenician seaport from about 2000 BCE through the Roman period” and “Hiram, king of Tyre (reigned 969–936), furnished building materials for Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem (10th century).” Today, the ancient port city of Tyre is located just north of the Israeli border in Lebanon, south of Beirut.

In response to Solomon’s request, King Hiram generously offers his craftsman, the “famous Huramabi”:

II Chron 2:13 – 16 “I am sending you a master craftsman—my famous Huramabi! He is a brilliant man, 14 the son of a Jewish woman from Dan in Israel; his father is from here in Tyre. He is a skillful goldsmith and silversmith, and also does exquisite work with brass and iron and knows all about stonework, carpentry, and weaving; and he is an expert in the dyeing of purple and blue linen and crimson cloth. He is an engraver besides, and an inventor! He will work with your craftsmen and those appointed by my lord David, your father. 15 So send along the wheat, barley, olive oil, and wine you mentioned, 16 and we will begin cutting wood from the Lebanon mountains, as much as you need, and bring it to you in log floats across the sea to Joppa, and from there you can take them inland to Jerusalem.” (the Living Bible)

A special feature would be the special Holy of Holies. The Living Bible describes it thus:

II Chron 3:10-13 Within the innermost room, the Holy of Holies, Solomon placed two sculptured statues of Guardian Angels and plated them with gold. 11-13 They stood on the floor facing the outer room, with wings stretched wing tip to wing tip across the room, from wall to wall. 14 Across the entrance to this room he placed a veil of blue and crimson finespun linen, decorated with Guardian Angels.

People across many nations invest in both buildings and ceremony. Shortly, the people of Great Britain will witness the crowning of their new king in Westminster Abbey. So, we can relate to the events in King Solomon's reign. And we can probably relate to the idea of church buildings as special spaces. 

In a June 3, 1996 article in the Christian Science Sentinel (A Church without Creeds), Beulah Roegge comments:

When King Solomon consecrated the Temple that the people had built, he said of God, "Behold, heaven and the heaven of heaven cannot contain thee; how much less this house which I have built!" (II Chron.6:18).  Though he perceived that God could not be confined to a building, apparently he thought of the Temple as a symbol of God's presence. His prayer continued by describing many situations and conditions under which his people could come to the Temple to receive help from God. He included wars and sickness, and also the needs of the stranger in the land.

From King Solomon's day to ours, people find that involvement in church supports their efforts to solve all sorts of problems. I found this help myself when I first began attending the Church of Christ, Scientist…

Today, we experience church in all sorts of ways, but how good it is to gather together and to seek that wisdom which is ours from God.

Julie Swannell