The Queen of Sheba

came to Solomon to prove him.

We must not forget that the queen came not only to Jerusalem, but she came to Solomon to prove him. The great mistake that so many make in this day is this, they come to the place, to Jerusalem, so to speak; and they come to the servants of Solomon, but not to Solomon. Such are sure to be, in the end, disappointed.

In themselves the servants of Solomon may have been no better than other men, but she did not come to them. She saw Solomon; and she saw every thing and every body in relation to Solomon. Let us only do likewise. Take the Lord’s Table. What is it without the presence of Christ the Lord? To the natural man it is so unmeaning that he would not have the least interest in it; he would not care to be present. Hence, to suit his taste he has turned it into a gorgeous idolatrous Mass, or he must have a priest to administer a sacrament!

But take it just as we see it in the scripture. The disciples of Christ gathered together to break bread and drink wine, sitting in His presence. There was no priest over the rest, and no minister to administer a sacrament. The disciples, as such, came to break bread. If a servant of the Lord Jesus was there, he might teach the gathered disciples. (See Acts xx.) But it was an act of communion with the Lord. As the queen of Sheba came to the place, and to commune with the person of Solomon, so the disciples came to the place to commune with the Lord, the True Solomon. (Compare 1 Cor. X. 16, 17: xi. 23-32.) And let us remember the words of Jesus: “For where two or three are gathered together to my name, there am I in the midst of them.” How few believe this; how few now really come to Him, as the queen came to Solomon! Many, as we have said, may come to the disciples thus gathered, and never see Solomon. They will soon see defects in the gathered disciples, and on the first occasion turn aside, and soon will be found again in the world, and its various systems, or worse.

But all this does not, for a moment, alter the fact of the unspeakable blessedness of those who have come from afar to see Solomon. We may not know exactly how far she had come, perhaps, 2000 miles; and men little think how far they are from the blessed reality of being simply and truly gathered to Christ. Let us take such a case; and here we would speak experimentally. You hear that in a certain place there are a few Christians gathered to break bread. You come from afar to see them do so. Nothing can appear more weak and foolish. They have no music, no grand building, no printed prayers to repeat time after time. As to place, it is perhaps a large room in a house, or over a stable. No visible priest to intercede for the rest, and no minister to preside over the others. Are these a company of imbeciles, or what can it mean? If you are not a Christian, you will take your hat and be off to scenes more in keeping with modern thought; you will say, there is nothing here for me.

Let us now suppose you are a Christian. You are weary and sick of what is called the Christian world. Like the queen of Sheba you long to commune with the true Solomon. You do not take your hat, but you take your seat. At first you also are greatly perplexed. You recognize that this is really like what you have read of in scripture, just like it. Yet you have never seen anything like it on earth. But your heart longs for Christ, and you find there is nothing here but Christ. Your eyes are opened to see Solomon. Christ is revealed to your spiritual gaze. Yes, you see Him present to faith. You commune with Him. And you declare “It was a true report that I heard… Howbeit I believed not the words until I came, and mine eyes had seen; and behold, the half was not told me.” You can now truly say, “Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.” Every word is true of such as are truly gathered to Christ, whether as assemblies or individuals gathered to Him. There is no real happiness to be compared to this. Or, as a servant of the Lord used by the Holy Ghost, there is no ministry so blessed. If once enjoyed, no other humanly appointed minister can be trusted. We say this, after long years of experience, and where once truly known, it is continuous.

She said further, “Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel; because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.” This is a faint picture of the delight of the Father in the Son, raised from the dead by the glory of the Father. “God also hath highly exalted him and given him a name which is above every name,” however despised of men at present. Is it a light thing to be in the presence of Him in whom is all the Father’s delight? If God set Solomon on the throne of Israel, has He not set Christ as Head of the church, “far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion”? (See Eph. 1. 21-23.) How strange that men, even such as profess to be Christians, should put a man, and often a wicked man, in the place of Christ; and would utterly despise a little company truly gathered to Christ, as the whole church was in the beginning.

But you may say, Think what I should have to give up, if I were thus to honour Christ, as the queen of Sheba honoured Solomon. I begin to see I should have to give it all up. Thus some draw back and continue no more. Ah, how many have done, so, and gone back to a modern Christendom, filled to overflowing with superstition, and modern, thought, or in other words infidelity. You love your property; you love your world; and you say, He who died for me is not worthy that I should really give anything up for Him. Will not the queen of Sheba rise up in judgment against you also? Does she not even now condemn you?

“And she gave the king an hundred and twenty talents of gold.” Over five tons of gold. “And of spices very great store, and precious stones.” And is not our Solomon worthy of all we have and are? Remember, we may give for the various religious schemes of men, and if we examined those schemes, we might find them utterly contrary to the word of God and this period of our Solomon’s rejection. Did you ever give a shilling to Christ? Did you ever give it to a member of His body, simply and only because he was a member of the body of Christ, knowing that what you did to him you did to Christ?

Mark, she came straight to Solomon. She gave all to him. “There came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.”

Surely we may say, “Awake, O north wind; and come thou south; blow upon my garden; that the spices thereof may flow out. Let my beloved come into his garden, and eat his pleasant fruits.” (Cant. iv.16.) How we do forget the love of the Bridegroom to the bride. It is sad to disappoint our Eternal Lover. Sweet to Him are the gifts of love. He wants no servile gifts, He asks no legal works from the church He loves. It is as the bride gives to her Beloved; and, in return, the Bridegroom to the bride. And thus it was in the scene before us.

“And king Solomon gave unto the queen of Sheba all her desire, whatsoever she asked, beside that which Solomon gave her of his royal bounty. So she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants.” Oh, how she would display the riches and glories of Solomon in her own country! How she would tell of his value and declare all his priceless gifts!

Soon we shall be with Him in His country, in the place prepared. Then the eternal joy of His blessed presence! Presented to Himself unblameable in holiness, where all is suited in perfect correspondence with Himself. With Him, like Him, evermore. Oh the height, the depth, the breadth, the length! The happy companions of Him to whom every knee shall bow - King of kings and Lord of lords. There is our home, our everlasting abode.

But for the present, our privilege is like the queen of Sheba to come into His presence, even wherever two or three are gathered to His blessed name. There He is. Yes, we come to Himself, not to His servants; not to doctrines, or forms of church government; but direct to Himself, to commune with Him, to worship Him, to lay all at His blest feet; and to have every desire of our heart fully answered in Him. And then, after we have thus assembled together, we have individually, or with our households, to return, for the time being, to our country; for we are still in the midst of our own country, and race. We have been with our Solomon; we have received all that the new nature can desire. Oh how few understand these things!

The queen of Sheba would never cease to tell of the glory of Solomon. What have we to tell of the glory, and wisdom, and riches of our Solomon? For where two or three are gathered to Christ, a greater than Solomon is there. Do your neighbours know you have been to see your Solomon? Oh, Lord, grant that we may tell out the glories of our Solomon. If we have seen Him, there will be no more spirit in us: nothing of ourselves worth telling. No longer I, but Christ. If her Majesty the Queen were to come to a little town, and invite the inhabitants to meet her in the assembly room; how long would it take before the whole town knew the time and the place? How many would wish to be five minutes too late? Might you not go into many a town, and could not possibly find the place, where the Lord of Glory meets His redeemed ones gathered in assembly to Him, to His name? If a Christian, is that place, is His presence nothing to you? Is He nothing to you? The Lord awake His church! As it is written, “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee.” (Eph. 14, literal translation)

Yes, we need awaking; we need to arise from among the dead; we need the full shining of Christ upon us, and then we shall declare, one half had not been told us.

C.S.