2 Chronicles 9, 1 Kings 10 - 11 (21st June) - Pamelia

2 Chronicles 9:8
The Lord yor God is great indeed! He delights in you and has placed you on the throne to rule for him. Because God loves Israel so much and desires this kingdom to last forever, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.

1 Kings 10:9
The Lord your God is great indeed! He delights in you and has placed you on the throne in Israel. Because the Lord loves Israel with an eternal love, he has made you king so you can rule with justice and righteousness.

Queen Sheba came a long way to Jerusalem to have a taste of Solomon's wisdom, the gift that God has given to him. She bombarded him with all kinds of philosophical questions and riddles. It amazed me to read that Solomon answered every single question and riddle with such perfect wisdom from God! Compare the two verses: although it is the same story of Queen of Sheba and King Solomon's meeting, it emphasizes on the eternal love that God has for Israel. God's love for us is eternal, never-ending too!

The Lord loves each and every one of us so much, that He delights in us to honour Him in all that we do. In all that we do, let's pray for God to give us the wisdom that He gave Solomon (even 1% would do!) so that we may be able to make wise decisions to honour our Father.

Just for fun, let's check out some of the riddles and difficult questions that King Solomon might have answered, some really wowed me! (found on the internet)

Balkis: "What is evil?"
Solomon: "The eyes of the Lord in every place monitor good and evil, and in them is the definition."
Balkis: "Are the eyes or the ears superior?"
Solomon: "The hearing ear and the seeing eye, the Lord hath made both. Degrees of deafness and blindness, these are man's province, and measurable."
Balkis: "What is the most powerful organ of the body, Solomon?"
Solomon: "Death and life are in the power of the tongue."
Balkis: "How are body and spirit connected?"
Solomon: "The baseness of spirits is derived from their bodies. The nobility of bodies is derived from their spirits."
Balkis: "What is it? An enclosure with ten doors; when one is open, nine are shut, and when nine are open, one is shut?"
Solomon: "The enclosure is the womb, and the ten doors are the ten orifices of man, namely his eyes, his ears, his nostrils, his mouth, the apertures for discharge of excreta and urine, and the navel. When the child is still in its mother's womb, the navel is open, but all the other apertures are shut, but when the child issues from the womb the navel is closed and the other orifices are open."
Balkis: "Seven leave and nine enter; two pour out the draught and only one drinks."
How did Solomon respond?
"Seven are the days of woman's menstruation, nine the months of her pregnancy; her two breasts nourish the child, and one drinks."

Other riddles concerned with common objects and materials.
At one point, Sheba asked, "What when alive does not move, yet when its head cut off, moves?"
Solomon's answer: "The timber used to build a ship."
Another riddle she proposed was: "It is many- headed. In a storm at sea it goes above us all, it raises a loud and bitter wailing and moaning; it bends its head like a reed, is the glory of the rich and the shame of the poor, it honors the dead and dishonors the living; it is a delight to the birds, but a sorrow to the fishes. What is it?"
Solomon replied, "Flax, for it makes sails for ships that moan in the storm. It provides fine linen for the rich and rags for the poor, a burial shroud for the dead, and a rope for hanging the living. As seed it nourishes the birds, and as a net it traps the fish."

Some of Sheba's questions were related to the Hebrew Bible. For example, "The dead lived, the grave moved, and the dead prayed. What is it?"
The answer: "The dead that lived and prayed was Jonah; the fish, the moving grave."
In one theological riddle, she asked: "What is the ugliest thing in the world, and what is the most beautiful? What is the most certain, and what is the most uncertain?"
Solomon replied, "The ugliest thing...is the faithful turning unfaithful; the most beautiful is the repentant sinner. The most certain is death; the most uncertain, one's share in the World to Come." (ps: my favourite words of wisdom)