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| Volume 17 Number 9 September 2015 | Page 13 |
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| Volume 17 Number 9 September 2015 | Page 13 |
Chad Ezelle
“You shall have no other gods before Me” (Exodus 20:3). Plenty of things in our lives can take the place of God. If we let them, they, in effect, become our gods; they become what we serve.
When Jesus was tempted by Satan in the wilderness, Jesus made sure that the devil knew that God was the only One worthy of worship. Nothing else. No one else.
If we place God in a position of secondary importance, we’re doing great harm to ourselves and to our families. When distractions come into our Christianity, we suffer greatly. However, when we put God on the throne of our lives, we’ll be blessed – if not physically, definitely spiritually.
Seeking Sheba
Chad Loveless
“Peter Piper picked a peck of pickled peppers.” Do you like tongue twisters? I’ve made tongue twisters out of my thoughts from one of the most enduring and endearing stories in the Bible – Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.
I thought and thought about why God tells us this brief story from the life of Solomon in 1 Kings 10:1-13. Out of the 31,103 verses in the Bible, why is this story here? What can the Queen of Sheba teach the Christian today?
Her name may have been Makada, which is a variation of the Sabeian name for queen. I’m going to call her Sheba. She ruled the Kingdom of Saba, which today is much of Saudi Arabia, Yemen, and across the Red Sea to Ethiopia. Her kingdom was a southern neighbor to the Kingdom of Israel. In the New Testament she is called the Queen of the South (Matthew 12:42 and Luke 11:31).
Sheba was a seeker. What was she seeking? Read the 1 Kings text and enjoy some major tongue twisters to go along with your reading: Sheba Sought Solomon’s Soundness (vs. 1-3); Sheba Saw Solomon’s Success (vs. 4-9) and Sheba Secured Solomon’s Solidarity (vs. 10-13).
Seekers, like Sheba, are everywhere. We as Christians, like Solomon, must be prepared to give them that for which they are looking. There are approximately 168,000 copies of the Bible sold or given away every day. It’s very likely that we’ll run into someone who has just read the Bible, is reading the Bible or is about to read the Bible.
So many seekers just don’t know the truth, but they seek the truth. Sheba was a seeker. Jesus says something very telling about her, His generation and our generation. Jesus pointed out, “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with the men of this generation and condemn them, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here” (Luke 11:31 NKJV).
Why do we have the 13 verses in 1 Kings? To judge us here today. Sheba was a seeker. She found that for which she was looking, and her actions condemn those of our generation who have someone better than Solomon from Whom to get their answers–Jesus. Sometimes lives get twisted, but understand, Jesus and the good news of His death, burial and resurrection can be obeyed.
There are lots of Sheba’s. Lots of seekers. Maybe someone you know. Maybe one of them is you? Don’t get twisted.