1. 1 Kings 10:6–7 (ESV)
  2. Exposition

Why did the queen of Sheba come all the way to Jerusalem?

1 Kings 10:6–7 (ESV)

6 And she said to the king, “The report was true that I heard in my own land of your words and of your wisdom,

The reports over Solomon have reached all the way to Sheba, more than 2,000 kilometres away, but those grand reports are hard to believe. The people of Israel with their king and their God is a pearl in the international community. The queen makes the effort to undertake this long journey, so that she can see all that she has heard with her own eyes. She can hardly imagine what she hears. And the reality trumps the reports. She recognizes Solomon as her superior. You do not hear that very often. This is a different reaction than a fighting king who organizes a plundering path to take the spoil from another country—something that will happen often in the upcoming centuries.