The Queen of Sheba | In Pursuit of Wisdom and The Ladies' Man
In my books, the top 3 fashionistas of the Bible, would have to be The Queen of Sheba, Queen Vashti and maybe, the virtuous woman, maybe. The Queen of Sheba (QoSheba) has my vote as number one.
In my children's bible, she rode into Jerusalem on this magnificent elephant draped with Persian rugs; jewelry dangled from the elepahant's large ears and a huge jewel sat between its eyes. She, of course, was fabulously beautiful. She sat in a shaded carriage on the back of the elephant, her shady, ebony skin peeked from underneath a long, gold, silk dress, her neck was wrapped in a gold neck piece that sat just above her clavicles. Hair was endless, nails coated, lashes for days. Wrist, arm and ankles clasped in gold cuffs, huge hazel eyes peered from behind the gold frills of a sheer veil. The Bible's number one stunner—or so she thought, until she met Solomon.
I've been a little obsessed with the Queen of Sheba in the last few weeks. I love her story because it is unique and because I'm very much in her shoes right now (I'll get to that later). She's my Bible crush these days because she did a remarkable thing and because of that got her name into the most read book on the planet.
But first, my personal thoughts about her, I think the Queen of Sheba was a hater— beautiful and stylish—but a hater, nonetheless.
It's recorded that she traveled a great distance to test Solomon with hard questions. She wasn't going as a fan, she wasn't going to hang out with the coolest king on the planet, she wasn't going for a snapchat-story or so she could tweet about it. It seems this queen was coming to Solomon to debunk this larger-than-life reputation of his. Uhh..feisty.
Note, she was traveling on an animal, which is no Bugatti. Travel time must have been months or even years. She was coming to see who this Solomon-guy was. Wisest man her foot.
I imagine her rolling her eyes when her courtiers talked about Solomon and how awesome he was and the splendor of his palace, his city, his servants, his clothes, his God— his God had given him so much peace, even the most violent kings loved him. His food, his chefs, his gardens. Oh...and when he spoke...all the court maidens swooned and the girls couldn't keep their hands to themselves.
"I heard he is the wisest person that ever walked the earth!" Her court gossip-blogger would have said with twinkling eyes,"I also heard...he's dating 700 women...all at the same time! And his 300 wives know!" This was probably the moment the Queen of Sheba said, "You know what, I can't...I'm going to meet this guy you're all talking about, 1000 women! Yeah, right! And they all know?! Unbelievable."
She got to work with her "philosophers" and "wise men", did some research and came up with some difficult questions for Solomon, which must have taken time and considerable effort.
Her plan: She'd ride into his city, find at least 1 fault, stun him with her questions and leave. So girlfriend got on a horse, donkey, elephant, something, and began her journey.
Her entourage was unmatched. She traveled in style. She was there to impress, her defenses were probably up, so she didn't become Girl #1001. When she got there, it turned out all she had heard was a lie and that his kingdom was even more awesome than described! Even his servants looked great! Everything was functional, hinged on the wisdom God had given Solomon for administration and governance and she was so impressed that she praised HIS God. She couldn't help it!
Even though she may have started out planning to test this wisdom, she later opened up to Solomon. She chose to be vulnerable and asked him some personal questions that she needed answers to. He answered those as well! I think at that point she became even more beautiful to me.
QoSheba made it into the Bible because she sought out wisdom. She could have stayed back in good ol' Sheba, gotten a manicure and chewed on red grapes and we would never have heard about her . I love that she saw the value of wisdom, and put in quite the effort to uncover it.
Whether or not she was a hater initially, it doesn't change the fact that she traveled thousands of miles to see Solomon, to hear this man who everyone talked about and to witness the awesomeness of his God. She stopped being a hater (hating is so pre-historic-era anyway) and honored God by giving him praise for Solomon's success. It take a whole lot of character to thank God for another's success. I just love this girl.
This journey was life-changing for her. It must have changed the way she thought, the way she governed, even the way she would choose her King (if she didn't have one already). She left Jerusalem with so much stuff, treasure, gold, I-love-Jerusalem T-shirts, precious stones. It's recorded that Solomon gave her everything she asked for. That's the thing about wisdom, if you seek it and treasure it, it will give you riches, that's in Proverbs 3: 13-16. I'm not making this up! An encounter with God's wisdom changes everything!
This season, I have so many questions I'd like answers to—just like QoSheba— hard questions; I have to make decisions that require the application of wisdom. Do you have some too? Some funky dilemma getting you down? You need to choose between Richard or Debo; or both Joyce and Temi were your Valentine's, you just couldn't decide; or you need to choose between two job offers, or three schools or you just need direction in a situation. Instead of traveling to see some wise man these days, all we need to do is ask for wisdom for ourselves, so we can make better decisions. We need to see the value of wisdom like the Queen of Sheba did, then ask for it.
Just ask him for wisdom. He knows the outcome of every choice. Still your troubled mind and ask.
If you ask, you will receive.
What are your thoughts? Wasn't the Queen of Sheba everything?! By the way the BBC thinks the Queen of Sheba may have been Nigerian! Read here!
If you know this could help someone, please share!
Cover Art by the wonderful Nigerian artist, Ruthie Akuchie! This Queen of Sheba piece was one of the 29 art pieces painted in 28 days to honor black, female leaders Ruthie's inspired by, honoring the Black History Month. Read her feature here!
