"And when the queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the LORD, she came to prove him with hard questions." (1 Kings 10:1)

A thousand years after the famous visit of Sheba's queen to the court of King Solomon, Jesus made a remarkable spiritual application of her experience. "The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation, and shall condemn it: for she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and, behold, a greater than Solomon is here" (Matthew 12:42).

Solomon had prayed for wisdom, and the Lord gave him such legendary wisdom that the news even reached the distant land of Sheba, south of Ethiopia. We do not know what hard questions were confronting Sheba's queen at the time, but she finally decided she must find their solutions through Solomon and his God. God honored her searching faith, "and Solomon told her all her questions," so that she could testify that "the half was not told me. . . . Blessed be the LORD thy God" (1 Kings 10:3, 7, 9).

In Jesus Christ "are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Colossians 2:3). He who had given Solomon his great wisdom promises us that "if any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him" (James 1:5).

Truly the queen of Sheba will be a witness against our present generation in the coming day of judgment. People today turn to every variety of humanistic counselors for their training and guidance, but refuse to come to the one who is "made unto us wisdom" (1 Corinthians 1:30). The "Wonderful Counsellor" (Isaiah 9:6), who is far greater than Solomon, who said "I am . . . the truth" (John 14:6), and who promises that "the truth shall make you free" (8:32), is still inviting all from the uttermost parts of the earth to come. HMM