Therefore let us be grateful for receiving a kingdom that cannot be shaken, and thus let us offer to God acceptable worship, with reverence and awe, for our God is a consuming fire. (Hebrews 12:28-29 ESV)
One of our challenges while on earth is to understand the kingdom God has prepared for us. One of the ways that our Lord has shown us pictures of this kingdom is through his people, Israel. In particular, God made a promise to David that God would establish his kingdom through David’s offspring and that kingdom would be established forever (cf. 2 Samuel 7:12-13). The Chronicler has spent his time showing the wisdom and wealth of David’s son, Solomon, and his building of God’s house in the first seven chapters of 2 Chronicles. Now that the temple to the Lord is complete, the Chronicler is going to show the nature of this kingdom. Solomon, as David’s son, stands as a foreshadowing of David’s greater, future offspring, Jesus Christ. This modeling is highlighted by the fact that the Chronicler does not record Solomon’s failure as David’s son. Rather, the Chronicler continues to reveal the success and glory of this kingdom. Open your copies of God’s word to 2 Chronicles 8-9 and we are going to look at these vivid pictures of Solomon’s kingdom and consider how they are foreshadowing the kingdom that Christ would establish that cannot be shaken that we are receiving.
Building the Kingdom (2 Chronicles 8:1-18)
Chapter 8 records Solomon building the kingdom, establishing right worship in the kingdom, and showing the wealth of the kingdom. Solomon is restoring the cities and fortifying towns under his rule (2 Chronicles 8:2-6). Verse 6 is a great summary of this first section. Whatever Solomon desired to build in Jerusalem and throughout his kingdom rule, he built it. Those of the Canaanite people that the generation of Joshua did not drive out, Solomon put into the labor force (2 Chronicles 8:8) but not the people of Israel (2 Chronicles 8:9). Rather than describing Solomon’s marriage to Pharaoh’s daughter in a negative light, the Chronicler shows Solomon’s reverence for God’s holiness (2 Chronicles 8:11). Further, the worship that was commanded by Moses and David is now occurring at the temple (2 Chronicles 8:12-14). Let the importance of proper worship be underscored here in verse 15. They did not turn aside from the command given concerning any of these matters. There is no place in any of the scriptures where we can turn and suggest that God does not care about the details of our worship. Rather, the opposite is repeatedly emphasized in the scriptures and this is just another location where we see this. Solomon establishes the worship that was instructed to Moses and David and the priests and the Levites did not deviate from that command.
Seeing the Kingdom (2 Chronicles 9:1-6)
Now an outsider to this kingdom is going to see this kingdom that David’s son has established. In 2 Chronicles 9 we read that the queen of Sheba heard of Solomon’s fame and came to test Solomon. She is not an Israelite. She does not belong to this kingdom. But she has heard about this kingdom and she has some questions. In fact, you will notice in verses 1 that she has some hard questions for the king. So the queen comes with a great caravan of wealth. Notice the first result of the interrogation of the queen of Sheba with King Solomon in verse 2. Solomon answered all her questions and there was nothing too hard for Solomon to explain to her. Think about how many times people tried this with Jesus, the greater Son of David. Think about how many times people tried to catch Jesus, trip up Jesus, or ask hard questions that would attempt to get Jesus in trouble with the people or the authorities. Jesus was never stumped. Jesus never stumbled. Jesus never was cornered. In fact, when Jesus answered this kinds of questions, the people would be even more amazed at Jesus (cf. Matthew 22:15-40; Luke 2:46-47; Mark 2:1-12). This is how the queen of Sheba responds. When she sees the glory of this kingdom, it took her breath away (2 Chronicles 9:4). She is overwhelmed by the kingdom God has established in Solomon’s hands. She confesses in verse 5 that the report about this kingdom is all true. She did not believe it could be true but now she has seen it with her own eyes and she believes (2 Chronicles 9:6). In fact, she declares that the reports have been understated. Not even half of the greatness of this kingdom has been reported.
Understanding the Kingdom (2 Chronicles 9:7-28)
We need to look at the conclusions the queen of Sheba draws about this kingdom. First, she proclaims that there is great joy in belonging to this kingdom. You see her make this point in verse 7. How happy are the people who have access to King Solomon. The wives are blessed. The servants are blessed. Anyone who is able to stand in his presence and hear his wisdom are blessed. Friends, if we truly see the kingdom that God has established, then we will also see that there is nothing better than belonging to this kingdom. There is no greater blessing than being in the presence of Jesus and listening to his wisdom for our lives and for the world.
Further, notice what this kingdom does in verse 8. You see that she praises the true and living God because of Solomon’s rule. But listen to her understanding in the middle of verse 8. “Because your God loved Israel and would establish them forever, he has made you king over them, that you may execute justice and righteousness.” Your God established this kingdom because of his love for his people. This kingdom that we are receiving and that cannot be shaken (cf. Hebrews 12:28) is because God loves us. Jesus came to this earth, gave his life on the cross, rose from the dead, and was exalted at the right hand of God to rule with justice and righteousness for us. We can have such a poor view of God’s rule and God’s kingdom. We can be tempted to resist God’s authority and judgment. But this kingdom exists for our good and because he loves us. The queen of Sheba saw this in Solomon’s rule. Everyone who belonged to his kingdom is greatly blessed and this kingdom is a display of God’s love for his people.
But there is another staggering picture in verses 9-12. You see that the queen of Sheba brings extraordinary wealth to the kingdom. She brings tons of gold and great quantities of spices and precious stones. The text is further noting that she was not the only one who did this. Hiram sent gold also (9:10). You see in verses 13-14 that kings from all over are sending wealth to Solomon’s kingdom. This is a rich and glorious kingdom. But what I wanted us to see is that this is not a one-sided situation in this kingdom. The queen brought the riches of her kingdom to Solomon. But look carefully at verse 12. “And King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all that she desired, whatever she asked besides what she had brought to the king.” This is an amazing picture as it shows that you are receiving far more than you are giving to this glorious kingdom. This is how Jesus spoke about the kingdom as well. He taught that there was so much more coming back to those who would come into his kingdom.
And Peter said, “See, we have left our homes and followed you.” And he said to them, “Truly, I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, who will not receive many times more in this time, and in the age to come eternal life.” (Luke 18:28-30 ESV)
This is also why Jesus told a very important but simple parable.
“The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field, which a man found and covered up. Then in his joy he goes and sells all that he has and buys that field.” (Matthew 13:44 ESV)
Notice that in this parable this man sells all that he has to buy the field. But field is not empty. Rather, the field contains a treasure and that is why he will joyfully give all that he has for it. The value of this kingdom to our lives is not only in the age to come but also even in this time (cf. Luke 18:30). The visuals of Solomon’s kingdom is that it is a blessing to belong to his kingdom and it is worth giving great wealth in honor of the kingdom. Now I want us to think about another point Jesus made regarding himself and his kingdom.
The queen of the South will rise up at the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon, and behold, something greater than Solomon is here. (Matthew 12:42 ESV)
Notice the point that Jesus made to those who would not receive him while he was teaching and performing miracles. The queen of the South (a reference to the queen of Sheba that we are looking at in 2 Chronicles 9) will condemn these people that Jesus came to because she was willing to travel a great distance to hear Solomon and Jesus is far greater than Solomon.
It is sad that our Lord makes the offer to us to give us all that we desire and all that we are made for only for us to reject this offer because we cannot believe that our Lord could give us something more than what we have in this world. Listen to how Jesus showed us this problem again from Luke’ gospel.
18 And a ruler asked him, “Good Teacher, what must I do to inherit eternal life?” 19 And Jesus said to him, “Why do you call me good? No one is good except God alone. 20 You know the commandments: ‘Do not commit adultery, Do not murder, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor your father and mother.’” 21 And he said, “All these I have kept from my youth.” 22 When Jesus heard this, he said to him, “One thing you still lack. Sell all that you have and distribute to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven; and come, follow me.” 23 But when he heard these things, he became very sad, for he was extremely rich. (Luke 18:18-23 ESV)
What was the rich ruler’s problem? There are a number of things we could point out about how he approached Jesus and how he looked at himself and his obedience. But there is a key to this interaction. Jesus offered treasure in heaven. But the ruler rejected the offer because he was extremely rich. What is happening? The ruler could not believe that Jesus had greater treasure in heaven than what he presently had on earth. Our challenge is to believe that what we give to follow Jesus pales in comparison to what Jesus is giving back to us. The queen of Sheba understood the glory of Solomon’s kingdom. Do we understand the glory of Jesus’ kingdom? Do we appreciate the offer Jesus is making to us to belong to this glorious kingdom? Or do we think our riches and glory are greater than what Jesus is willing to give to us?