Sheba, the Excessive.

That stories about a woman like the Queen of Sheba would send my mind reeling is probably new news to ….um….oh that’s right….none of you.

What with how you all know that I love such things as boots and lots of jewelry, how I have an on-going relationship with my hair, I take more trips than some deem necessary, and how I believe adult women should play dress up more often, I feel as if there is nothing left that I could say for you to be taken aback. Especially something as obvious as me saying, “I wish I could have known the Queen of Sheba.”

No. It seems being a blogger—especially if said blogger is yours truly—makes one lose their surprising power.

Anyway. 

There I was, minding my own business on my journey through I Kings, when, after being given the impeccable design detail of Solomon’s temple (which naturally I loved), in walks…or…well…I am sure she actually paraded….the Queen of Sheba.

And my onward-motion focus for the rest of my devotion time ran down a trail like a rabbit would just as quickly as she and her entourage came.

Because, see, here is the deal: while I cannot surprise you anymore, my mind went crazy over reading that that exact thing happened to little miss Queen B when she entered into Solomon’s palace and temple.

Actually. No. It was more intense than that. She was not surprised.

She was overwhelmed.

Whoa.

The Queen of Sheba.

Overwhelmed?

That’s not something that happens everyday.

Or ever.

I mean, what had she not seen, what had she not eaten, were there any experiences still left to be had?

Debatable.

But there she was, in all her own glory, being trailed and attended to by what must have been caravans of people to do her bidding—and she was overwhelmed.

A woman more sensational, more over the top, more to-the-nines, more EVERYTHING than a woman like me could even imagine being. 

And what was it that did her in exactly?

I Kings 10:4-5 “When the Queen of Sheba saw all the wisdom of Solomon and the palace he had built, the food on his table, the seating of his officials, the attending servants in their robes, his cupbearers, and the burnt offerings he made at the temple of the LORD, she was overwhelmed.”

It would seem, to steal the words from a Downton Abbey character, that when it comes to overwhelming the world’s most glamorous woman, “Nothing succeeds like excess.”

But wasn’t she used to excess, my mind forcefully queried?! Didn’t she embody it?! After all, not 4 verses later we read this: “And she gave the king 120 talents of gold, large quantities of spices, and precious stones. Never again were so many spices brought in as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon.”

And I quote—“Never again were so many…”

No. There can be no doubt. This was an excessive woman. More excessive than the world or King Solomon himself would ever see again.

And yet. And yet. Regardless. There she was. Overwhelmed.

We read what did her in, but what are all those things? Lavish banquets, yes. Mind blowing palaces, most definitely. Servants and cupbearers galore; bedecked in finery like no servant she had ever seen (and she had seen many). Offerings to a God she probably didn’t worship that made her praise his name anyway (Verse 9).

It was splendor. Solomon was known for having it in spades. And it besieged her.

Wow.

What must it have been like…

I received the most beautiful flowers the other day. They were delightful for numerous reasons, but the timing of them was brilliant considering I have been staring at snow for the last 5 months.

A welcome reprieve of life and color and beauty.

And as I was marveling at them, roses and lilies and beautiful things I don’t even know the names of, they kind of overwhelmed me. I mean, flowers are just so…so…splendid.

And then suddenly it hit me, with the Queen of Sheba still rolling around in my mind, she in her overwhelmed state and me in mine, my thoughts went to where Jesus himself talked about these two very same things. 

“And why do you worry about clothes? See how the lilies of the field grow. They do not labor or spin. Yet I tell you that not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. If that is how God clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will he not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?” (Matthew 6:28-30)

Not even Solomon in all his splendor was clothed like one of those.

But how can that be?! DIDN’T HIS SPLENDOR JUST OVERWHELM THE WORLD’S MOST EXCESSIVE WOMAN?????

And that’s when it hit me. All those things that Solomon had, all the things that sent that woman either through the roof or go weak at the knees---those were things that Solomon had done.

Yes, yes. God gave him the ideas and the abilities and the wherewithal to do it. I don’t doubt or debate that for one second.

But all of those things were man-made things.

She was marveling at something done by the hands of earthly craftsman.

Is it any wonder then, that when Jesus comes into the picture he turns the whole thing on his head and, while he does not deny that Solomon had his splendor, he challenges the assumption that Solomon’s splendor was the highest kind.

“Do you see the lilies of the field? They haven’t done anything to make themselves beautiful. They don’t toil or sew; they are simply what God has made them to be. And not even all of Solomon’s splendor can compare.”

How crazy is that?! How counter-cultural, both then and now! Because there before me, arranged in a perfect bouquet, were things that had more beauty and splendor than all that could overwhelm an excessive woman.

But why?

Well, for one, God made those flowers.

Yes, I realize that is an elementary truth. But when was the last time you stopped to think about it?

God made those flowers.

And while I don’t have a verse right now off the top of my head to prove it, I am going to go out on a limb here and say this:

Whatever God makes is more splendid, more worthy of overwhelming you than anything our hands can do.

And I am not just talking about nature things (although Romans 1 is pretty clear that that does a sufficient job of proclaiming his excellencies)! But what about all the other things that only God can grow?

Like how about other people and compassionate hearts and souls that are moved to prayer and ministerings that happen out of nowhere and your path crossing with someone it shouldn’t have crossed with and the Spirit convicting you of some old, ugly, drawn out sin and opportunities you couldn’t have even imagined happening?

I mean, human hands can’t create those things.

And yet, do they overwhelm us?

Or no, that’s not the question. Do we LET THEM overwhelm us? Or is our focus so temporal, so earthly, so right now, that we are like the Queen of Sheba and can only be moved by the glamorous, the over the top, the excessive? Without even recognizing that God, in his mercy and grace and holiness and blessing is so much more excessive, his plans are so much more successful, and he is so much more worthy of praise than I, or even the Queen of Sheba will ever realize. 

Are we letting the wrong things, the wrong Someones, overwhelm us? Are we putting our hopes and our delights in earthly things? Or are we willing to let the enticement of the glamor of this world go so that we can be overwhelmed by the manifold glories we see every day, the things that God has created and is creating and that he has purposed to overwhelm us for him?