Hey Bible readers, I'm Tara Lee Cobble, and I'm your host for the Bible Recap.

The last time we dropped in on Solomon's story, he had just finished building his empire,

so it's no surprise that word about him spreads quickly. And today a foreign queen

travels a long way to visit him. The queen of Sheba shows up with a lot of people and camels and

gifts, as well as a lot of questions. And Solomon answers them all. She's dumbfounded. She's also

taken aback by how wealthy he is. She praises him for his prosperity and his

wisdom, and she points out that even the people who work for him really seem to like him. That's

unusual for a king, especially in this day. They trade gifts and she heads home to Sheba,

which is probably either modern-day Ethiopia or Yemen, they're just across the Red Sea from each other.

But before she goes, this pagan queen even praises God for establishing him as king,

and points to God as the source of it all. We see this idea reiterated in 1024, which says,

The whole earth sought the presence of Solomon to hear his wisdom, which God had put into his mind.

There is no wisdom apart from God. He owns it all, and anyone who has it got it from him.

Solomon asked God for this wisdom, and we can too.

James 1.5 says, if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask God who gives generously to all without

reproach, and it will be given him. This is a prayer God promises to answer with a yes for any of his

kids who ask. Wisdom is not only from God, but it points back to God. He's the source, supply,

and goal of it all. Despite his wisdom, Solomon isn't perfectly

obedient to God's commands for Israel's kings. We see him amassing more gold and more horses,

which is in direct defiance of Deuteronomy 17. That's the passage that says Israel's king

shouldn't collect horses, gold, or women.

Then as we move into chapter 11, we see him adding women to his list.

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