Today’s Scripture Reading (May 8,
2013): 1 Kings 10
Alexander
the Great changed the way that we fight wars. He conquered the known world, but
his genius was actually in what happened after he was done with his conquering.
Alexander’s genius seemed to be in the area of cultural diffusion. After he had
conquered an area, he made it culturally Greek. And he was so good at that task
that for generations the places that he had conquered hundreds of years
earlier, places that were now subject to a new Roman Empire, continued to be
culturally Greek. The Christian Testament is written in Greek largely because
of Alexander the Great’s cultural diffusion.
Alexander
the Great was student of Aristotle. Often Aristotle is referred to simply as
“The Philosopher.” Aristotle, alongside of his teacher, Plato, and another
thinker named Sophocles has revolutionized the way that we think. They are the
founders of Western Philosophy and have had an impact on all Western Religions.
Later Caesar
Augustus, during the early years of the Roman Empire, would build on the
thoughts of Alexander the Great and Aristotle and would create a way to rule a
vast empire. The Roman Empire of Augustus changed once more our expectations
about this world. And there is this thought that while the Holy Roman Empire
lasted for centuries, that if those kings that followed in the footsteps of
Augustus had only ruled in the way that he ruled; and if many the kings of Rome
had not been insane, then maybe the Roman Empire would have been a force for
generations longer – maybe even to today.
The Queen of
Sheba comes to Solomon. The reality is that from our place in history we really
do not know much about either of these people. We know that Solomon was the son
of David, and that he was wise, and that he had many wives and concubines, but
of Solomon personally we know almost nothing. The Queen of Sheba we know even
less about. We do not even know where she was from – today we argue about whether
it was Ethiopia or Arabia that she called home. But we do know that she came to
Solomon, drawn by the stories that she had heard of him. In Solomon she found a
man who seemed to be part Alexander, changing the world culture around him,
part Aristotle, changing the way that people thought, and part Augustus,
changing the way that an Empire could be ruled.
The test was
actually a spiritual one. It was not magic, but whether or not this king
possessed just knowledge or whether he also possessed the wisdom to use that
knowledge. The idea behind the test was that anyone could pursue knowledge and
gain great amounts of information – but true Wisdom to use the knowledge came only
from God. We do not know the questions that Sheba asked Solomon, but historical
gossip has left us with three possibilities. One possible problem was that
Solomon was presented with were real and fake flowers and that he was asked to
discern between the two by sight alone. Another was that he was presented with
a group of boys and girls, dressed alike and he was asked to discern between
them, and the last was that he was asked to gather a cup of water that came
neither from the clouds nor from the earth. Solomon’s rumored responses were
to unleash some bees and see which flowers they went to, to watch the children
as they washed their hands to see which were boys and which were girls, and to
run a horse hard, almost to the dropping point, and collect the sweat of the
horse in a cup. These may have not been the actual questions, but whatever the
real questions were, Solomon convinced this unnamed Queen of Sheba that he was wise
– and that was truly a gift that only God could give to a king.
Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Kings
11
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