I plan to have fun with the text I’ve selected from our Immerse readings in I Kings for the past week. It’s I Kings 10:1-13, the Queen of Sheba’s visit to Solomon. It’s a fascinating account, not least because it has sparked so much imagination and legend that carries weight down to the present day, particularly in Ethiopia.
The last verse of the text says, “King Solomon gave the Queen of Sheba whatever she asked for…” in the New Living Translation we are reading. A little more literally and provocatively, it says in the NRSV and other translations that he gave her “every desire that she expressed.” A long-standing legend has it that her desire included having Solomon’s baby. That legend became the basis of a centuries-old royal dynasty in Ethiopia, claiming to be a line of kings or emperors originally descended from Solomon. Halie Selassie in the 20th century was the last person from that line to rule Ethiopia. There are still many Ethiopians who claim Solomonic ancestry.
Whatever the worth of the legend which goes well beyond the biblical account, our text shows us royalty visiting royalty in deep respect for each other. As we celebrate All Saints Day this Sunday and recall our own royal parentage as children of God through Jesus Christ, I’d like to invite us to that same deep respect for one another. The stranger who comes among us may be “visiting royalty” as much as any earthly king or queen, because that person is a brother or sister in the Lord.
So as we live together in the kingdom of Lord, let us learn to be as respectful and generous with each other as Solomon and the queen of Sheba were. Short, of course, of any illicit relationship which may or may not have occurred!