Pictured–audio cover of a recent novel. I have not read the book but I enjoyed a different book by this author.
One couple I know recently decided the earth was flat. That shocked me. Perhaps it shouldn’t have. But at the time, the odd conspiracy theory had not really caught on. I was shocked. How could two people who grew up in my world—members of my “tribe”—wake up one morning and decide the earth was flat? I was shocked by the way these two Christian adults had suddenly begun to doubt this long-established truth of science (a truth proven during every lunar eclipse) and many truths like it.
When he was inaugurated king, Solomon hit the ground running. God blessed his kingdom from day one, and amazing things began to happen. Solomon had a cavalry of soldiers on horseback and on chariots, 1 Kings 9:22 and 2 Chronicles 8:6. He built ships and launched a navy, 1 Kings 9:26-27. He dedicated entire cities to single tasks: storage cities, chariot cities, and “cities of the horsemen” 2 Chronicles 8:6. He built an ivory throne, overlaid with gold, with six steps leading up to it, two carved lions on each side of each step leading up to the throne (24 lions total), and “there was not the like made in any kingdom” 2 Chronicles 9:17-19. Then every third year, Solomon’s ships came home laden with gold, silver, ivory, apes, and peacocks, 2 Chronicles 9:21. He even had “forty thousand stalls of horses for his chariots, and twelve thousand horsemen” 1 Kings 4:26.
As God had promised, He also made Solomon wiser than everyone. “He was wiser than all men,”1 Kings 4:31, “speaking three thousand proverbs,” and speaking on all matters of nature, animals, plants, “beasts, fowl, creeping things, and fish” 1 Kings 4:31-33.
“And King Solomon passed all the kings of the earth in riches and wisdom. And all the kings of the earth sought the presence of Solomon, to hear his wisdom that God had put into his heart” 2 Chronicles 9:22-23.
When King Solomon’s fame began to circle the globe, kings and dignitaries traveled from far and wide to see for themselves. But there were doubters. One of those skeptics was the Queen of Sheba. She rounded up her men and set off on a quest. She had to know the truth.
The queen was on a mission.
“She came to prove [test] Solomon with hard questions … and Solomon answered all her questions … and when the queen of Sheba had seen the wisdom of Solomon, and the house that he had built, and the meat on his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, his cupbearers also and their apparel … there was no more spirit left in her. And so she said to the king:
‘It was a true report which I heard in my own land of thine acts and of thy wisdom. But I did not believe it until I came and saw for myself. And behold, I was not told the half of it. For thou exceedest the fame that I heard. Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy servants, who stand continually before thee and hear thy wisdom. And blessed be the Lord thy God who delighted in thee to set thee on his throne, to be king for the Lord thy God, because thy God loved Israel….” 2 Chronicles 9:1-8.
This is an amazing story. Not because of Solomon’s wealth. And not because of Solomon’s wisdom.
This is an amazing story because the skeptic allowed herself to be convinced.
How often do you see that? Often we are so committed to our point of view that we commit acts of intellectual dishonesty. We ignore persuasive evidence because we are unwilling to be persuaded. Sometimes we are suffering a problem not of logic, but of the will. It is not a failure of the evidence, but a failure of the WILL. We are unwilling to be persuaded. We have closed our mind.
The Queen of Sheba was not that kind of skeptic. When she saw Solomon’s wealth, his gold, his palace, his army, perhaps his zoo filled with apes and peacocks, and when she listened to his broad understanding of a wide range of subjects, she was persuaded.[1] The queen was not unwilling to believe, but merely wanted some evidence. Jesus honored her for her faith:
“The queen of the south shall rise up in the judgment with this generation and shall condemn it. For she came from the uttermost parts of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon and behold, one greater than Solomon is here” Matthew 12:42.
Jesus then mentions the city of Ninevah, explaining that the entire city repented at the preaching of Jonah, but the religious leaders of Jesus’ day would not repent at the preaching of Jesus.
The religious leaders were skeptics who were UNWILLING to change their minds. This was not a failure of the evidence, but a failure of the WILL.
We must not be like the Pharisees.
Skepticism is warranted at times, but skepticism that refuses to honestly consider evidence is willful blindness.
We must seek God by faith, and we must open our minds to both evidence and the voice of the Holy Spirit. When making decisions about conspiracy theories, politics, medical care, or Bible interpretation, or anything else, examine the evidence for yourself. And be humble and honest with yourself.
Sometimes it is okay to change your mind, particularly when you are trading skepticism for faith!
AΩ
[1] According to Jewish tradition—and some Christian scholars—Solomon married the Queen of Sheba and she is the bride portrayed in the Song of Solomon. The Bible does not speak to this matter with certainty, so we will never know. But it is an intriguing possibility. See Song of Solomon 1:5-6. The unknown bride either has “black” skin (as translated in the KJV) because she is Ethiopian, or the bride has “dark” skin (NIV) which is merely tanned skin from working in the vineyard. Much of this is interesting conjecture, though an honored tradition in the Talmud and among many Christians.
Household Words: 