Let’s talk about riddles for a second.
In our day and age, riddles are just considered childish fun and games.
But in the ancient Middle East, they held an entirely different meaning.
They were like a high-stakes chess match where one wrong move could cost you the respect of an entire kingdom.
In some cases, the outcome of answering a riddle or not could result in life or death.
If you look carefully through Scripture, you can see many examples of this.
Recall the riddle Samson threw out to the Philistines.
“Out of the eater came something to eat;
Out of the strong came something sweet.”
— Judges 14:14
Earlier, Samson had killed a young lion with his bare hands.
When he later returned to the spot, he found a swarm of bees and honey inside the lion’s carcass.
He ate some honey and even gave some to his parents without telling them where it came from.
He then turned that bizarre experience into a riddle and challenged the Philistines to solve it within seven days.
What were the stakes?
Thirty linen garments and thirty sets of clothes.
Now, here’s what a lot of homies don’t get.
Parables are actually offshoots of riddles.
Ancient Middle Eastern literature is filled with tons of them.
And who do we know was a master of them?
None other than Messiah Yeshua himself.
The parables he spoke were mini puzzles pointing to deeper truths about nature and how his Father in heaven worked.
In Yeshua’s case, only those who trusted Him as Messiah were given the supernatural insight to really understand what he was saying.
So understand that when the Queen of Saba visited Solomon to pepper him with riddles…
This wasn’t just fun and beer games for royal amusement.
Nope.
She was, as the Scripture says, testing a royal peer to determine if his wisdom was really as great as his reputation.
Recall when Solomon dealt with the two prostitutes who were claiming ownership of the same baby.
That situation was actually a riddle.
Solomon had to solve it using pure deductive reasoning and logic, and he did a brilliant job.
Now the riddles the Queen brought to Solomon were extraordinarily difficult.
Only a person of Einstein-level intellect would have a snowball’s chance in hell of rising to the challenge.
But rise to the challenge Solomon did.
And he wiped the floor with the Queen of Saba.
Sometimes homies ask, why didn’t the Queen of Saba send an emissary?
Did she really have to journey hundreds or possibly thousands of miles just to ask Solomon a bunch of questions?
The answer is that the queen had a much more important objective than just satisfying her curiosity about Solomon’s intellect.
As was the case with many rulers, she was also testing whether it would be wise to ally with Israel.
On top of that, she also had to determine if Solomon’s God was indeed a deity worthy of worship.
Recall the opening words in verse 1.
“When the queen of Sh’va heard what was being said about Shlomo because of the name of Adonai, she came to test him with difficult questions.”-1 Kings 10:1
In other words, Queen Saba heard what was being said about Solomon because of his God’s reputation.
Ya feel me here?
And that leads to your takeaway.
Why did you make a decision for Christ?
Why did you decide to accept the God of Israel as your God?
Why did you decide to surrender your whole life to this particular deity?
Whether you realize it or not…
It is for the same reason that Queen Saba visited Solomon.
It was because of Adonai’s reputation.
Ya feel me?
See you next time.
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