Solomon was the son of David and became king after him. One of his early acts as king was to go the high place at Gibeon and offer sacrifices (1Ki 3). God came to Solomon in a dream and told him to ask what he would. He asked for wisdom to lead the people of God, and the Lord granted it to him. His wisdom became famous all over the world, and the queen of Sheba came to test him with hard questions (1Ki 10). Sheba was probably in northeast Africa, so she left her kingdom and traveled far, especially by the methods of travel of the time, to hear Solomon’s wisdom. She brought great treasure to give Solomon for this opportunity. This was so impressive even Jesus mentioned it and set it as a bar of judgment for those who had the Messiah in their midst and would not hear Him (Mt 12:42). While the Bible does not specifically say so, it is apparent that the queen prepared these questions in advance. That indicates she was a seeker of knowledge and wisdom before she heard of Solomon, and that her subsequent journey was not the beginning of her spiritual journey but a response to it. It is unlikely someone of this stature would suddenly make this trip unless they had already been in spiritual pursuit and saw it as an opportunity to get answers to questions she already had. Based on the tone of the narrative, her response to his answers, and what Jesus said about her, it does not seem like the correct interpretation to say that she came strictly to challenge Solomon. It is also unlikely that the queen sent Solomon a set of questions in advance, so he could prepare answers. Solomon already had the wisdom of God to give her the answers she was looking for. Notice in verse 9 she uses the phrase “Blessed be the LORD thy God” which is distinctly Hebrew. How did she come to know the scriptural lingo of Israel? Was she like the high-ranking Ethiopian man who went to Jerusalem to worship the God of the Jews and had a copy of the book of Isaiah which even most Jews did not have (Acts 8:26-40)? He was reading it but did not understand its meaning, so God sent Philip to explain it to him. Ethiopia and Sheba were near each other.
We are living in a day of great questioning and searching. People have many questions, but not many real answers, and often those that are offered are empty of substantive truth. There are many queens of Sheba and Ethiopian eunuchs out there who are not satisfied with the paganism they are surrounded with and the false ideologies of humanism and materialism. Their souls are hungry for truth and righteousness, and there is only one place their hunger can be satisfied - the word of God revealed in the Bible (2Tim 3:15-17, 2Pet 1:19-21). The people in the days of Jesus Christ were tired of empty religion, and when they heard the Lord speak they found His words full of spiritual authority and not like those of the hypocritical religious leaders of the day (Mt 7:28-29). If you are a queen of Sheba or an Ethiopian eunuch, your search is over. You can find the answers to all of your questions in the Bible. It explains where we came from, why we are here, and where we are going. There is no situation we can encounter in this life that does not have an applicable principle in the Bible to help. If you are a Christian who is born again (Jn 3:5, Acts 2:38), you need to be ready “to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope that is in you with meekness and fear (1Pet 3:15)”. Whether the queen of Sheba comes to us, or God sends us to the Ethiopian, we need to be ready to help them find the answers they are looking for. The enemy wants us to only see the confusion and darkness, and the spiritual apathy and disinterest of some, but God is dealing with people. He is preparing them and moving them toward the people of God, and we need to be there to receive them. To both people, “If any of you lack wisdom, let him ask of God, that giveth to all men liberally, and upbraideth not; and it shall be given him (Jam 1:5)”.