When the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon and his relation to the name of the LORD, she came to test him with hard questions.
How happy your men must be! How happy your officials, who continually stand before you and hear your wisdom! Praise be to the LORD your God, who has delighted in you and placed you on the throne of Israel. Because of the LORD’s eternal love for Israel, he has made you king, to maintain justice and righteousness.” 1 Kings 10:1, 8-9
One of the major patterns that we see throughout Scripture is the concept of “being blessed by God to be a blessing to others.” The phrase sounds like a sugary sweet twenty first century cliche, but Scripture teaches time and again the idea that God blesses a people so that they may bless others. In fact, you could rightly argue that it was why Jesus came to earth. He blessed his disciples and they in turn blessed others who blessed others, and so on. Of course the highest blessing is salvation but the principle of blessing still remains. The queen of Sheba seems to have understood this and praised Solomon’s God because of it!
We have been blessed with many material things, much like Solomon was. We have money, land, houses, gold, silver, bank accounts, savings, investments. We also have families, friends, Salvation, wisdom, talents, skills, and a God who loves us unconditionally. So the very same question I ask myself, I’ll ask you: what are you doing with your “blessings?” Are you hoarding them or are you richly blessing others? Take a look at both of those lists again. What one thing can you bless others with this week? Just one.