Tag: Sheba

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Riddle me this

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Bianca Ackermann on Unsplash

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Chronicles 9.

“Now when the queen of Sheba heard about the fame of Solomon, she came to Jerusalem to test Solomon with riddles” (2 Chronicles 9:1 NASB). Other translations (ESV, NIV) say, “hard questions.” For the moment, I like riddle.

A riddle is a question that seems to be silly but has an amusing answer.

  • What’s black and white and red (read) all over? A newspaper. (A macabre answer: A bloody zebra).
  • Say my name and I disappear. What am I? Silence.

Samson posed a riddle to entertain and take advantage of the Philistines. “Out of the eater, something to eat; out of the strong, something sweet.” Spoiler: it’s the lion he killed with his bare hands where bees made a hive filled with honey (Judges 14).

So if I had a chance to speak with Solomon, a king gifted with divine wisdom, I’m not sure I would come with riddles. Instead of trick questions, I would want to know about his father David. I’d have questions about the temple. And the amazing wealth he had. And all the foreign dignitaries he had come to visit him.

So many tell me the questions they will have for Jesus when they finally see him face-to-face. I just smile. I have a feeling that none of those questions will matter when you’re with Jesus.

Posted in Through the Bible Devotions

Here…catch!

Posted on by William Douthwaite
Photo by Erik Mclean on pexels

A “through the bible” devotion from 2 Samuel 20.

After Absalom’s death, David has a lot of loose ends to tie up when he returns to Jerusalem. One of them is Sheba who hails from the tribe of Benjamin. He doesn’t support David and rallies others to revolt, too.

Joab, David’s general, leads the search for Sheba and finally besieges the city of Abel Beth-maacah where he’s hiding. With assault ramps in place, they are ready to topple the wall and destroy the city to get to Sheba.

A wise woman speaks to Joab and asks if there might be a peaceful solution. Joab says, “Sure. Just give us Sheba.”

The woman promises, “We’ll throw his head over the wall.” Sure enough, she gets the people to cut off Sheba’s head and toss it to Joab (2 Samuel 20:22).

I’ve thrown pumpkins off the top of a fraternity house. Please don’t ask me why we did this. It must have been after the annual pumpkin patch raid and a lot of beer. It was fun. And it was a mess.

A human head hitting the ground? Not fun. Bloody. Disgusting. A city escapes destruction. Joab and David win a victory. And someone gets to take home a head!

I don’t remember coloring a page about this in Sunday School. We would have needed some extra red crayons!