Commentaries:
No entry exists in Forerunner Commentary for 1 Kings 10:3.
I Kings 10:2-9
Excerpted from: God's ThroneBut what we have here is that Solomon was richer than Croesus. Croesus was supposed to be the richest king in Turkey, in Asia Minor. And his palace and his throne, his throne room, were incomparably more luxurious, according to the queen of Sheba, than any other monarch, perhaps in the history of the world. The splendor of Solomon's throne and his throne room were just beyond compare. Nothing came up to it. And so the queen of Sheba, seeing this, praises him for his palace. You know, this is a great place. I wish I lived here. That sort of thing. But she goes on, she does not stop with just that. She says, "Man, your food is so good. And the way you've organized your court is magnificent. It's so efficient. And the service of the staff and all your officials is just top notch, A-plus. Look at the staff's clothing. That kind of clothing adorns rich men in my kingdom and they are the servants here. They've got all the nice duds. And they serve in that." So they had a really nice livery that they were to wear while they were serving Solomon.
Even the cupbearers gets her mention, about how noble they were. And how they served the king and his every whim. Because normally a cupbearer was one of the most trusted and high ranking servants of the king. And she mentioned that when the king wanted to go up to the Temple for whatever reason, they had this magnificent procession out a private door from his palace up to the Temple. And she said all of this is just magnificent. There is nothing better than I have seen anywhere in the whole world. And as the text says, she was overwhelmed by how glorious and rich and luxurious Solomon's palace was and of course the Temple compared to that very favorably too.
It says that she was breathless. It was like, "I can't believe how awesome this is!" And she felt totally awed and humbled. Remember she had come to compare her kingdom and her wealth and such with Solomon, and by the time she saw his place and all the ways he had done everything in Jerusalem, she was just deflated. She could not compare. Nothing she had was like Solomon's. His glory far outstripped hers. She lost. She lost the competition that she herself had begun.
Other Forerunner Commentary entries containing 1 Kings 10:3:
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