8 Blessed be the LORD your God, who delighted in you, setting you on His throne to be king for the LORD your God! Because your God has loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore He made you king over them, to do justice and righteousness.” 9 And she gave the king one hundred and twenty talents of gold, spices in great abundance, and precious stones; there never were any spices such as those the queen of Sheba gave to King Solomon. 

     It is of great concern to me, as I listen as a Pastor, to hear so many conservative Pastors talking about the influence that the Church ought to have on the nation and the government around us. More properly, it concerns me greatly when I hear them speak of the means by which we ought to go about accomplishing that influence. They almost universally speak of using the same means that the unredeemed use; polls, mailings; the exact same methods!
     But this is not at all what we see in the Scripture. Nowhere do we see God's people using worldly means to accomplish his purposes in an unsaved world. This is particularly true when that end is a spiritual goal and not a purely "worldly" end. This is most certainly the case when we talk about "winning our country for Christ", or accomplishing revival, or "turning our nation back to what it once was".
     First of all, those terms are nebulous enough, that we ought to abandoned them as uncertain because we don't really know what they mean. Let's set our goals in Biblical terms, and then pursue them with the zeal in which the Scripture commands us to pursue them.
     Here in 2 Chronicles 9, early in Solomon's reign, before any of the "distractions" had had a chance to destroy his life, Solomon had a witness to the entire world. That witness extended everywhere that the name Solomon extended. Anywhere that the ships of Israel went, to trade and to bring back goods and commerce, the witness of the Lord God of Israel went as well. The account here in 2 Chronicles 9 of the Queen of Sheba coming to Solomon is an example of how the witness the godly can have effect on winning the entire world for the Lord.
     It is important to note, that at this point in Solomon's life, he is godly. He has not yet succumbbed to the emptiness and to the terrible vanity that plagued him and seduced him away from the Lord in what was, apparently, most of his life. Here, in these early years, he is still walking with and serving his God. The result is that Sheba sees the Lord God in his life. Verse 8 of chapter 9 demonstrates this for us. She says "Blessed be the Lord your God, who delighted in you, setting you on His throne to be king for the Lord your God!"
     She not only recognizes that God has put Solomon into place, after all most people will recognize the "workings of God" in human life. But she goes on and she says that "God has loved Israel, to establish them forever, therefore He made you king over them to do justice and righteousness."
     The active testimony of what she heard from Solomon's messengers, combined with the wisdom that she heard from Solomon himself, all combined with the truth that she saw in Jerusalem in Solomons court and at the Temple itself testifying to her of the truth of the reality of God and God's claim in the world. This is the witness, the true witness that God desires to be borne to the unsaved world.    
     Her response? Submission! This is Queen in her own right submitted to King Solomon. Not only did she submit, but verse 9 says that she gave him an immense amount of gold, spices and a great abundance, and precious stones; and then the verse goes on and says "there never were any spices such as those the Queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon." She gave him the best that she had!

     Our point here is that Solomon did not use any of the modern techniques for trying to reach out to the world. Now, I understand that one could make the argument that these modern techniques did not exist back in those days. I don't think that this is a particularly legitimate point, but we'll let it pass.
     But we need to understand that Solomon and those whom he sent out did what God desired them to do. They lived life and they spoke about the God whom they served. They did not seek to make him "relevant" or shape him to the particulars of the culture or the people to whom they were speaking.
     Once the messengers of Solomon had spoken on the truth of the God of Israel in Sheba's hearing, and God moved Sheba so as that she wanted to hear more, there was a problem - the messengers didn't know more. In order to hear more, she had to go to Solomon. At some point Sheba had to go to meet with God where God was, that is in Jerusalem. I don't mean to over dramatize, but rather to avoid making this more dragged out than it needs to be.

     If we wish to reach our nation and our culture, (and I should hope that this would be our aim, - not just the "Christianizing" of our nation or the "democritization" of othr nations) we must do the same thing. It is one thing to go to them (I know that sounds horrible, "them", I don't mean it at all the way it sounds, but rather simply mean to draw the same distinction the Scripture draws between the lost and the redeemed) and to adapt our message to the culture, and to national and cultural peculiarities as we preach. But it is quite another thing when those adaptations began to compromise the message of the gospel itself. And they indeed have - Christiantiy is virtually unrecognizable these days as regards what it was just a generation ago - and no matter what anyone say - that is NOT a good thing.
     This was what happened to Solomon in the middle period of his life. He became distracted, and the witness of his kingdom, and therefore the ability of his kingdom and his kingship was completely undermined. What was possible at the beginning of Solomon's reign was not possible at the end. What Solomon accomplished at the initial part of his kingship, he could no longer do at the end. Thankfully, he returned to faithfulness at the end of his life and we have his Psalms, we have Proverbs and we have Ecclesiastes, rich resources for us as believers to teach us how to avoid his mistakes.
     We also have the example of his life and his kingdom to teach us how it is a king and nation is to conduct itself. Surely we are not a monarchy, but their example is useful to us. How should a nation and the people live? How should they conduct themselves in representing God before an unsaved world? Solomon and the Israel of his time show us the way.