Hidden Things

Hearing the hearing of Solomon (shema is both verb and object in 2 Chronicles 9:1), Queen Sheba visits Israel’s king with an impressive retinue (“very glorious strength”). She discloses everything that is on her heart. Solomon has a “hearing heart” (1 Kings 3:9), ready to receive others’ words. Queen and king speak heart-to-heart.

Their whole encounter is an “apocalypse,” a disclosure of hidden things. She comes with “riddles” (chiydah), and Solomon proves himself a riddler on par with Samson (chiydah used eight times in Judges 14), filled with the wisdom to untangle knots (cf. Proverbs 1:6), a riddler like Yahweh Himself (Psalm 49:4; 78:2). 2 Chronicles 9:2 makes the point with a precisely formed chiastic sentence:

A. Reported (nagad) 

B. Solomon 

C. all her words/things (dabar). 

D. Not hidden  

C’. a word/thing (dabar) 

B’. from Solomon 

A’. which he did not report (nagad) to her.

The verb nagad in A/A’ is the root of nagid, “announced one,” a term regularly used for a crown-prince or for Israel’s king, who serves under the high King Yahweh. Solomon proves himself a genuine nagid by his capacity to nagad every word or thing that Sheba asks. Hidden at the center of the verse is a negation of the verb ‘alam, “to hide”: Nothing is hidden from Solomon. 

In Romans 13, Paul says that the minister of God bears the sword as a “deacon” who ministers God’s wrath. We think sword = coercion, but that isn’t the only connotation attached to the sword in Scripture. God’s word is a two-edged sword that divides between soul and spirit, joints and marrow, and exposes the thoughts and intentions of the heart. Because the Lord bears the sword of His Word, everything is uncovered and laid bare before him (Hebrews 4:12-13). 

So too for Solomon, who uses the threat of the sword to expose the hearts of the two prostitutes who bring their case to him (1 Kings 3). By threatening to use the sword, he is able to cut the Gordian knot and distinguish between the true mother and the false. The threat of punishment can elicit confessions, bringing evidence to light that would otherwise be inaccessible. In other cases, the ruler’s sword is his own word, which draws out others’ plans (Proverbs 20:5). A clever ruler sets traps and throws out lures to expose the plots of his enemies within and outside the court. The ruler’s sword is simultaneously a light; it is a flaming sword like the sword of the cherubim at the gate of Eden, designed to strip away layers of obfuscation and to shine light into the darkness.

In this sense, every exercise of authority is an exercise of the sword. Skilled rulers in every sphere untie knots, solve difficult riddles, and bring secret things out into the open where they can be evaluated and judged.