For some reason, I find that, when I ponder on this question, my mind takes me to the Queen of Sheba.

1Kings 10:1-10

And when the Queen of Sheba heard of the fame of Solomon concerning the name of the Lord, she came to prove him with hard questions.

And she came to Jerusalem with a very great train, with camels that bare spices, and very much gold, and precious stones: and when she was come to Solomon, she communed with him of all that was in her heart.

And Solomon told her all her questions: there was not any thing hid from the king, which he told her not.

And when the Queen of Sheba had seen all Solomon’s wisdom, and the house that he had built,

And the meat of his table, and the sitting of his servants, and the attendance of his ministers, and their apparel, and his cupbearers, and his ascent by which he went up unto the house of the Lord; there was no more spirit in her.

And she said to the king, It was a true report that I heard in mine own land of thy acts and of thy wisdom. Howbeit I believed not the words, until I came, and mine eyes had seen it: and, behold, the half was not told me: thy wisdom and prosperity exceeds the fame which I heard. Happy are thy men, happy are these thy servants, which stand continually before thee, and that hear thy wisdom.

Blessed be the Lord thy God, which delighted in thee, to set thee on the throne of Israel: because the Lord loved Israel for ever, therefore made he thee king, to do judgment and justice.

And she gave the king a hundred talents of gold, and of spices very great store, and precious stones: there came no more such abundance of spices as these which the queen of Sheba gave to king Solomon.”

1 talent (Biblical Hebrew) weighs 34.2 kg

Moving on.

Where is Ophir? I believe God will show us where Ophir is through the written word, which is, the holy scriptures or the holy bible.

Let us start with God from as late as 970 BC. King Solomon’s era.

“And the navy also of Hiram, that brought gold from Ophir, brought in from Ophir great plenty of almug trees, and precious stones… Now the weight of gold which came in to Solomon in one year was 666 talents of gold.” 1Kings 10:12, 14

I believe Ophir was booming with trade and saw many merchants come in and out with great merchandise in exchange for gold. The Kingdom of Ophir would have built a trading place!

I believe Ophir was blessed!

The house of the Lord; which Solomon built in Jerusalem was adorned with the gold of Ophir. “Now I have prepared with all my might for the house of my God the gold for things to be made of gold, and the silver for the things of silver, and brass for the things of brass, the iron for the things of iron and wood for the things of wood; …” 1Chronicles 29:2

Moving on.

“Now when they had departed, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to Joseph in a dream, saying, “Arise, take the young Child and His mother, flee to Egypt, and stay there until I bring you word; for Herod will seek the young Child to destroy Him.” Matthew 2:13.

Egypt is in North Africa with Israel also in the Northern Hemisphere. Take note of that please will you; for it is important.

Moving on.

The Queen of Sheba travelled far! How did she hear of the fame of Solomon being so far away? I would like to believe the merchants who came for gold spoke about King Solomon. They spoke of his greatness! His fame had reached far and wide!

Matthew 12:42 “The queen of the South will rise up in the judgment with this generation and condemn it, for she came from the ends of the earth to hear the wisdom of Solomon; and indeed a greater than Solomon is here.”

Here, Jesus spoke of Himself and declared that He is greater than Solomon. Notice where He said the queen of Sheba came from. Jesus said she came from the South. He said she came from the ends of the earth! The ends of the earth would mean Down Yonder or farthest South. Now, which region was farthest South from where Jesus was? This is so important because it makes us know the location of Ophir. Because that is where the Queen of Sheba was coming from; laden with so much gold.

Moving on.

We hear the name Ophir so many times in the bible:

In Job 28:16 we read the following,“It cannot be valued with the gold of Ophir, with the precious onyx, or the sapphire.”

1Chronicles 29:3-4 “Moreover, because I have set my affection to the house of my God, I have of mine own proper good, of gold and silver, which I have given to the house of my God, over and above all that I have prepared for the holy house, Even three thousand talents of gold, of the gold of Ophir, and seven thousand talents of refined silver, to overlay the walls of the houses withal:”

2Chronicles 8:18 “And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.”

Psalm 45:9 “King’s daughters were among thy honourable women: upon thy right hand did stand the queen in gold of Ophir.”

1Kings 22:48 “Jehoshaphat made ships of Thar’shish to go to Ophir for gold: but they went not; for the ships were broken at Ezi-on-geber.”

According to the world, Ophir is an unidentified region famous in the Old Testament times for its fine gold. The geographic location is thought to be somewhere, sandalwood, ivory, monkeys and peacocks were procured.

Moving on.

Ophir lies in Southern Africa; it must not go unsaid that in the modern day Zimbabwe, ancient gold mines were discovered!

Please read a 2011 clip below taken from a write up by Mukoma Ngwena Chakamwe.

“The majority if not all modern gold mines in Zimbabwe were established on such ancient workings. The country has the largest number of ancient gold workings in the world and no wonder the great Arab historian Masud referred to a thriving trade in gold at Sofala which originated from a place called Ophir in Zimbabwe. Mrs Banda thought the vast ancient gold workings on which the present day Globe and Phoenix mine stands is the ancient mine of Ophir which was famous because the Queen of Sheba got 450 tablets of gold which she took to the Jewish King Solomon to build the Jewish temple as commanded by his father King David. I found that interesting. After being given a historical background to mining at Globe and Phoenix gold mine in particular, Mrs Banda took me on a tour of the museum. Presently the museum is on open ground with old mining equipment. The Government, however, built a massive hall situated at the southern edge of the Central Business District where the old mining museum will soon be translocated. As we moved around the museum, I felt as if I was walking right at the centre of the entire mining history in Zimbabwe. It was interesting to see how creative ancient miners were as well as how much they prioritised mining. They used grinding stones to extract the gold. The grinding stones had dolly holes in the centre which was used to pound the gold ore to fine powder by rock pastels. What is interesting to note is that the ancient Shona miners, for instance, exported upwards of 30 000 ounces of purely refined gold to China, India, Israel from just one of the mines, the Globe. They did not export raw gold.”

Moving on.

The Economist issue of 18 December 2021 had the following :

Moving on.

And he shall live, and to him shall be given of the gold of Sheba: prayer also shall be made for him continually; and daily shall he be praised. Psalm 72:15

We shall take a break with a song written by Munesu Marie. I hope you will be blessed by it, as I was.

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