February 15, 928 B.C.

Sweat found tracks down the side of Azariah’s face as he led the way for his small band to enter into the temple. The rusty hinges on the cedar door made a slight squeak as he pushed it open. Azariah couldn’t believe King Solomon kept no guards over the temple during the darkness. Once inside, they all kept their backs to the wall and moved with small quiet steps until they reached the alter. They stopped and stood in awe of the glimmering golden object that faced them.

"The Ark of the Covenant." Azariah uttered through clinched teeth. He gave the other young men a chilling look defying them to turn back. Elyas glanced at the golden box decorated with a pair of angels facing each other with lowered heads and feathers draping below their extended wings as they held hands. "I cannot do this. Moses used this object to house the tablets containing the Ten Commandments. We cannot take it."

The other members of the group began to fidget and feel guilty about their dark deed, but Azariah knew no guilt, only revenge. He could still feel the humiliation watching his father, the high priest, drop to one knee saying, "Long live King Menelik!" He could still see Menelik laying hold upon the horns of the alter and being anointed with the oil of Kingship. How he hated this dark intruder whose appearance unlike his own was handsome, and his voice pleasing. His posture and bearing was noble, a duplicate of his father, King Solomon. Azariah’s hatred for Menelik was so deep that he thought it would tear him apart.

Azariah first became aware of his jealousy toward Menelik, when King Solomon invited Menelik, his first born son, to sit on his throne. Menelik rejected the offer, saying that his mother, Makeda—the Queen of Sheba, made him swear that he would not stay long or marry a wife from Solomon’s court. He saw that the elders also became jealous of the close relationship between Menelik and Solomon and voice their outrage saying Menelik should leave and return home. King Solomon decided then that if his son had to leave then the first born sons of all the Nobles of Israel would accompany him back to Sheba. For two years Azariah watched Menelik learn the laws of Israel, and their methods of war, and the wisdom of Solomon. Azariah was never given the opportunities that Menelik took for granted. It was his dream to train as a soldier, but occupations were passed down from father to son and so his destiny was set in stone. He was never taught the Greek language or trained in Egyptian medicine, and people never received him with the same respect as Menelik. He was angry because now he had to leave the gates of his home with no control over his own destiny. He and the firstborn sons of the elders would now rule over Sheba along with Menelik. But unlike his father, Azariah silently vowed, he would never bow or kneel to this dark intruder.

Azariah gave Elyas a piercing look. He remembered the night that he and the mothers and fathers of the doomed sons wept when Solomon seized them against their will, and forced the sons of all twenty one, who sat on Solomon’s right hand, to sit on Menelik’s right hand side. He also remembered Solomon giving Menelik horses, chariots, riding camels, mules, wagons, gold, silver, purple silk, gems and precious stones, and riches beyond anything he had ever seen. Azariah frowned, "Because of Menelik, we must all leave our families and live in a land where we do not belong. A land of people burned by the sun." Feel guilty if you must, Elyas, but do not ask me to join you. Now that I will be separated from my family, I want to take this Ark. It is the only thing that the king treasures more than his son. Now come he beckoned with a dark frown. "Let us remove this Ark as quickly as possible before we are discovered. "Here," He tossed a long linen cloth to Elyas who fumbled nervously and dropped the cloth. "Wrap this cover around the Ark," and let us leave with haste. The small band rejected their innermost feelings, and obeyed his command.

Two of the young men carried the poles at either end of the object and Elyas and Azariah at the other. Supervising the theft, and watching Elyas struggle with his pole, Azariah barked loudly, "By all that lives, can you not raise your side higher than that. He lowered his voice when he heard the distant voices and footsteps of two soldiers passing by. He raised his hand up signaling his band to be perfectly still. Once the soldiers passed by he whispered, "Come, let us leave this place now. We will hide the Ark on the back of my camel, and leave with the caravan at sunrise. Azariah smiled at his dark deed and thought. "When Solomon finds the Ark missing, he will blame Menelik and lose all confidence in his precious son. If Solomon sends soldiers after the caravan, we will say that Menelik forced us to take it.

Once the caravan was far away from Israel, seeing that Solomon’s soldiers would not come, Azariah revealed to Menelik what they had done. Menelik wisely reasoned that they could not have stolen the Ark unless God had willed it. Therefore he decided rather than returning the Ark, that it would rest in Sheba, and with it, he would establish his ruling dynasty.

***

For two long months, Menelik had marched with his caravan of camels, horses, soldiers, merchants, and musicians singing songs and playing flutes. Now he finally arrived home. Two years had passed since he had left Sheba as a prince of twenty two, now he returned as Sheba's first anointed king. Solomon had given him dominion over Sheba from the river of Egypt to the setting sun, and from the land of Shoa to East of India.

As the caravan approached the gates of Sheba, Azariah and Elyas rode silently at Menelik’s side and listened to the liveliness of the city echo through their ears. A young man cried out loudly, "Prince Menelik returns!" The crowd began to cheer ecstatically. . Azariah and Elyas looked around and saw a great crowd of people. Noblemen and women dressed in fine linens walked about whispering to each other, women tilling the fields dropped their produce and ran toward the caravan, Merchants had closed up shop selling their abundant wares, serfs dropped clay pots filled with water and baskets of larder where they stood to get a better view, and a multitude of children danced and played throughout the streets.

Queen Makeda stood on the porch of her palace and waved to her son when he came into sight. His handsome facial features, eyes, legs and stature were similar to his father's. He had been a good son and was finally returning to her hopefully bearing the emerald ring which Solomon had given her on their wedding day. She had given it to him to take to his father to prove his identity. But Solomon needed no proof. Menelik looked like a younger version of himself.

Once inside the gates, Menelik walked into his mother’s embrace and fell to one knee. With arms extended and head bowed, he kissed her hand and placed upon her index finger the emerald ring that she had given him. Then he stood up and greeted her wrapping his arms around her shoulders and kissing her face. He looked into her eyes and said. "I am so glad to be home mother." She led him to the welcome table where they both sat in large carved chairs cast in gold and velvet cushions. "Tell me about your journey, my son. How is your father?"

Menelik gave her the look of a devoted son and said "Mother, they have stolen the Ark of the Covenant from father’s temple." Stunned at his statement, Makeda remembered seeing the golden object when she visited Israel many years ago. Menelik went on with his report while his mother gave him a perplexed look. Losing thought of her many questions, she came to the sudden realization the meaning of a dream she had on the night of Menelik’s birth. She dreamt of a fierce golden lion with paws that stretched out into distant lands. It lashed out at the land of Nubia, with its fierce golden paw. The lion drank from a great lake to the west, and jumped southward toward a great desert. The lion grew so large that it covered all the surrounding lands including lands across the Red sea. The lion made a great pounce and ended in Israel then returned to Sheba with a golden object on its back. Makeda finally realized the secret of her dream—Menelik was the fierce golden lion in her dream; the Ark of the Covenant was the golden object the lion carried on its back. She acknowledged that her son, like his father, would become a powerful king whose kingdom would stretch out into distant lands far more than her own. She now believed in her heart that as the first king of Sheba, Menelik would soon crush their enemies, expand his kingdom, and assimilate villages and clans far and near into one powerful Sheban Axumite empire.

"My son, this is wonderful news you have brought. Now I understand what I quickly must do." Makeda began to mentally organize Menelik’s coronation. She looked at her son and thought to herself, my son will be Sheba’s first king.

***

Three days later, Prince Menelik and Queen Makeda walked up the palace stairs with slow regal strides that matched the beat of the royal drums. The voices of the royal choir could be heard with the sound of harps and flutes playing softly in the background. Once they reached the alter, they stood before the Ark of the Covenant and were received by Tena, the high priestess and Azariah and Elyas. Makeda left Menelik’s side and took a gold vessel of oil from Tena who submissively bowed her head turning over her duties to the new religious leaders. After some praying, sprinkling, and rubbing of oil on their brows, she anointed Azariah Chief of the Priests and Elyas the Chief Archdeacon. The Choir sang louder as Makeda took the oil and rubbed it on Menelik’s forehead, eyelids, nose, mouth, ears and finger nails, and anointed him as Sheba’s first king.

They all began chanting for a short while, and then Queen Makeda stood. "Today we celebrate the coronation of Sheba’s first king." She beckoned Azariah, Elyas and all of the sons of the elders to stand before her. "I command you all to swear never to make women queens or set them upon the throne of Sheba, and that no one except the male seed of Menelik the son of Solomon the King of Israel should ever reign over Sheba." Makeda then relinqished her crown and put it on Menelik’s head and said, "today we celebrate the crowning of Sheba’s Lion of Judah.

After Menelik had been crowned, and his court had rested in Sheba for three months he and the Makeda rose up to wage war against Sheba’s long time enemies. With the power of the Ark at their side they laid waste to all of their enemies always giving them the chance to submit or die. While they were away on their campaign, an invading clan of powerful Nubian warriors and their Pharaoh swiftly took over the port city of Adulis, a territory belonging to Menelik, with the objective of controlling the frankincense trade.

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