The Man Who Had It All

There was once a man who lived what many would call a fairy tale life.  He had everything money could buy.  He had kingly power.  He was famous far and wide.  He had one of the supreme scientific minds of his day.  From his great wisdom, he authored works of literature that are widely read to this day.  The top line of his income statement each year read “25 tons of gold.”  (Figure that up at $300 per ounce!)  He would have made the people showcased on “Lifestyles of the Rich and Famous” look like poverty-stricken gutter rats by comparison. 

Even more fascinating is the fact that all of these things came directly as a blessing from the hand of God Himself.  King Solomon was a man hugely blessed of God in his early years.  But there was a fatal flaw in the character of King Solomon that became clear as his life went on.  The Bible says that “…his heart was not fully devoted to the Lord his God as the heart of his father David had been.”  Over the years, he began to take his relationship with God for granted.  He let his initial fervent love for the Lord gradually seep away  to lukewarm.

If he’d only looked earnestly into the Word of God, he may have realized!  In fact, each king of Israel was to write out the words of God’s law for himself and then continually read and study it.  If Solomon had done this, he most surely would have come across Deuteronomy 17: 16 that says, “The king, moreover, must not acquire great numbers of horses for himself…”  Solomon had 12,000!  It goes on to say, “[The king] must not take many wives, or his heart will be led astray.”  Solomon took “seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines.”  In I Kings 11: 3-6, God’s Word goes on to say that, “As Solomon grew old, his wives turned his heart after other gods… so Solomon did evil in the eyes of the Lord.”

“I denied myself nothing my eyes desired;  I refused my heart no pleasure…”  These are the words of King Solomon recorded in Ecclesiastes 2: 10.

Can money, power and fulfilling your every fleshly desire gain you happiness?  No, they cannot.  Take it from someone who’s “been there, done that.”   Solomon knows.   He can tell you.

When he was a bitter and disillusioned old man, Solomon repeated over and over again in the book of Ecclesiastes that all these things were “meaningless, a chasing after the wind.”

You were created by God to have a relationship with Him.  You were made to live in His love.  Your fulfillment comes only from knowing and loving His Son Jesus.  You can do that only  when you’ve repented of your sin, received forgiveness and been born-again.   Then you must be sure your heart is fully devoted to the Lord your God and that it stays that way all the days of your life.   Read His Word and obey it!  Don’t let your love for God grow cold as Solomon did.  Don’t chase after the fleeting things of this world that cannot give lasting peace.  You can’t be a Christian and keep Jesus off in a corner of your life, only to be pulled out and paraded in front of your friends or pastor on Christmas, Easter and a few other Sunday mornings.

“Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind  and with all your strength.”