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In the Old Testament book of 1 Kings, we read about the life of King Solomon. It tells us there that he had been blessed by God. 1 Kings 3;9-12 tells us that Solomon only asked for wisdom but in addition to this request God also blessed him with wealth.

But Solomon knew the frailty of human nature, and in Ecclesiastes 1:1-3,14 and 2:3-4,11 he reminds us all about this, how that a man’s life is futile without God; it is finite as Genesis 3:19 tells us when God says to Adam: “…for dust thou art and unto dust shalt thou return”; so all those things that Solomon speaks of quickly disappear and we, as men and women, will be forgotten eventually.

Unfortunately, Solomon, although he was greatly blessed by God began to seek after the things of this life; beautiful women and following the gods of the nations round about Israel, until eventually he is reprimanded by God.

There is a lesson for us here, an exhortation, which is that we who believe God and are baptised into his son, Jesus Christ must be aware of the influences of this life and not fall into the same trap as did Solomon. We must be aware of our own weaknesses, those things that could lead us astray and away from the narrow path that leads to life eternal.

As we read on in 1 Kings 8; 54-61 we can listen to the wonderful prayer that Solomon prays when the Temple building is dedicated to God, acknowledging that God would bless his people Israel if they obeyed him, but on the other hand how that God would punish his people if they turned from following him (see 1 Kings 9:6-7). Reading on in 1 Kings 11;1-6 we see Solomon’s weakness coming through; it was the things close to him that made him turn away from God.

So, in conclusion then let’s look at some words from Galatians 5 where the apostle Paul encourages his readers to “…live in the spirit”, doing those things that please God and not those things that please our fleshly thinking:

“…the fruit of the spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance: against such there is no law” (Galatians 5:22-23).

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