ESOCS Devotional 24 April 2025 – Success Story
MEMORY VERSE: “If you obey all my laws and commands, I will do for you what I promised your father David.” 1 Kings 6:12
TEXT: 1 KINGS 6:1-12
And it came to pass in the four hundred and eightieth year after the children of Israel had come out of the land of Egypt, in the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel, in the month of Ziv, which is the second month, that he began to build the house of the Lord. 2 Now the house which King Solomon built for the Lord, its length was sixty cubits, its width twenty, and its height thirty cubits. 3 The vestibule in front of the sanctuary of the house was twenty cubits long across the width of the house, and the width of the vestibule extended ten cubits from the front of the house. 4 And he made for the house windows with beveled frames.
5 Against the wall of the temple he built chambers all around, against the walls of the temple, all around the sanctuary and the inner sanctuary. Thus he made side chambers all around it. 6 The lowest chamber was five cubits wide, the middle was six cubits wide, and the third was seven cubits wide; for he made narrow ledges around the outside of the temple, so that the support beams would not be fastened into the walls of the temple. 7 And the temple, when it was being built, was built with stone finished at the quarry, so that no hammer or chisel or any iron tool was heard in the temple while it was being built. 8 The doorway for the middle story was on the right side of the temple. They went up by stairs to the middle story, and from the middle to the third.
9 So he built the temple and finished it, and he paneled the temple with beams and boards of cedar. 10 And he built side chambers against the entire temple, each five cubits high; they were attached to the temple with cedar beams.
11 Then the word of the Lord came to Solomon, saying: 12 “Concerning this temple which you are building, if you walk in My statutes, execute My judgments, keep all My commandments, and walk in them, then I will perform My word with you, which I spoke to your father David.
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It is a blessed thing to have a record of accomplishment of set target. Such record that those who were not present will see and confirm. Solomon started the building of the temple from foundation to commissioning. From the records in our text, we can see that it was a great and magnificent temple. I do not know whether there is any temple in our present time that can equal the temple Solomon built in Jerusalem (1 Kings 4: 1-10).
The first success story is that of Israel. We see a record of how long it took from the day they left Egypt to the day Solomon started to build the temple. In verse 1, we read thus: “Four hundred and eighty years after the people of Israel left Egypt, during the fourth year of Solomon’s reign over Israel in the second month, the month of Ziv, Solomon began work on the Temple.”
Israel is known for accurate history. The story of the success of the past generations will surely have a lot to teach the present generation and posterity. What would we have done in the Christian faith if the records of past elects were not available to us today? Record keeping is the habit of a blessed people.
We must count ourselves among the blessed. We have to learn to keep record of Church, family and personal activities. We have to create an archive where we store records in such a way that the next in line of family, or church positions can have access to them when we are not there. There should be record of land acquisition, house building, financial dealings and key achievements. Personal life story should be kept for the future generations. It will be a source of inspiration to them. Carefree lifestyle and record hoarding is the reason for backwardness and poverty in many quarters. The mistake of today should be known through records tomorrow to avoid a repetition.
Those who obey God will have a lot of success story to tell. The record of the history reveals uncountable success of Solomon in all aspects of life. God did what He promised in Solomon’s life because Solomon was obedient. We must continue to live life in obedience to God. Learn, and practice the word of God. It is the path to success in life. May our success story be told to generations to come. Amen.
CHALLENGES
- Can you point to anyone in the Bible who was successful to the end without obedience to God?
PRAYER POINT
- Father, may my life prosper and be full of success story, in Jesus name. Amen.
FURTHER READING: 1 Kings 6:13-38; 1 Corinthians 9:13-27; 10:1-8
ESOCS Devotional 24 April 2025
