1 Chronicles 1 – 4
Chronicles starts with the genealogy of the Jewish people. Because of this, verses 4:9 – 10 were about the only real substance I could bring out of this reading:
9 Jabez was more honourable than his brothers; and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” 10 Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!” And God granted what he asked.
These two verses have been discussed by a few and actually have a whole book devoted to dissecting them. What interests me is why through all the lineage, including David, Solomon and a host of others that have whole books and sections of the Bible devoted to their lives, did the writer of 1 Chronicles focus on Jabez? Other than these two verses Jabez is not mentioned. So why did the writer move from a genealogy to talking about this one person’s prayer?
I don’t think we will ever be able to answer the “why” question, but we can look into what is said. It’s interesting that it mentions that his mother “bore him in pain.” Interestingly, Jabez sounds like the Hebrew word for pain. Also, he is “more honorable” than his brothers. Although we know nothing about them, we can only assume Jabez is a Godly person.
Verse 9 sets up Jabaz’s character and verse 10 is his prayer. The first part is asking for blessing and for God to “enlarge his border”. Often we as Christians feel we must live as the widow, in poverty. Jesus gave us multiple examples of this throughout his ministry, with comparing the rich to not being Godly. In one instance he has the rich man who is in hell asking for relief from the leper he ignored. Another Jesus asks a rich man to give up everything an follow Him, to which he compares a camel going through an eye of a needle to a rich man entering heaven. Here Jabez is asking for “more”.
He asks for God’s “hand to be with” him to guide him through life. I think more than blessing that is what we should be focusing on. Sure living comfortably would be nice, but having peace that God is guiding your way would be wonderful. We tend to live assuming God is not active in our day to day lives. While that may seem true, it’s far from reality. We interact with God 100% of our lives, it’s just if we notice it or not. So asking for guidance is really asking to open one’s eyes to the work God is doing every day.
The Lord’s Prayer asks to deliver us from evil, where Jabez asks something even safer. Instead of being delivered from evil he asks to be kept from it. The footnote in this translation for the word “harm” is also “evil”. Being kept from “harm” or “evil” is a much easier proposition than being “delivered” from it. Since many times once you have been sucked into the “evil” it causes more pain to be removed.
I think Jabez was wise to ask to be kept from “harm” since it keep one’s life much more steady. We go down paths of drinking, pornography or drug use and the “withdrawals” are painful. Also, the harm that is done in the middle of these “paths” often do intense damage to self, jobs and marriages. So Jabez is wise to keep from these path so as not to be in personal pain. Even a “forgiven” man has to live with the damage caused by his folly.
“And God granted what he asked” is something we all would like to hear. We think we are honorable and deserve the “blessings” but often as time goes on it is revealed problems that need correction before we can be “blessed”. In this instance Jabez asks from a position that is in tune with God. We need to do the same in order to ensure our prayers are heard and “granted”.
One warning, don’t think go “granting” of one’s prayers as God being your genie. We should all focus on God’s love and omniscience to know when, how and if “blessings” are to be “granted.” Try to integrate this prayer into your daily prayers and see if you notice a change.