Visiting the Prayer of Jabez

The account of Jabez is in just two verses, like an oasis out in the middle of a desert of “begots” in I Chronicles 4:9-10, and no direct relationship is tied to any of those named around those two verses. Jabez is an obscure person, whose only claim to fame is that he prayed a simple prayer, in faith, which God answered.

Well, he was first identified as one more honorable than his brothers, however, and that tells us a lot about him right away.

His mother did him no favor by naming him Jabez, meaning “he will cause pain”, because he brought her much pain at birth. Growing up, I can imagine he had a hard time with his peers, wanting to play with them, while they ran away because his name announced the effect of his presence with them. Yet, he is known by God as more honorable than his brothers.
His prayer to the God of Israel has four requests:

1) Oh, that You would bless me indeed and
2) enlarge my territory;
3) that Your hand would be with me, and
4) that You would keep me from evil that I might not cause pain.

(So God granted him what he requested.) Why did the Holy Spirit record this for us to read and ponder over?

Could it be that God is telling us, though we feel obscure and insignificant, and are thought of as weird and peculiar (as sometimes happens), He does hear our prayer, and He does want eagerly to answer it? If there was anything selfish in Jabez’ request, God did not seem to take notice of it. Therefore, I suggest we just ask God what is on our hearts and let Him sort out one thing from another, for He knows all things. “For all the promises of God in Him [Christ] are Yes and in Him, Amen…” I Corinthians 1:20.

Gene Lawley