Jabez’s Example

Jabez’s Example


There was a man named Jabez who was more honorable than any of his brothers. His mother named him Jabez because his birth had been so painful. He was the one who prayed to the God of Israel, “Oh that you would bless me and expand my territory! Please be with me in all that I do, and keep me from all trouble and pain!” And God granted him his request.
1 Chronicles 4:9-10 NEW LIVING TRANSLATION


I have been looking sideways at this prayer for several years now. It is a good prayer if you really know what it means and your life is such that this indeed matches your need. Maybe you are just like Jabez and this heartfelt desperate call to God gives voice to your suffering. On the other hand, I would not recommend looking at this prayer as a magical incantation to simply get the stuff you want. And frankly, I never pray it because I do not want my communiqué with God to be a set of manufactured requests. Though, I admit I would not turn down a blessing like this if God decided to offer it.

As I go through the scriptures, this verse stands in stark contrast to everything around it.
The would-be academic in me would like to point out that Jabez’s name means Pain or Sorrow. That usually, the men named their kids and in this instance, no father is mentioned. There is also no mention of a wife and children for Jabez. Many times children were named for their personality or to reflect the life they were born into. Some were even named as messages to the nation of Israel (See Hosea 1:4, 1:6 & 1:8-9). The pain and sorrow could have been childbirth, or it could have been the pain and sorrow of being a single mother. Though all of those things could be applicable in someone’s life, the thing that differentiates Jabez is the example he laid out for the people around him and for us today. Very simply, he placed his trust in God. He asked for God’s supernatural and physical blessings. He asked God to be with him. He asked for protection from the evil he might do and from the evil of others. I do not think the blessing in this prayer is for God to give us stuff. The blessing in this prayer is that someone has shown us that God hears the prayers of the sorrowful, and the prayers of those in pain. We all feel sorrow and pain because of life’s circumstances. But the source of the sorrow and pain is that most of the time, we live life without including God.