Jabez's Prayer

 

Jabez’s Prayer

1 Chronicles 4:9-10

 

“Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother named him Jabez saying, ‘Because I bore him with pain.’ Jabez called out to The GOD of Israel, saying, ‘If only You would greatly Bless me, and enlarge my territory (border). Let Your hand be with me and keep me from harm so that I might not suffer pain.’ ADONAI granted what he asked.” TLV

 

What do we know about Jabez? He was a descendent of Judah and he sought GOD for a blessing and GOD answered his prayer.

 

Many of the teachings on the prayer of Jabez are on GOD’s Faithfulness to answer prayer and so we should seek GOD’s Blessing. I believe the emphasis should be on the fact that Jabez, about whom almost no information is given in a book about the descendents of the Patriarchs of the nation of Israel; should be on seeking GOD.

 

His name literally means, “He will cause pain.”, in the KJV the term “sorrow or sorrowful” is used. His name is also the name of a city (1 Chronicles 2:55) in Hebrew it is Ya‘bêts (Jabets) which is from an unused root probably meaning to grieve or sorrowful. (Strong’s 3258)

 

It says he was more honorable than his brothers, in Hebrew it is kâbad or kâbêd a prime root; to be heave, i.e. in a bad sense (burdensome, severe, dull) or in a good sense (numerous, rich, honorable). Obviously this pronouncement is in the good sense, then honorable must have meant in his life style, the way he lived his life, that is what GOD is after in all of our lives. (Strong’s 5315)

 

What he prayed for was for GOD to enlarge his territory (border), in the KJV it is “coasts”. In Hebrew it is g^ebûwl or g^ebûl, from gûbal, probably meaning a cord (as twisted), i.e. (by implication) a boundary; by extension the territory enclosed: – border, bound, coast, X great, landmark, limit, quarter, space. (Strong’s 1366)

 

And GOD answered his prayer!

 

The teachings I have heard on this passage of Scripture are about seeking GOD’s Blessings, but that is not the theme of The Bible, the theme of The Bible is to seek GOD!

Deuteronomy 4:29; 1 Chronicles 16:10-11, 22:19, 28:8-9; 2 Chronicles 7:14, 11:16, 14:4, 15:2,12, 19:3, 29:3-4, 30:19, 31:21, 34:3; Ezra 4:2, 6:21, 7:10, 8:21-22; Job 5:8, 7:21, 8:5; Psalm 9:10, 22:26, 24:6, 24:4,8, 34:10, 40:16, 53:2, 63:1, 69:6,32, 70:4, 83:16, 104:21, 105:3-4, 119:2,45, 122:9; Proverbs 2:4, 8:17, 28:5; Isaiah 26:9, 34:16, 51:1, 55:6, 58:2; Jeremiah 29:13, 50:4; Daniel 9:3; Hosea 3:5, 5:6,15, 10:12; Amos 5:4,6,8; Zephaniah 2:3; Zechariah 8:21-22; Malachi 3:1; Matthew 6:33; Luke 12:31; Acts 15:17, 17:27; Colossians 3:1; Hebrews 11:6. All of these  Scriptures are about seeking GOD, His Kingdom, His Righteousness and His Wisdom, I am going to highlight only two, two of the most well know Scriptures; Isaiah 55:6 and Matthew 6:33.

“Seek ADONAI while He may be found, call on Him while He is near.” This Word from The LORD comes in between the revelations about the coming Messiah and the revelation about the Glory of the end of time.

“Seek you first The Kingdom of GOD and His Righteousness, and all of these things will be added to you.” JESUS is dealing with the worry about our natural life when He is offering us His Eternal life. (Mark 8:35-38)

 

There are many scriptures that tell us that there is a time when people will seek GOD and He will not be found! Not dwelling on the negative I will only show two.

Proverbs 1:20-32 “Then they will call on Me, but I will not answer; they will seek Me diligently, but they will not find Me.” verse 28.

Isaiah 1:10-15 “When you spread out your hands, I will hide My eyes from you; even though you make many prayers I will not hear, your hands are full of blood.” verse 15.

 

JESUS told us to store up treasures in Heaven not on the earth (Matthew 19-21, 24). The emphasis of The Scriptures is always about the eternal, the natural comes first as a type of what is eternal. I Corinthians 15:35-49, “And so it is written, ‘The first man Adam became a living being.’ The last Adam became a Life giving SPIRIT. However the spiritual (eternal) is not first, but the natural and afterward the spiritual.” verse 45-46.

 

So seek GOD first while He is willing to be found! There will be a time when people will seek GOD but He will not be willing to be found and they will die in their sin.

One is immediately after death when the lost will want to be forgiven but cannot.

The other is the last day, the day on which the battle of Armageddon is fought and CHRIST establishes His millennial reign over the nations.