Great Old Testament Prayers: Jabez (1 Chronicles 4.9-10)

Introduction

I’m going to read out some names of famous people that were changed by deed poll. See if you can guess who they are. Harry Webb (Cliff Richard). Marian Morrison (John Wayne). Reginald Dwight (Elton John). Grigori Yefimovich (Rasputin). Maurice Micklewhite (Michael Caine). Caryn Johnson (Whoopie Goldberg). We're going to be thinking about names, the names we're given, and the names we give ourselves today.

In the year 2000, Bruce Wilkinson of Walk Through the Bible Ministries found an obscure Bible character and turned him into an international superstar with his 80-page book, The Prayer of Jabez.

It became a worldwide phenomenon, selling 10 million copies, rising to number one on the New York Times Bestseller list. In fact, it turned into a kind of global franchise.

In the years immediately following the publication of that little book, there followed The Prayer of Jabez for Women, The Prayer of Jabez for Teens, The Prayer of Jabez for Kids, The Prayer of Jabez Devotional, The Prayer of Jabez Journal, not to mention Prayer of Jabez music, T-shirts, basketball caps, tea towels, posters, calendars – and even a Prayer of Jabez cup – which presumably overflowed... Overnight, this little-known Old Testament bit part player became a Bible star with a registered trade mark.

And yet Jabez is tucked away, like a needle in a haystack, in the opening chapters of 1 Chronicles, which is largely a list of names. It’s like finding a winning lottery number in middle of the phone directory. Just two verses that contain (according to the guff on the back cover of Wilkinson’s book) “one simple prayer [that] can help you leave the past behind – and break through to the extravagantly blessed life you were meant to live.”

The Legacy of Pain

“What a pain!” Have you ever said that about anyone? Has anyone ever said it about you? It was said about Jabez. It’s what his name means: one who has brought me pain.

I was present at the birth of all four of our children. Nathan, our second, was born just two hours after the first contraction and he popped out almost unnoticed – even though at 7lb 14oz he was the biggest of all. Well Kathie noticed. A bit... But he was the exception.

The other three arrived after long, arduous and exhausting labour. I had to go and have a good lie down afterwards, it quite wore me out!

Kathie did not have an easy time but she didn’t take it out on the kids by naming them Ache, Pain, Agony and Ordeal. She remembers that childbirth was a difficult experience but she’s moved on.

Jabez’ mother had a difficult labour and she never let her son forget it. When she named him Jabez she wanted him – and everyone else to know - that he was a massive inconvenience to her in the delivery suite.

When parents talk, in front of their children, about all the disappointments they have felt with them, all their shortcomings, all their inadequacies and the grief it has caused them... It’s embarrassing, it’s awkward, you feel for the child who’s dying a thousand deaths, looking down in shame.

In modern terms, maybe you would say that Jabez came from a dysfunctional family, with a complaining and controlling mother who inflicted guilt on her children.

Because in spite of his unpromising start in life, Jabez overcame the setbacks created by his upbringing. The Bible says that he was honourable - more honourable than the rest of his family. The key to his victory over his unhappy childhood is his prayer. That was his secret. As someone has said, “The secret of Christianity is Christianity in secret.”

Before we break the prayer down I need to say that it’s not a magic formula. That’s maybe a trap some people fall into buying the book. “If I just say this prayer every day, things will start to go well for me.” No, Jabez poured this out with feeling and faith, born out of the heartache of his humiliation.

The Bible says “Jabez cried out to the God of Israel.” It was his impassioned expression of trust in God that grew out of his real relationship with him. But God has recorded his desperate prayer in Scripture for all time, so there are things to glean.

The prayer has four parts: Firstly, he prays that God will bless him. Secondly, he prays that God will enlarge his territory. Thirdly, he prays that God’s hand will be with him. And fourthly, he prays that God will keep him from harm so that he will be free from pain.

1) Oh, that you would bless me

So firstly, Jabez asks for God’s blessing on his life. I meet quite a few people who ask if it’s OK to pray for their own needs. They feel quite comfortable praying for others but feel it’s selfish to pray for themselves. Jabez wasn’t worried about that, he wanted the best that God has and he believed that God wanted to give it to him.

Jabez knew that the Lord had said to his ancestor Abraham, “I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing.”

Jabez asked for God’s blessing so he could in turn be a blessing to others. Our whole purpose as God’s people, the Church, is to be a blessing to the world – but we have nothing good to offer the world if we ourselves have not been blessed first.

Jabez also knew about Abraham’s grandson Jacob who wrestled with God and said, “I will not let you go unless you bless me.” And he hung on all night until God blessed him so that his descendants would bless the whole world with unbelievable spiritual blessings. Through Jacob’s line the Messiah Jesus came into the world.

Do you say, “Well, whatever, if God blesses me that’s great but if not I’m fine with that”? Again, hear the passion in Jabez’ prayer; “Oh, that you would bless me!” Are you the type who is ready to wrestle with God in prayer, and pour out your soul, just refusing to let go until he blesses you?

Ask God for new blessing on your life. Go on, ask! Pray that he will light a fire in your soul. Pray for a flowing in of favour, a brimming over of blessing, the measure of which is too great to contain and which spills over to enrich others.

2) And enlarge my territory!

Jabez also asks that God will extend his territory, meaning his family will have more land to live in and that his life of faith will have a greater reach. Have you ever asked God for something so big that you could not possibly do it by yourself, it would have to be God? Ask God to enlarge your sphere of influence. Ask him to extend your territory.

At a time of great national humiliation, God spoke in Isaiah 54. This is what he said: “Enlarge the place of your tent, stretch your tent curtains wide, do not hold back; lengthen your cords, strengthen your stakes. For you will spread out to the right and to the left; your descendants will dispossess nations and settle in their desolate cities.”

Look at your circumstances. Take a good look at everything that’s going on in your life. Now look beyond! God wants you to ask him to enlarge your territory.

3) Let your hand be with me

The third thing Jabez asks God for is that God’s hand will be with him.

I remember when I was small we used to go out for family walks along the seafront at Leigh on Sea. We’d walk beside the railway line, past the boat builder’s yards, jump on piles of cockle shells and end up buying toffee apples – and then getting sticky mess all over dad’s car on the way home. But I used to love holding my dad’s hand on those walks. I felt secure and loved.

But that is not what the hand of the Lord means in the Bible. It means his power and favour in the lives of his people. It says in Joshua 4 that God dried up the Red Sea “so that all the peoples of the earth may know that the hand of the Lord is powerful and so that you might always fear the Lord your God.” It says in Acts 11 that “the hand of the Lord was with them and a great number believed and turned to the Lord.”

Ask God today that his hand will be on your life so that you can accomplish something great, something astounding for him. Something so remarkable that when it comes to pass, everyone will have no option than to say, “that could only have been the hand of God.”

4) And keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.

The fourth and final part of Jabez’ prayer is that God will keep him from harm that he will be free from pain. Causing pain and being called a pain caused him pain and he will have no doubt have caused pain in turn because hurt people hurt people.

Has anyone here heard of kintsugi? It is the Japanese art of repairing broken pottery with gold or silver lacquer. It takes a breakage and makes it into something beautiful. That is what God wants to do with all our pain and brokenness – turn it into something beautiful and one of the ways he does it is through prayer.

But his prayer is that God will intervene so that cycle will stop. It was time to reverse the curse. It was time to sever every unhealthy, spiritual chain. He did not want to cause any more pain. He wanted to be free from all those bad words spoken over his life. He wanted to be delivered from the harm that bitterness and unforgiveness cause. He wanted his life to be a blessing, not a byword for misery.

And God granted his request.

But this prayer is not so much about Jabez as about his God. It’s about the faithful, wise and gracious God who hears Jabez’ prayer and answers it. The Bible says, very simply, “And God granted his request.”

I’m not into quoting poetry in my preaching, but I found this a few days ago and thought I’d share it – because I felt that it might speak to anyone who feels that prayer is just therapeutic and that it doesn’t really change the way God acts in the world.

Some say that prayer is all in the mind,

That the only result is the solace we find,

That God does not answer, nor hear, when we call;

We commune with our own hearts in prayer – that is all.

But we who have knelt with our burden and care

And have made all our problems a matter of prayer

Have seen God reach down from heaven above;

Move mountains, touch hearts in his infinite love.

We know that God works in a wonderful way

On behalf of his children who trust him and pray.

Ending

So often in the Bible people are named by experience.

Isaac means laughter because when he was born, Abraham and Sarah laughed again after years of shame and sorrow. He was named by Abraham and Sarah’s experience.

Joseph, after being rejected by his brothers, sold as a slave, falsely imprisoned and then elevated by Pharaoh called his two sons Manasseh (meaning God has helped me to forget) and Ephraim (which means God has caused me to prosper). They were named after Joseph’s experience.

Jesus renamed Simon (which means reed) Peter (which means rock). He was renamed by the experience of gaining stature as a leader.

Our daughter Anna was born on Good Friday and her name means grace.

Most of us are not named by experience. We are named after people or because our parents like the sound of the name.

But many of us are labelled by experience. Have your experiences labelled you? Have you assumed an identity that is shaped by your experiences? I’m divorced. I’m slow. I failed my children. I’m not very bright. I’m a failure. I’ll never amount to much.

I can still hear in my mind the exasperated voices of the Irish nuns who educated me. “John Lambert, three out of ten! Hopeless!”

Well listen. The Apostle Paul in Philippians 3 says “One thing I do: forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize.” It’s odd, he says “this one thing I do” but then he lists two things. He says 1) I forget what is behind and 2) I press on toward the goal.

There’s no mistake. He says “one thing” because in order to go forward, you’ve got to leave the past behind. You can’t move on and advance in life if you’re still carrying resentments and looking back in anger. Forgetting the past and pressing on ahead are one and the same thing. Forget the pain of the past; let it go.

And the Bible tells us that Jabez was more honourable because he refused to allow his name and his label to define him. “All right, so my parents called me pain” he said. “But God calls me to blessing and enlargement, and favour and to be free.”

God’s word says you are a child of God, you are adopted by grace, you are the apple of his eye, you are a new creation – and your past doesn’t determine your future, provided you live in the name God has given you and not the name experience has labelled you with.

Never mind what people have said over you, what has your Father said about you?

Jabez started lie as a messed up person. There are plenty of those around. As Homer Simpson says “The Bible is full of messed up people – except this one guy…”

You know who he means don’t you? Mary gave birth to him in pain as well but just think of the blessing he was to others…

The cross is all about excruciating pain. My sin inflicted unbearable pain on Jesus. His body was filthy from the cell where he was kept. He had spit running down his face. His back was lacerated by whips. There were deep bruises all over him from the beatings he endured. The crown of thorns caused a river of blood to stream down his head. He took upon himself the crushing weight of the sin of the whole world it tore him out of his Father’s presence.

But on the third day he rose again and triumphed over death. That’s how he made it possible for your pain to be the seedbed of his blessing in your life.

Jabez was more honourable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, ‘I gave birth to him in pain.’ Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, ‘Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.’ And God granted his request.

Let’s stand to pray…

Sermon preached at All Saints' Preston on Tees, 28 February 2016