 Rev. Matthew J. Hook |
The
Prayer of Jabez, Part I: Sermon:
Scripture: |
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(Names are
spelled phonetically) Ashur,
father of Tekoa, had two wives, Hee-la and Nay-a-rah;
Nay-a-rah bore him Ahuz-zam, Hee-fer, Tee-men-eye, and
Hey-ah-hash-ter-eye. These were the sons of Nay-a-rah. The
sons of Hee-la: Zee-reth, Iz-har, and Eth-nan. Koz became
the father of Ay-nub, Zo-bee-bah, and the families of Ah-har-hel
son of Har-um. Jabez was honored more than his brothers; and
his mother named him Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in
pain.” Jabez called on 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 hurt
and harm!” And God granted his request. (1 Chronicles
4:5-10) This
is the first of a two-part sermon series on 1 Chronicles
4:9-10, which has moved from obscurity to prominence because
of a little book which is topping the New
York Times best-seller list, The
Prayer of Jabez by Bruce Wilkinson. Jimmy
Launce, who is retired now, was a well-loved radio
personality here in Detroit. After all, he was the one who
would call lingerie departments in department stores and ask
the person on the phone if they had “Freudian Slips.”
Can you imagine being one of the women who said, “Hold on
a minute, that sounds familiar.” He used to get some great
answers. For years on WJR, Jimmy Launce had a special day he
called “Hortence Waffle Day. Hortence
Waffle Day was when people would call in with the names of
friends and co-workers who had unusual names. Jimmy Launce
would try to get those folks on the show and find out where
they got their names. He would play “Pomp and
Circumstance” and read the list of names. He named the day
after a plain-sounding, rather quiet woman whose name was
Hortence Waffle. Bill Ritter’s favorite was Ima Hogg. Bill
had a friend in seminary from a small town in Ohio where
people with these names lived: Rastus Stufflebean, Cunnard
Heinhorse, and Carmer Fruit. My brother-in-law, Jeff Berry,
grew up in Kalamazoo with Crystal Leer (of the Leer Jet
family). You guessed it. Her middle name was Shanda. I know
you could add to the list, but I’ve known some unusual
ones. At each of my former two churches, there was a Candy
Cane. One of them even got married and took the name of her
husband, which was Sweders. There was a lovely woman in
Memphis whose name was Happy Heckle. And that was her
married name! Names
are fascinating. As a matter of fact, much of the Bible is
dedicated to names. The Book of Chronicles is basically a
great big list of names. It literally chronicles the history
of Israel from Adam to the Babylonian captivity, and King
Cyrus’ decree that the exiled Jews should return to their
country. It was always God’s plan that the Messiah would
come to earth and save God’s people, and the list of names
is proof that God was carefully seeing the lineage through
to the time when Jesus would be born. The Eastern culture
reveres ancestors. Isn’t it good that God enjoys writing
names into His book? First
and Second Chronicles were originally one book (on two
scrolls) written by Ezra, a scribe and priest, and it is the
last book in the Hebrew Bible. Names were vitally important
to the Jews. Each year the high priest went into the Holy of
Holies in the temple with a list of names, to ask
forgiveness and atonement for the sins of the people.
Interesting that today, as Christians, we are told our high
priest, Jesus, has our names written in the Lamb’s book of
life. Jesus himself said, “Rejoice that your names are
recorded in heaven.” (Luke 10:20) Jesus’
story of poor man Lazarus who goes to heaven and the rich
man who goes to hell contains one man’s name but not the
other’s. We know Lazarus’ name. He was in heaven with
God. We don’t know the other man’s name, though he was
rich. It illustrates the point: either your sins get blotted
out, or your name gets blotted out. One definition of hell
is a place in which God himself no longer remembers who you
are. Which
brings us to Jabez. Jabez had a problem worse than Hortence
Waffle. His mother named him Jabez. It means “Born with
sorrow,” or “He will cause pain,” unwanted by his
mother. Why would his mother do that? Perhaps the pregnancy or the
delivery was traumatic. Perhaps the mother’s pain was
emotional. Maybe the father abandoned them or died. Whatever
the case, he grew up with a name any boy would love to hate.
Imagine the bullying and teasing of being unwanted. Yet, it
was even more serious than that. In Bible times, a man and
his name were so intimately related that “to cut off the
name” of an individual amounted to the same thing as
killing him. Jabez likely grew up bitter. His attitude may
have reflected his name. The
difference with Jabez is that one day he decided to do
something about it. He didn’t just whine about it. He
didn’t seek restitution. He didn’t just go to the
pastor. He took his problem to the Word of God: the Bible.
Jabez had grown up hearing about the God of Israel who had
rescued his forefathers from slavery, and rescued them from
powerful enemies. Jabez may have read these
words in Genesis 35: “His mother named him Ben-oni, which
means ‘Son of my sorrow or misfortune.’” Rachael was
dying, and Jacob loved her. Her last request was to name her
son Ben-oni. But Jacob said, “No! We will name him
Benjamin,” which means “Son of the right hand.”
Instead of labeling Benjamin with a mantle of sorrow, Jacob
gave him a name of honor. Jacob knew what a name could do to
a person. Jacob’s
name meant “Cheat, or heel-grabber.” And he fulfilled
his name. He deceived everyone around him: his brother Esau,
his father Isaac, and his father-in-law Laban. But then
Jacob wrestled with God and God changed his name to Israel,
which means “He persists with God.” After Jacob wrestled
with God, Jacob asked God to bless him.
Jacob
changed Benjamin’s name and God changed Jacob’s name.
Jabez wasn’t so fortunate, so Jabez had to do something to
take the focus off his name.
Jabez
prayed to God, Oh,
that You would bless me indeed, (which is what Jacob also
prayed, but Jabez went on…) Next
week we will examine this little prayer in more depth. Let
me just give you some initial observations. Jabez
prays to be blessed indeed by God. Blessing is not about
what you get after sneezing. It’s about looking for
God’s supernatural favor. It’s not about what we can get
for ourselves; it’s about what only
God can give. Jabez
prays for God to enlarge his territory. In Israel, you could
buy land until the Year of Jubilee, every 50 years, when
debts were canceled and everything would go back to the
original families. So in ancient Israel, you couldn’t
enlarge your territory unless you took something away from
the enemy. When was the last time you took something away
from the enemy? When was the last time you took something back
from the enemy? Just
last week someone lovingly confronted me on how negative I
have been over the last several months. I realized how I was
letting hurt pride and frustration define my attitude. My
attitude was not of God. It got in the way of who God had
created me to be. I have reclaimed God’s joy and hope and
plan for who He wants me to be. Jabez
prays for God’s hand to be with him. Think of the widow
Jesus observed at the temple, who gave what she had. She
thought to herself, “I only have a handful.” But the
amount you have depends on Whose hand you are talking about.
If you are in God’s hand, if you are praying for God’s
hand to be with you, you are literally in touch with Divine
power. We have available all that God has. Paul, in his letter to the Ephesians, writes: “I
pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that
you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the
riches of His glory…and what is the surpassing greatness
of His power toward us who believe.” (Ephesians 1:18-19a) Jabez
prays for God to keep him from evil, that he may not cause
pain. That’s not just pain for others, it includes pain for
yourself as well. Evil causes pain, and when we entertain
evil, we are asking for pain. Maybe not directly, maybe not
right then and there, but we can count on evil or sin always
causing pain. How sensible to pray for God to keep us from it! God
granted it. In closing, let me ask, what do we
pray for? A good model for us is to pray this prayer daily.
Jabez must have been transformed by this prayer. The name
Jabez is mentioned only one other time in the whole Bible. In
1 Chronicles 2:55, Ezra writes: “The families of the scribes
who lived in Jabez.…”
The people honored Jabez by having a city named after him, a
city in which the families of the scribes lived. Let
us follow in the footsteps of Jabez.
Let
us remember that our past, even the name we’ve made for
ourselves, does not have to define our future. Let us take our
problems to God’s Word.
Let
us give ourselves to the Lord who holds the Book of Life. Let
us pray for God’s blessing.
Amen.
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