IN the first book of Chronicles (chapter iv., verse 10) we have the record of one who is remembered for the prayer he offered up to the God of Israel. The record of the inspired chronicler is in the following words: “And Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh! that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. And God granted him that which he requested.” Some men are remembered for their deeds of daring, others for their great benevolence, some for their piety and others for the trouble they have given to their fellow-men. But it is a rare thing for men to be remembered for their prayers. There have been, no doubt, great wrestlers at the throne of grace such as Moses, Daniel, Paul, etc., but their works as servants of the Highest are also recorded but, as for Jabez, the most that we are told of him is that he offered up a remarkable prayer to the God of Israel. There is something very fragrant in a memory that has prayer for its centre. One may have heard many a prayer but it is not every prayer that left an impression that the years have not been able to obliterate. One such prayer we remember having been offered up at one of the early conferences of our Church held at Inverness over forty years ago by one of our elders. The memory of that prayer has lingered with us after the long lapse of years. That the solemn impression made was not confined to ourselves was manifest from
the solemn stillness that pervaded the building where we met. To be remembered for prayer—earnest pleading with God with a sense of our need and a hope by faith that prayer will be heard—is not so common as one might expect among those professing to be followers of the Lord. That this was the position of Jabez, therefore, gives him an honourable place among the pleaders at the throne of grace. It is also to be observed that this gem is hidden among a long list of difficult Hebrew names—a list which many readers of the Bible are ready to pass over as having no instruction for them, all the while forgetting that “All Scripture is given by inspiration of God, and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness: that the man of God may be perfect, thoroughly furnished unto all good works” (II Tim. iii. 16, 17). All true prayer must come from the Holy Spirit who searcheth all things and who knows perfectly the will of God. We, by reason of the limitation of our knowledge, and the darkness of our understanding, are prone to ask for things that are neither conducive to God’s will nor to our own well-being. But when Jabez offered up his prayer he not only prayed but received an answer to his prayer. God always answers the prayers of His people either by granting them what they pray for or refusing to grant their petition. The latter method is as truly God’s answer as the former though it is not generally regarded as His answer. When God refused to take away the thorn in the flesh this was God’s answer to Paul as truly as when He answered the Apostle’s prayer in the storm by sending him deliverance. We are so ready to be cast down and come to wrong conclusions and to have wrong thoughts of the Lord’s kindness because the answer is not along the lines we anticipated or hoped for. We are like little children who cry bitterly when the wisdom of their parents denies them something which, with their wider experience and more mature knowledge, they know would be hurtful to the child. In the case of Jabez, however, God granted him “that which he requested.” This gives a significance to the
petitions and did space permit it was our intention to refer to these petitions in the order in which they appear in the inspired Word but owing to the exigencies of space we must forbear. May we, too, like Jabez pray that God, who is ever-blessed, would bless us with blessings indeed—blessings that are really worth calling blessings and which can come from Him and Him alone.