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Nestled in what most people consider to be a rather boring genealogy of the tribe of Judah in 1 Chron. 4, is a treasure of encouragement and hope. It is found in a very brief reference to Jabez, a mist who appears for only two verses in all the Bible and then vanishes away. But even though we know nothing about Jabez except what we read in these two verses, reading them blesses us with a wealth of information.

This is what the record says: "And Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, 'Because I bore him with pain.' Now Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 'Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that Thy hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep {me} from harm, that it may not pain me!' And God granted him what he requested."

Jabez was what we would call a born loser. In the first place, he was named by his mother which suggests that his father was probably dead. And in the second place, his birth was such a painful and sorrowful process that his mother named him after her terrible childbirth experience and gave him a name which meant pain or sorrow.

I heard about a young preacher who filled the pulpit one Sunday in the pastor's absence. After he preached, the deacon who was in charge said, "When I found out this young man was coming I was afraid he'd be like that piece of cardboard over there on that broken window, a poor substitute for the real thing. But now that I've heard him preach I know this young man's not a piece of cardboard, he's a real pane!

This was how Jabez was known - as a real pain. He went through his whole life with that appellation and you need to understand just how important names were to the Hebrew people to appreciate how difficult it must have been to have a name like Jabez. He was a born loser, but Jabez became a winner.

As Robert Louis Stevenson once said, "Life does not consist of having a good hand at cards, but of learning how to play a poor hand well." Jabez had been dealt a poor hand, but he learned how to play it well. He turned to God and prayed for God's blessing in his life. This evening I want us to think about Jabez and his prayer life.

I. THE VIRTUE HE EXEMPLIFIED.

Jabez was an HONORABLE MAN. We're told that he was "more honorable than his brothers." Of course, we don't know how many brothers Jabez had and we're not told in what specific sense he was more honorable than they were. Some believe that Jabez enjoyed a position of greater honor and status in the community than his brothers. Maybe he did, but when I read this, what I see is a description of an upright, faithful, and responsible individual.

That says something important about a man, doesn't it? In Isaiah 3:5, the opposite of the honorable man is the inferior man. In 2 Cor. 8:21 Paul says, "we have regard for what is honorable..." This is the kind of person Jabez was - an honorable man.

Jabez was also a HUMBLE MAN. I'm sure he experienced many humiliating moments because of his name, but that's not the kind of humility I see in Jabez. What I see is the humility of a man who knows that he needs God in his life. Jabez wanted life at its best, but he knew that wasn't possible apart from the blessing of God. He prayed, "Oh that Thou wouldst bless me indeed."

A church was having a testimony meeting one Sunday evening and several men had stood up and told how the Lord had delivered them from lives of lawlessness, immorality, drunkenness and other such things. Then, a little old lady stood up and said, "Jesus saved me from a life of ease, luxury and selfishness, and it took just as much grace to save me from my easy chair as it did to save these men from the gutter."

She was right! It doesn't matter whether we're down and out or up and out, we all need God. Life at its best isn't possible without the blessing of God. The humble man knows that. Unfortunately, the humble man is in a very small minority. Most people seem to think they can get by just fine without God. They can set and achieve their own goals. They can pull themselves up by their own bootstraps. But it never works because there's no such thing as a successful life apart from God!

I think most of us would call Moses a great and successful man, but listen to what the Bible says about Moses in Num. 12:3: "Now the man Moses was very humble, more than any man who was on the face of the earth." Moses was just a shepherd when God called him. In a million years, Moses couldn't have done what he did apart from God in his life. The fact that Moses was humble tells us that he realized that.

And what about John the Baptist? Jesus said of him that of all the men who had ever lived, there was none greater than John the Baptist. But let's not miss the fact that even though John was a powerful preacher, he was also a very humble man. He said of Jesus that he wasn't worthy to untie the thong on Jesus' sandals.

Then, there was Jesus Himself, the greatest person to ever walk the face of the earth. Jesus said of Himself that He was "meek and lowly." All the time that Jesus walked on earth, His eyes were on the Father and His ears were open to the Father's voice. He said He came, not to be served, but to serve, and even though that meant laying down His life on the cross, He prayed, "Not My will but Thine be done." Paul tells us in Phil. 2 that Jesus "humbled Himself."

True humility means seeing ourselves as we are and admitting that we need God in our lives if we're to experience life at its best. Jabez was that kind of man. He exemplified the virtues of honor and humility.

II. THE VISION HE EXPRESSED.

Jabez prayed, "enlarge my border." What that means in layman's terms is, "I want more than what I've got now." This petition focuses primarily on land. As the head of one of the families of the tribe of Judah, I believe Jabez was praying about the territorial needs of his growing family. I don't believe Jabez was praying for personal greatness. This wasn't a selfish or self-centered prayer, it was a very practical prayer in which Jabez asked God to bring about the blessing.

Composer Don Wyrtzen told the story of the great pianist Paderewski, who on one occasion was performing in Carnegie Hall. In the audience was a mother and her young son. During the intermission the woman suddenly realized that the boy was no longer at her side. Just then, over the voices of the crowd, she heard the distinct notes of "Chopsticks" being played on the piano. Her child had found his way onto the stage and was sitting at the Steinway concert grand, in Carnegie Hall, before thousands of people - playing a poor rendition of "Chopsticks!"

Now, whatever our vision of need may be, we can either go about it our way, or we can petition the Lord to do it His way. If we go about it our way we're like that child - the results of our labors aren't going to meet the challenge of the situation. Psalm 127:1 says, "Unless the Lord builds the house, They labor in vain who build it; Unless the Lord guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain." Or in the words of Jesus, "Apart from Me you can do nothing."

Paul had a thorn in the flesh that sapped his strength. He also had a mission in life that required more strength than he had. Paul's vision of need was for more strength. His understanding was that if the thorn were removed he would have more strength to fulfill his mission. But God's answer was to leave the thorn in place so Paul would have to find strength somewhere other than in himself. He did this by teaching Paul about the sufficiency of His grace to provide needed strength in any and all situations of life.

We even have visions of need in the church, don't we? I shared one with you last week in our newsletter and asked you to join us in praying for the next two months about our need for more adult Sunday School space. We all have ideas and opinions about how this need should be met, but our primary responsibility is to turn this over to the wisdom of God and petition Him to see that it gets done His way.

Jabez reminds us that there are occasions in life when our needs exceed our grasp. They can't be solved by simple common sense solutions. They can certainly be aggravated and intensified by our idiotic attempts to walk where there's no path, but they can't be solved by us.

I'm reminded of the sign in a textile factory which said, "If the strings become tangled, call the foreman." One day the strings did become tangled on one of the machines and the worker tried furiously to remedy the situation. When the foreman was finally called he said to the worker, "Didn't you read the sign?" The worker said, "But I did my best to get the strings untangled." The foreman said, "When the strings get tangled, doing your best means calling the foreman."

Jabez did the best thing he could have done in his situation. He called upon the Lord and put the burden of his need on Divine and powerful shoulders.

III. THE VALUES HE EXALTED.

Notice the next thing Jabez prayed: "...and that Thy hand might be with me, and that Thou wouldst keep me from harm, that it may not pain me!" There are times when life's greatest pain comes from getting what we want. Jabez wanted and needed more territory, but what he didn't want was for the fulfillment of that need to become a harmful and painful experience in his life.

Many a person has been ruined by success. I once knew a man who farmed over 5,000 acres of soybeans. One year he was named the outstanding young farmer in America - and it went to his head. After he received his award he boasted that he had achieved the very pinnacle of success as a farmer. He was a deacon in the church as well as a Sunday School teacher, but soon after his introduction to the limelight his life began to change. Eventually, he dropped out of church altogether, started living on the wild side, cheated on his wife, and even became an alcoholic. By the time he was forty years old, his personal life was a total wreck.

That's not something people predict for themselves, is it? Most of us think that success can only make life better. If our borders are enlarged nothing but good can come from it. But it happens. Success can open the door to great pain and sorrow in our lives. This is why Jabez prayed what he did, that the hand of God might be with him and that God might prevent success from turning into ruin. Jabez valued the providential and preserving power of God.

I believe this is a prayer we need to pray often in the church. So many times when things are going well and it seems that we're moving in the right direction, the church grounds become a battle ground and success turns into devastation and destruction. I've seen it over and over again. Every time we begin moving in the direction of spiritual vitality and growth, something comes up that threatens to sidetrack and divide. Along with praying for success, we also need to pray for God's hand to be on us so that our success doesn't degenerate into harm and pain in the Body of Christ.

IV. THE VICTORY HE EXPERIENCED.

The last phrase describes the victory of Jabez: "And God granted him what he requested." His border was enlarged, God's hand was with him, and he was kept from harm and pain in the process. If there was ever any question about the validity of Jabez' prayer, this statement gives us a clear answer - "God granted him what he requested."

The name "Jabez" is found only one other time in the Bible - in 1 Chron. 2:55. Here it's not the name of a man, but the name of a city. It speaks of "the families of scribes who lived at Jabez..." We don't know this absolutely, but I tend to believe that the city of Jabez was named after the man Jabez that we've been talking about this evening, the man whose great success and victory in life was the result of answered prayer.

Jesus said, "Ask and it shall be given to you" (Matt. 7:7). James wrote, "You do not have because you do not ask" (James 4:2). There came a day in the life of Jabez when it could be said of him that he was where he was in life because he had prayed and "God granted him what he requested."

I'd like to be that kind of man. I'd like for you to be that kind of person. I'd like for EHBC to be that kind of church. I'd like for all of us to be at that point in life where we can credit our arrival to the fact that we were a praying people and God answered our prayers.

Jabez was a mist who appeared for two verses in all the Bible and then passed from the written record. But so are we. James 4:14 says, "You are just a vapor that appears for a little while and then vanishes away." If we're to have true success in life while we're here, the Lord will have to direct it and we'll have to let Him do it. Let's let Him begin right now.

Copyright © 2005 Dr. David E. Hall