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Context No. 1673 of 4322 · 1 Chronicles

Context · Reflection

1 Chronicles 4:9-23: in context

9Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother named him Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him with sorrow.” 10Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border! May your hand be with me, and may you keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!” God granted him that which he requested. 11Chelub the brother of Shuhah became the father of Mehir, who was the father of Eshton. 12Eshton became the father of Beth Rapha, Paseah, and Tehinnah the father of Ir Nahash. These are the men of Recah. 13The sons of Kenaz: Othniel and Seraiah. The sons of Othniel: Hathath. 14Meonothai became the father of Ophrah: and Seraiah became the father of Joab the father of Ge Harashim, for they were craftsmen. 15The sons of Caleb the son of Jephunneh: Iru, Elah, and Naam. The son of Elah: Kenaz. 16The sons of Jehallelel: Ziph, Ziphah, Tiria, and Asarel. 17The sons of Ezrah: Jether, Mered, Epher, and Jalon; and Mered’s wife bore Miriam, Shammai, and Ishbah the father of Eshtemoa. 18His wife the Jewess bore Jered the father of Gedor, Heber the father of Soco, and Jekuthiel the father of Zanoah. These are the sons of Bithiah the daughter of Pharaoh, whom Mered took. 19The sons of the wife of Hodiah, the sister of Naham, were the fathers of Keilah the Garmite and Eshtemoa the Maacathite. 20The sons of Shimon: Amnon, Rinnah, Ben Hanan, and Tilon. The sons of Ishi: Zoheth, and Ben Zoheth. 21The sons of Shelah the son of Judah: Er the father of Lecah, Laadah the father of Mareshah, and the families of the house of those who worked fine linen, of the house of Ashbea; 22and Jokim, and the men of Cozeba, and Joash, and Saraph, who had dominion in Moab, and Jashubilehem. These records are ancient. 23These were the potters, and the inhabitants of Netaim and Gederah; they lived there with the king for his work.

In the middle of a long genealogy, the record pauses over one man. Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, but his mother had named him Jabez, meaning sorrow, saying, I bore him in pain. And this Jabez called on the God of Israel with a prayer: oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from harm, so that I cause no pain. And the record adds, simply: God granted him what he asked.

Two small things make Jabez memorable in the midst of all these names. The first is that he was marked, from birth, by sorrow; his very name meant pain, a reminder built into every use of it of the difficult circumstances of his beginning. He did not choose that start, and he could have let it define him. But, and this is the second thing, he called on God. Rather than resign himself to a life shadowed by his painful beginning, he brought himself to God in prayer, asking for blessing, for God's hand upon him, and to be kept from harm. His was a prayer of dependence, of a man who knew he needed God's blessing and God's protection and asked for them plainly. And notice the shape of what he asked. It was not only for good to come to him, but that he might cause no pain, that in being blessed he would not become a source of harm to others. And God granted his request. There is encouragement here on two fronts. To those marked by a hard beginning, a painful history, a name or a wound they did not choose, Jabez shows that such a start need not have the last word; it can be brought to God, who blesses and keeps. And to all of us, Jabez models an honest dependence: to ask God plainly for his blessing and his hand and his protection, and to ask, too, that we cause no harm. God is not put off by such prayers; of Jabez it is simply written that God granted him what he asked.

Have I let a hard beginning or a painful history define me, or can I do as Jabez did, bringing it to God in honest, dependent prayer, asking for his blessing, his hand upon me, and to be kept from harm, and asking too that in whatever good comes to me I cause no pain to others?

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