Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” – 1 Chronicles 4:9

Today’s Scripture Reading (February 24, 2016): 1 Chronicles 4

“But if it be a sin to covet honour, I am the most offending soul alive.” William Shakespeare places these words in the mouth of Henry V. Henry is expounding on the things that he finds important. It is not gold that he wants, he really doesn’t care who it is that is eating his food, and it doesn’t even matter who it is that desires to wear the king’s clothes. It is not these outward things that the king cherishes. But honour? That is what is important to him and that he covets.

The chronicler is giving us a list of the dominant families through the years for the Tribe of Judah (Chronicles spends the vast majority of its time on Judah because the original readers of the book were mostly from that tribe.) But as he moves through the list he stops on one man. We know very little about the man. This is really is his only mention. But the stop is important because it is one of the few stops that the chronicler makes in his lists of the generations.

The man’s name was Jabez, and chronicler says that he was “more honorable than his brothers.” Which is an amazing statement. He was of the same tribe, he was not born into nobility and he possessed no earthly title. So what made him so honorable?

We are told that his mother gave birth to him in pain. This seems to be a significant moment in his life. In fact, it is so significant that in the prayer of Jabez that follows he expresses his desire to not feel pain. But that is not the only possible translation of the prayer. A better translation might be that Jabez did not want to be the cause of pain. If you accept that as a better reading of the verse, then it follows that he as a citizen was concerned about the welfare of others.

Adam Clarke, a British Methodist theologian and Bible scholar, says that there are three reasons why Jabez was considered to be more honorable than his brothers. First, Jabez was a man of prayer. I know, we only have this single prayer written by Jabez, but it is a good one and there were likely many others. But this prayer was lucky enough to be passed down through the generations until the chronicler found opportunity to write it down. Second, he served his God. In a culture that often seemed to forget about the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob or treated him as a provincial God, Jabez was willing to lift him up and follow him. And third, Jabez wanted nothing more other than to do good among his brothers. And this made him honorable.   

And this honorable man gave us his prayer. It is a prayer that I pray frequently, although I do it in this form:

            O Lord, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my influence

            Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm

            So that I will not cause pain.        

   

Tomorrow’s Scripture Reading: 1 Chronicles 5