A Word in Season: Bless Me Indeed (1 Chronicles 4:10)

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Jabez was an honourable man. He was more honourable than his brothers.

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God in his mercy had granted him a greater measure of dignity and integrity than he had to many others in his day.

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Jabez was a man who looked to God, and so he prayed to the Lord God, and he prayed in the light of the fact that he was called

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Jabez. Now it seems that Jabez would have been a difficult birth for his mother, because she called him, he will cause pain.

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That's what his name means. And in that context, the name might have been considered an indication of character or direction in life.

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It would be a little bit like your eye being called something like misery maker or destroyer.

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And so Jabez is, you might say, saddled with this label. And he's very conscious of that and of what might be considered the baggage that goes with it.

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But Jabez is not a man to be saddled with that in a wrong sense.

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He's not going to allow himself to be conditioned or conformed to that. And so he calls upon the name of the

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God of Israel. And here is the honour of this man. Oh, that you would bless me indeed and enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.

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So God granted him what he requested. Jabez here is perhaps hanging upon the blessing that the

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Lord promised to his forefather, Abraham. Blessing, I will bless you.

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And he perhaps enters then into the spirit of that promise and says, Lord, bless me indeed.

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Bless me, yes, bless me. Bless me deeply and really and truly.

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And he doesn't over -prescribe that in his dealings with God. He doesn't just give the

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Lord, as it were, a shopping list of all the specifics that he thinks blessing involves.

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He leaves the matter largely in the hands of God in his wisdom and goodness.

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Praying only this, enlarge my territory, that your hand would be with me, and that you would keep me from evil.

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That the Lord would grant to him favour by extending his sphere of influence and operations.

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That God's hand would be with him, that his strength would be at work in him and by him.

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And that the Lord would keep him from evil, that he would restrain him from wickedness.

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That he would not only be in himself a man who was not prone to iniquity, but also that he would not then cause that wickedness to others.

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He would not be a means whereby others would come under this cloud of distress.

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In order that I might not cause pain. Jabez doesn't want his own name to be a prophecy.

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Jabez doesn't want to be the man who brings misery and destruction with him. He doesn't want to be an inflictor of distress.

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And so his great concern is that God would truly favour him. That God would enlarge and enhance his sphere of influence and operation.

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That the Lord would be pleased to work in him, in his gracious power. And that the Lord would restrain in him every inclination to evil and every possibility that he might bring harm to others.

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In order that his life would not be one in which distress and destruction follows. That he would not cause pain of any kind to others.

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But that he would truly honour the Lord. And God granted Jabez what he requested.

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Now how do you and I pray to the Lord our God? Do we truly come and plead that the

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Lord would bless us indeed? And do we see that blessing in terms of being held back from wickedness.

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Being worked in by God's spirit. And obtaining blessings from the

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Lord. In order that we might not bring misery and suffering to others.

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See Jabez's prayer is not a selfish prayer. His great concern is that in being blessed, he might then be a blessing rather than a curse to others.

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And that's a great thing for us to pray if we truly know God. For all of us have a fearful capacity to cause pain.

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And so we might pray that the Lord would bless us indeed. That he would shower upon us some of those particular mercies and favours that we require.

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In order that we might not bring sorrow and misery. But truly bring the deepest and truest joy to many others.

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That God himself would smile upon us in our prayers and his answers.