WWUTT 589 The Prayer of Jabez and Other Prayers?

There are no magic prayers. There's no prayer that you can pray that's going to unlock God's blessings to receive more material wealth or opportunities than another person has. But we all should pray for God's grace when we understand the text.

Many of the Bible stories and verses we think we know, we don't. When we understand the text is an online ministry dedicated to teaching the Word of God in context, promoting sound doctrine while exposing the faulty.

Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Thank you, Becky. We continue with our study of 1st and 2nd Chronicles, which I started two weeks ago with an introduction to these two books. But then last week, Dr. R .C. Sproul passed away on Thursday, and so I committed that episode as a tribute to Dr. Sproul.

The memorial service was just yesterday, by the way, at St. Andrew's Chapel in Sanford, Florida, and I got the chance to watch the live stream on YouTube. I was trying to finish up my lunch and get back to the church by 1 o 'clock.

It started at 2 o 'clock Eastern Time, 1 o 'clock Central, so I could watch on my computer and celebrate with the saints the life of this man that was committed to the gospel of Jesus Christ. And the whole service was about Christ.

Of course, there were memories about Dr. Sproul, but it was all about how this man was committed to teaching the Bible and helping people understand deep doctrinal truths that come from the scriptures.

Great speakers that included Stephen Lawson and Dr. John MacArthur and Sinclair Ferguson delivered the main message. If you didn't get the chance to watch the live stream yesterday, I would encourage you to check out the memorial service, which you can still see on YouTube.

I think if you type in Sproul Memorial, it should be the first video that comes up. And you'll notice that it's over two hours long, the service wasn't really that long. I think you get all of the pre-sessional and pro-sessional music kind of added in there, but the service was only about an hour.

I know it's there because I've shared it with a few people. You should be able to find it just by typing that in. I can't tell you what Dr. Sproul's ministry has meant to me and still means to me, and I'm still going to be a faithful listener of the Reformation Network, the RefNet app that I have on my phone, and renewing your mind.

Because even though this great man is gone, and he is home with the Lord, his teaching will continue to make an impact for more than a generation, I am sure. So let's come back to our study of First and Second Chronicles, and I'll kind of do a recap of the introduction that I did a couple of weeks ago.

The Davidic Covenant, the Temple, and the People of Israel in Chronicles

So we've got three main themes going on here in these books. The reason why the Chronicles was put together, and again, we don't know who the author was, so I might refer to this writer as the Chronicler.

The Jewish tradition would say that it was Ezra, but scholars point to some things about the book that seem to suggest a little bit later date, maybe 30 or 40 years after Ezra and Nehemiah. But this was definitely written in that second temple period, and so the temple is one of those themes that we see come up quite a bit over the course of these two books, but most especially the Davidic Covenant.

That's probably the main emphasis in First and Second Chronicles, because the people of Israel, having been exiled and returned from that exile and reconstructed the temple and reestablished Jerusalem, they're looking for the fulfillment of that covenant.

And so the Davidic Covenant plays an overriding theme over the course of First and Second Chronicles. That's probably the main theme. And then, of course, the temple is one of those themes as well. And finally, the people of Israel.

So these three themes, the Davidic Covenant, the temple, and the people of Israel, the emphasis in First and Second Kings was on the kings, but the emphasis in First and Second Chronicles is going to be more on the people of God.

The kings were influential in either leading Israel in righteousness or influencing them to sin and fall away from the Lord. But what First and Second Chronicles is going to emphasize is that the people are just as responsible for the sins that they committed against God, as we look back over events that had taken place prior to the exile of Israel and Judah.

But having survived that exile, it's as though the people of Israel are asking themselves, they're asking of the Lord, why did you spare us? Why did you bring us back to this land instead of destroying us when that's what we deserved?

And it's because God is faithful to his servant David, faithful to himself, the promise that he made to David to establish his kingdom on his throne forever. So they're still waiting for that king that is going to be the fulfillment of the covenant that God made with David, the Davidic Covenant.

And that's kind of the anticipation over the course of First and Second Chronicles and why the Davidic Covenant is so central. Now, the thing that First and Second Chronicles is most known for is the list of names.

We have genealogies in these books that are unlike anywhere else that we find in the scriptures. And so I brushed through nine chapters pretty quickly two weeks ago, not wanting to read every single one of those names.

But we have these names arranged in a particular order for a reason. So we start with Adam. Very first name in the entire Bible. First man in the Bible. The first name is God. But the first first man in the Bible is Adam and that's who we start with in First Chronicles.

So it shows the genealogy from Adam to Abraham and then we have from Abraham to Jacob and that's all in chapter one. In chapter two, you have the genealogy of David and then the descendants of David in chapter three.

And then you get to the descendants of Judah in chapter four, which is jumping backwards. Because once we get through the descendants of David, then we're going back again to the fourth son of Jacob, which would have been Judah since David was descended from the line of Judah.

And it is also from the line of Judah that we're going to get the Messiah. And the people know that. That it's going to be from David's line, who is in the tribe of Judah, that the Messiah is going to come.

So the descendants of Judah mentioned in chapter four and we also have a very famous passage that occurs here in chapter four. I didn't mention this two weeks ago, but you've surely heard these verses before.

The Prayer of Jabez and Grace Instead of Material Blessing

First Chronicles 4 verses 9 and 10. Jabez was more honorable than his brothers and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him in pain. The name Jabez means pain or sorrow. Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, O that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm, so that it might not bring me pain.

And God granted what he asked. Have you ever heard those pair of verses before? Perhaps you know them to a little book that was a bestseller about 15 or so years ago called The Prayer of Jabez. It was written by Bruce Wilkinson and when Wilkinson started the book, in his introduction to the book, he said, I want to teach you how to pray a daring prayer that God always answers.

It is brief, only one sentence with four parts, and tucked away in the Bible, but I believe it contains the key to a life of extraordinary favor with God. It probably sounds like most word of faith preachers you've ever heard, right?

They always pull some sort of obscure passage from somewhere and say that this will unlock all of the secrets that you need to know about receiving blessing and favor from God. But as big a seller as The Prayer of Jabez was, it takes the passage totally out of context and Wilkinson's own life did not reflect the theology that he talked about in that book.

If I had more time, we'd go talk about all of that. But I would just encourage you to look up an article from Tim Challies on The Prayer of Jabez. In fact, when you do a search for Challies and Prayer of Jabez, the name of the article is called The Best Sellers, The Prayer of Jabez, a series that he did a few years ago on best-selling Christian books.

Rather than reading Wilkinson's book, The Prayer of Jabez, I would encourage you to look up Charles Spurgeon's sermon on this particular passage. Yes, he did a sermon on this very verse in First Chronicles 4 .10.

But the blessing that he talks about asking God for, inspired by Jabez to ask of God, the blessing that you would ask God for is his grace. Not that you would have more land, but the grace of God. And indeed God did give Jabez his grace.

And that's what's being talked about here in First Chronicles 4. So we'll also have another place where land was granted to a group of people in First Chronicles chapter 5. And God does this because he's great.

Not because, you know, you pray a certain prayer that turns out to be magic words that unlocks all of the things that God wants to give you, as long as you say the right words for them. And that's not what happened in chapter 5.

Starting in verse 18, the Reubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh had valiant men who carried shield and sword and drew the bow. Experts in war. 44 ,760 able to go to war. They waged war against the Hagrites, Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab.

And when they prevailed over them, the Hagrites and all who were with them were given into their hands. For they cried out to God in the battle, and he granted their urgent plea, because they trusted him.

They carried off their livestock, and then it mentions the spoils of war. For many fell because the war was of God, and they lived in their place until the exile. The reason why they were so successful in battle, and that they received the land and the spoils from war that they got, was because it was because of God.

Not because they did anything great, or they were particular in certain words, and so they unlocked God's blessing. It wasn't anything like that. It's because God showed his favor on them, and God gave them his blessing.

It's never dependent upon us. It is because God is gracious and merciful. So indeed, pray for the grace of God, and whatever you ask for in the name of Christ, it will indeed be given to you. All right, let's continue on now.

The Levites, the Returned Exiles, and Saul's Death

So we have the descendants of Levi in 1st Chronicles chapter 6, and that genealogy is significant because this will play a part in the spiritual restoration of Israel. The Levites, of course, handled all of the spiritual tasks that were to be done in the temple, and since the temple is such a main theme in 1st and 2nd Chronicles, the Levites have a significant portion of genealogy mentioned here in chapter 6.

Mentioned in verse 31 are the men whom David put in charge of the service of song in the house of the Lord after the ark rested there. They ministered with song before the tabernacle of the Ten of Meeting until Solomon built the house of the Lord in Jerusalem, and they performed their service according to their order.

So David appointed musicians in his courts, and they were from the tribe of Levi. In chapter 7, you have the descendants of Issachar, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Asher, and then we get to chapter 8, and you have a genealogy of Saul, or in particular the tribe of Benjamin, who was part of the tribe of Judah in the exile.

Benjamin and Judah were kind of there in the same region. And then you've got a genealogy of the returned exiles in chapter 9, and it's in this particular chapter that we have clues to a later date of the writing of 1st and 2nd Chronicles.

Not by Ezra, but perhaps a generation later than that. And then at the end of chapter 9, you've got Saul's genealogy repeated. Then we have the death of Saul in chapter 10. As far as the narrative goes, that's where I'm gonna pick up.

Saul's Breach of Faith and the Sin of Consulting the Dead

Now the Philistines fought against Israel, and the men of Israel fled before the Philistines and fell slain on Mount Gilboa. And the Philistines overtook Saul and his sons. And the Philistines struck down Jonathan and Abinadab and Malki Shua, the sons of Saul.

The battle pressed hard against Saul, and the archers found him, and he was wounded by the archers. Then Saul said to his armor-bearer, Draw your sword and thrust me through with it, lest these uncircumcised come and mistreat me.

But his armor-bearer would not, for he feared greatly. Therefore Saul took his own sword and fell upon it. And when his armor-bearer saw that Saul was dead, he also fell upon his own sword and died.

And that's fairly similar to an account that we read at the end of 1st Samuel, but we have a few extra details here. Verse 6. Thus Saul died. He and his three sons and all of his house died together. And when all the men of Israel who were in the valley saw that the army had fled and that Saul and his sons were dead, they abandoned their cities and fled.

And the Philistines came and lived in them. The next day when the Philistines came to strip the slain, they found Saul and his sons fallen on Mount Gilboa. And they stripped him and took his head and his armor and sent messengers throughout the land of the Philistines to carry the good news to their idols and to the people.

And they put his armor in the temple of their gods and fastened his head in the temple of Dagon. But when all Jabesh-Gilead heard all that the Philistines had done to Saul, all the valiant men arose and took away the body of Saul and the bodies of his sons and brought them to Jabesh.

And they buried their bones under the oak in Jabesh and fasted seven days. So Saul died for his breach of faith. He broke faith with the Lord in that he did not keep the command of the Lord and also consulted a medium seeking guidance.

He did not seek guidance from the Lord. Therefore the Lord put him to death and turned the kingdom over to David the son of Jesse. That's something that wasn't mentioned in the account that we had in 1st Samuel that one of the reasons why Saul died was because he consulted a medium.

Remember that Saul didn't consult the Lord. Instead, he wanted to talk to Samuel who was already dead. So he went to a medium to conjure up the spirit of Samuel and instead of the medium bringing about the spirit that usually spoke to her, which was a demonic spirit, she actually saw the the spirit of Samuel.

And so Saul talked to Samuel. He did what was an abomination in the eyes of God as it says in the book of Deuteronomy you will not talk to or consult a medium or a necromancer or anyone who inquires of the dead.

And because Saul did that, Samuel said to him, you and your sons will be with me tomorrow. Meaning that he was gonna die post haste. So that was one of the reasons why Saul was killed. If you ever hear somebody who has a theological perspective on communicating with the dead, that you can pray to dead saints or the veneration of the saints or something like that, sometimes when you get into discussion with them about that, they will reference that Saul consulted a medium who brought forth the spirit of Samuel.

So those spirits are watching us and they know what we're doing. But Samuel actually asked Saul what it was that he was trying to talk to him about and it was only by the hand of God that he allowed Samuel to even have that conversation with Saul.

It's not like we can call upon spirits and they will talk to us. But lest anybody try to raise the argument that it's okay to talk to spirits just as Saul talked to Samuel, point out to them that in 1st Chronicles chapter 10 it says one of the reasons why Saul was struck down and killed was because he did that very thing.

He was talking and communicating with the dead. It is forbidden for us to do that. We communicate only with Christ our Savior. Remember what we've been reading in 1st Timothy chapter 2 verse 5 where it says there is one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus.

Why is it that we can talk to Christ, but we can't talk to any other dead saint? Because Jesus did not die. Well, he died and he died and his body went in the tomb, but he came back to life and when he ascended into heaven, it was in a living body.

And so therefore we are speaking to a man who is alive even in his body, whereas those who have fallen asleep are not alive in their bodies. All right, you're not gonna be able to pray to R .C. Sproul.

He can't hear you. He's not going to respond to you. We pray to Christ only and I tell you that no one who has died is remotely concerned with the things that we are doing here on this earth. And that gets asked of me every once in a while whenever I explain the proper understanding of Hebrews chapter 12 where it says that we're surrounded by a great cloud of witnesses.

That doesn't mean that they're in heaven watching us. It means that their lives of faithfulness continue to witness to us just as we would look at a man like R .C. Sproul and his faithfulness to the Word of God.

So that inspires and encourages us to preach the gospel soundly and understand the Word of God faithfully as he did. But it doesn't mean that he's up in heaven watching what it is that we do, nor are your dead relatives watching what you do.

They are in the presence of God. Those who died in Christ and are with the Lord forever in glory, they are awed by the majesty and the holiness of God. They don't care what's going on on earth. They are praising God around the throne.

And when we die, we will join them there if you remain steadfast to the very end. So that's what they're doing. They are completely in the presence of God. The one who watches us, who searches mind and heart, is not your dead relative.

It's Jesus Christ. And he says that over and over again in the scriptures. He says it in Revelation as well. He is the one who is watching you, the Holy Spirit who's present within you. There is nothing that you can do that is hidden, for all things are laid bare before the Lord.

He is the one that you can speak to, the one that you communicate with. He is your only access to God. It is through Jesus Christ, the one mediator between God and men. So we shouldn't be consulting with dead spirits or dead relatives.

You pray to one only and that is to God through Jesus Christ. And that's where we're going to conclude for today. We'll do a little bit of prayer ourselves and the next week we'll jump into David, Anointed King in 1 Chronicles chapter 11.

Prayer for Grace, Steadfastness, and Faithful Teaching

Lord God, we praise you for your faithfulness through your Son, Jesus Christ. And we pray that you would indeed bless us with your grace and that you would keep us steadfast in Christ, faithful to the scriptures, longing to know the mind of God, which has been revealed to us through the prophets and apostles who wrote these things down.

May we desire to understand what the Bible says according to what the Spirit communicates, not what we want it to say, but what you have truly said in the Bible. And thank you for such faithful men like Dr. Sproul and other teachers that I mentioned earlier like Sinclair Ferguson and Dr. MacArthur and Dr. Lawson.

These men who have also been faithful to teach us the scriptures that we might know better the mind of God. Let us not be timid to come before the throne of grace, but we lay ourselves down before you knowing that nothing is hidden from you and we cast all our anxieties on you because you care for us.

So indeed as Jabez prayed, may your hand be upon us. May you keep us from harm and not be led into temptation, but deliver us from evil and into your kingdom at the appointed time. Keep us faithful and steadfast in the faith as we walk this earth pursuing godliness in worship to our Lord Christ with all of our heart, soul, mind, and strength.

Amen.

This has been When We Understand the Text with Pastor Gabriel Hughes. For all of our podcasts, episodes, videos, books, and more, visit our website at www .utt .com. If you'd like to submit a question to this broadcast or just send us a comment, email whenweunderstandthetext at gmail .com and let your friends know about our ministry.

Join us again tomorrow as we grow together in the study of God's word when we understand the text.