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The first and second books of Chronicles were originally one, and they form the last book in the Jewish Bible. The material in 1 Chronicles includes stories from Genesis through 2 Samuel, and the first nine chapters offer the most extended genealogy in the whole Bible. Genealogy is a way to establish a connection with the past, which was as important to the Israelites as it is to us today, as we take DNA ancestry tests or use the Internet to research our family history. Throughout time, people have hungered to have a deeper understanding of themselves and their family tree.
As chapter 4 begins, we encounter the genealogy that begins with the descendants of Judah and includes “the sons of Helah: Zereth, Izhar, and Ethnan. Koz became the father of Anub, Zobebah, and the families of Aharhel son of Harum. Jabez was honored more than his brothers; and his mother named him Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain” (1 Chr 4:1-9). The name Jabez means, “he makes sorrowful.” This is followed by the most famous verse in the book, one that has come to be called “The Prayer of Jabez.” In the year 2000, an entire book was written on this verse, one that sold more than 10 million copies. The verse says, “Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, ‘Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from hurt and harm!’ And God granted what he asked” (1 Chr 4:10).
So what do we know about Jabez? He was “honored more than his brothers” — in Eugene Peterson’s translation of the Bible called The Message, “Jabez was a better man than his brothers, a man of honor.” Jabez called on the God of Israel, believing that the LORD was the one true God. Then he asked God to bless him, believing that blessings come from God alone. Jabez requested that God “enlarge his border,” which could mean physical property or spiritual territory. He asked for God’s hand to be with him, to provide for him and guide him. Finally, he prayed for God to keep him from hurt and harm, similar to the way that we ask God, in the Lord’s Prayer, “deliver us from evil.” First Chronicles tells us that “God granted what he asked.”
This prayer seems to be quite unexceptional. But Bruce Wilkinson, the author of The Prayer of Jabez, writes, “I want to introduce you to the amazing truths in Jabez’s prayer for blessing and prepare you to expect God’s astounding answers to it as a regular part of your life experience. [The] Jabez prayer distills God’s powerful will for your future. … it reveals that your Father longs to give you so much more than you may have ever thought to ask for.” Wilkinson points out four principles in this prayer. First, God wants us to pray for his blessing. Second, God wants us to pray for his blessing on our ministry to people. Third, God wants us to pray for spiritual power in our ministry efforts. Fourth, we should pray to be delivered from evil. None of these principles is unique to the prayer of Jabez, and each is taught elsewhere in the Bible. But the prayer, writes Baptist pastor Greg Gilbert, is presented “as some kind of magic formula that will somehow hypnotize God into blessing us. [Wilkinson] writes as if he has unearthed some long lost secret amulet from the caves of the Old Testament that will unlock God’s vault of blessing for us.”
Wilkinson says that he prays the Jabez prayer “word for word,” and he tells stories of people who seen changes in their lives after “praying the prayer” for years. Such an approach seems to be counter to the advice of Jesus, “When you are praying, do not heap up empty phrases …. Your Father knows what you need before you ask him.” (Matt 6:7-8). Even worse, says Greg Gilbert, the message of the book is that the Jabez prayer cannot fail to get results. “Dear Reader,” says the Preface, “I want to teach you to pray a daring prayer that God always answers.” Wilkinson believes that the prayer of Jabez is a prayer that God always answers. “What a ridiculous and unbiblical sentence!” says Gilbert. “Christians need to recover the idea that faith is not defined as believing that God will give us what we want if we just believe hard enough.”
The Prayer of Jabez has been linked to the movement called “the prosperity gospel,” which assumes that financial blessing is always the will of God for people of true faith. Some criticize the prayer for suggesting that God should do what people want, while traditional Christian prayer is designed to help people follow God’s will. Others have criticized the book because of the way that it has been commercialized, with merchandise including key chains, mugs, backpacks, Christmas ornaments, scented candles, mouse pads, and a line of jewelry. Whether you love it or hate it, the prayer of Jabez in 1 Chronicles 4:10 is one of the Bible’s greatest hits, because of the way that it inspires discussion about the power of prayer, and debate about the ways that prayer can connect people to the will of God.
Questions:
1. What is the significance of your genealogy to you?
2. When you pray for God to help you, what happens?
3. How do you pray for God's will to be done in your life?
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