Topic: What Makes You Honorable? (I Chronicles 4:1-10)
The world is full of people just like the ones listed in I Chronicles 4:1-10. Of the names we just read they were probably good people, upstanding citizens and probably great to hang out with.
However, we probably would never even have read their names, if it hadn’t been for Jabez and his memorable prayer that he prayed. Those names probably would have been forgotten about, and maybe not even mentioned. Not because they were not good people, but because they never did anything memorable with their lives for the Lord. However, when we look at Jabez, he was different. He was willing to lay his petition before the Lord, and he didn’t just lay it down. He laid it down and left it there and trusted God no matter what the outcome was to be because he knew he could trust God with the results. Everything he possessed, everything he ever hoped to be, he placed in the hands of God.
Verse 9 tells us that Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez, saying, because she bore him in pain. But what got me is when it said he was more honorable than his brothers. That is quite a statement that God had penned about Jabez. He was more honorable than any of the names mentioned in the first nine chapters of Chronicles, because he did something that was worth remembering.
Verse 10 tells us that Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, “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.” Jabez put his total trust in God and God granted the request.
What we have learned about this passage is that Jabez called on God and then he waited on God, whether it was 5 minutes, or 5 years. Jabez waited. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that waiting is important. Isaiah 40:31 tells us “Yet those who wait for the Lord will gain new strength, they will mount up with wings like eagles, they will run and not get tired, they will walk and not become weary.” That means that in our waiting we will soar when the time comes, and we can run the race with patience.
See you Sunday!
Dr. Scott Kallem