Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.” And 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!” So God granted him what he requested. 1 Chronicles 4: 9, 10, NKJV.
Merciful Father and God, as we seek You in prayer, please grant us the desire of our hearts – that we might sit at Your feet and learn of Your divine will. This we ask in the holy name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Amen.
This is our third day in the study of the life and prayer of Jabez. Yesterday we began looking at the way he began his prayer – by requesting, and declaring, a blessing; by asking for a blessing, and then calling his blessing, by name.
Today, we will continue to examine the content of his prayer. “[T]hat Your hand would be with me[.]” There are some interesting facts that are revealed in Scripture, regarding the hand of God. One of them is that God’s hand saves! In Isaiah 59, we read the following: “Behold, the LORD’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save” (1a). It has always saved, and it always will. It can rescue us wherever we are. It reached down from heaven and plucked us out of the flames (Zechariah 3: 2c)! It is not limited. It is mighty to save us from our sins, from our enemies, and from ourselves!
Another outstanding characteristic of the hand of God, is that it rules in sovereignty. “And you have lifted yourself up against the Lord of heaven. They have brought the vessels of His house before you, and you and your lords, your wives and your concubines, have drunk wine from them. And you have praised the gods of silver and gold, bronze and iron, wood and stone, which do not see or hear or know; and the God who holds your breath in His hand and owns all your ways, you have not glorified” (Daniel 5: 23). Emphasis supplied.
God reigns and rules with a mighty and stretched out hand. If He should remove His hand from us, we would cease to be. Our very breath, our existence, our life, is in His hand! “In Him we live and move and have our being . . .” (Acts 17: 28). His hand holds the reigns of the universe. And even when it seems as if our world is reeling out of control, God is still in control!
God holds His people in His hand. ‘For I considered all this in my heart, so that I could declare it all: that the righteous and the wise and their works are in the hand of God” (Ecclesiastes 9: 1b). Emphasis supplied. It would almost appear as if He were turning the pages of our lives like a story book. How wonderful it would be if we would not only let Him turn the pages of our lives, but allow Him to write the story as well! How much pain we would be spared! We need not fear when we are sure, that we are in the hand of God.
“Also the hand of God was on Judah to give them singleness of heart to obey the command of the king and the leaders, at the word of the LORD” (2 Chronicles 30: 12). The hand of God brings about unity in right doing. Whenever there is peace, we can be sure that the hand of God is in control of a situation. His hand knits heart to heart. It is His hand that writes His law upon our hearts (Hebrews 10: 16), that we might be willing to obey His commands and walk in His ways.
We have only skimmed the surface of the importance of having God’s hand with us. Obviously, Jabez knew the importance of having God’s hand in his life. He prayed for God’s hand to be with him. It is evident that we are not talking about the literal hand of God, but rather the control God exercises in one’s life. When God takes over, the broken pieces of our lives begin to come together like the dead bones in Ezekiel 37. Then, God breathes His breath of life into every dead situation, and order, and vitality, and form, begin to emerge!
One very important factor, is that, after Jabez prayed for God to bless and prosper him, he also prayed, that in the midst of his prosperity, God would be in control of his life! I consider this element in his prayer to be of vital importance! We tend to forget the dangers that can accompany prosperity. God warned His people that unless they kept ever present before them Who had blessed them with prosperity, they could find themselves on dangerous ground, ” ‘ “Beware that you do not forget the LORD your God by not keeping His commandments, His judgments, and His statutes which I command you today, lest—when you have eaten and are full, and have built beautiful houses and dwell in them; and when your herds and your flocks multiply, and your silver and your gold are multiplied, and all that you have is multiplied; when your heart is lifted up, and you forget the LORD your God who brought you out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage” (Deuteronomy 8: 11-14).
Jabez prayed well and wisely. May God give us all a sense of discernment that we may know how to pray, and what to pray for.
We will continue.