More Honorable Than The Brethren Text: 1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Introduction: A Cameo in the Genealogies
The book of Chronicles begins with what many modern readers find to be a literary desert: nine chapters of genealogies. It is a long list of names, of begetting and begatting, a recitation of the family tree of Israel. And in our age of rootless individualism, this feels alien. We want the story to start with us. But God’s story always starts with the covenant, with the family, with the generations. God is building a people, a holy nation, and He keeps meticulous records.
But right in the middle of this long list of names from the tribe of Judah, the Chronicler hits the pause button. He stops the steady rhythm of the roll call to zoom in on one man for two verses. It is an astonishing break in the pattern. For hundreds of names, it is just a list. And then, suddenly, we get a miniature biography, a character commendation, and the full text of a prayer. This man is Jabez. The fact that the Holy Spirit interrupts the flow of this immense genealogy to tell us about him ought to make us sit up straight and pay attention. This is not just an interesting aside; it is a deliberate lesson embedded in the very framework of Israel's history.
In our day, this brief account has been the subject of some unfortunate popularizing. A bestselling book turned this prayer into something of a mantra, a repeatable formula for getting things from God, as though God were a cosmic vending machine and this prayer were the magic coin. But this is to rip the prayer out of its context and miss the entire point. This is not a lesson in the "name it and claim it" school of theology. This is a lesson in covenantal faithfulness, godly ambition, and the nature of true honor. Jabez is not a self-help guru. He is a man of God, and his prayer is a righteous request that is perfectly in line with the purposes of the God of Israel. And because it was, God answered it.
The story of Jabez is a rebuke to two kinds of errors. It rebukes the cynical, stoic Christian who is afraid to ask God for anything big, lest he be disappointed. And it rebukes the materialistic, health-and-wealth Christian who thinks God’s blessings are primarily about bigger cars and better parking spaces. Jabez shows us a third way: the way of the honorable man who wants more responsibility, more territory, and more of God’s hand upon him for the express purpose of advancing God's kingdom and being kept from the evil that would disqualify him from that task.
The Text
Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, “Because I bore him with pain.” Then Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border, and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!” And God brought about what he asked.
(1 Chronicles 4:9-10 LSB)
An Honorable Man and a Painful Name (v. 9)
We begin with the divine assessment of the man and the story of his name.
"Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother named him Jabez saying, 'Because I bore him with pain.'" (1 Chronicles 4:9)
The first thing we are told about Jabez is a direct commendation from God: he "was more honorable than his brothers." This is not a small thing. Honor, in the Scriptures, is not about public reputation or having a corner office. Biblical honor is weightiness, substance, and integrity. It is the character of a man who takes responsibility. In our effeminate age, we have defined a "good man" as a "nice man," someone who doesn't make waves. But the Bible's definition of an honorable man is one who is faithful to his duties before God, a man who assumes the burden of leadership and carries it well. We are not told what his brothers were like, but we can infer that they were likely men who shirked their duties, who lived for themselves, who were lightweights. Jabez was different. He had ballast.
And this honor is all the more striking given his name. His mother named him Jabez, which sounds like the Hebrew word for "pain" or "sorrow." She says, "Because I bore him with pain." This was likely more than the ordinary pain of childbirth. Perhaps the delivery was fraught with complications that nearly killed her, or perhaps his birth coincided with some great family tragedy, a death or a disaster. Whatever the cause, she memorialized her suffering in her son's name. Every time someone called him, they were saying "Hello, Pain." Every time he introduced himself, he was announcing his connection to sorrow.
In the ancient world, a name was not just a label; it was a statement of identity, character, and destiny. To be named "Pain" was to be saddled with a cursed destiny from the cradle. He was defined by his mother's sorrow. But Jabez refused to be defined by his origins. His honor was not something he inherited; it was something he cultivated in defiance of the name he was given. This is the first great lesson of Jabez: your beginnings do not have to be your end. The circumstances of your birth, the wounds of your past, the labels others put on you, do not have the final say. The final say belongs to the God you call upon.
A Godly Ambition (v. 10a)
Jabez takes his painful destiny and lays it before the only one who can rewrite it. His prayer has four distinct petitions.
"Then Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, 'Oh that You would bless me indeed and enlarge my border...'" (1 Chronicles 4:10a)
First, he calls on "the God of Israel." This is crucial. He is not praying to a generic deity or some abstract higher power. He is appealing to the covenant-keeping God, the God who made specific promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He is grounding his prayer in the revealed character and promises of God.
His first request is, "Oh that You would bless me indeed." This is not a vague "God, bless me." The word "indeed" signifies a request for a true blessing, a blessing in substance, not just in sentiment. He wants the real thing. And what is the ultimate blessing of the God of Israel? It is God Himself. It is His favor, His presence, His power. But it is not merely spiritual and ethereal. In the Old Covenant particularly, God's favor was demonstrated in tangible ways: fruitfulness, victory, and land. This leads directly to his second request.
He asks God to "enlarge my border." This is the phrase that has been so abused by the prosperity preachers. They interpret this as a prayer for a bigger house, a promotion at the office, or a more successful business. And while God is certainly not against such things, that is a shallow and individualistic reading that misses the entire covenantal context. Jabez was a man of Judah. The tribe of Judah had been given a specific inheritance in the Promised Land. To ask for an enlarged border was to ask for greater responsibility within the covenant community. It was a request to take more ground from the enemies of God and put it under the dominion of God's people, in fulfillment of the mandate given to Israel. This is not selfish ambition; it is kingdom ambition. It is a postmillennial prayer in miniature. It is a desire to see the reign of God extended. It is asking for a bigger farm, not so you can have a bigger barn to store your own goods, but so you can produce a bigger harvest for the whole community.
A Humble Dependence (v. 10b)
The next two petitions reveal the heart of humility behind the bold request. Jabez knows he cannot accomplish this on his own.
"...and that Your hand might be with me, and that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!'" (1 Chronicles 4:10b)
He prays, "that Your hand might be with me." This is a recognition of total dependence. The "hand of the Lord" in Scripture is a metaphor for His power and active presence. Jabez is saying, "God, if you give me more territory, more influence, more responsibility, I cannot handle it without Your direct intervention and strength." This is the opposite of arrogant ambition. The arrogant man believes in the strength of his own hand. The honorable man knows that any success is the result of God's hand upon him. He wants to be an instrument, a tool in the hand of the Almighty. This is a prayer for competence that flows from communion with God.
His final request is, "that You would keep me from harm that it may not pain me!" At first glance, this might seem like a simple desire for a comfortable, pain-free life. But look closer at the language. He asks to be kept from harm or evil, "that it may not pain me." The word for "pain" here is a clear echo of his own name, Jabez. He is, in effect, praying, "Lord, keep me from the evil that would make me live up to my name. Keep me from the sin and failure that would cause sorrow and pain to myself and others." This is not a prayer to avoid all hardship; it is a prayer to be preserved from the evil that would ruin his usefulness to God. He knows that with a larger border comes greater temptation. With more influence comes more spiritual warfare. He is asking God for spiritual protection commensurate with his expanded responsibility. He wants to be a source of blessing, not a source of pain, thereby reversing the curse of his own name.
A Gracious Answer (v. 10c)
The account concludes with a simple, glorious statement.
"And God brought about what he asked." (1 Chronicles 4:10c)
God said yes. Why? Because the prayer was not a magic formula. God answered because an honorable man, in deep humility, asked for things that were in perfect alignment with God's own stated purposes for His people. Jabez wanted God's blessing, wanted to advance God's kingdom, wanted to depend on God's power, and wanted to be kept from the sin that would dishonor God's name. Is it any wonder that God granted such a request?
God loves this kind of ambition. He is not looking for men who want to play it safe in the shallows. He is looking for men who are willing to ask for bigger boats and for the grace to sail them into the deep waters for His glory. God answered Jabez because Jabez's heart was beating in rhythm with His own. He wanted what God wanted, and so he asked for it, and God gave it to him. This is what James tells us: "You do not have because you do not ask. You ask and do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, so that you may spend it on your pleasures" (James 4:2-3). Jabez asked with right motives, not for his own pleasures, but for the expansion of God's rule, and so he received.
The Greater Jabez
The story of Jabez is a wonderful snapshot of Old Covenant faithfulness. But it is also a signpost pointing to a greater reality. It points us to the Lord Jesus Christ, the truly honorable one.
Jesus is the one who was truly named for pain. He was a "man of sorrows and acquainted with grief" (Isaiah 53:3). He was born into this world to bear our pain, our sorrow, our curse. His whole life was a movement toward the ultimate pain of the cross, where He bore the wrath of God for our sin.
And from that place of ultimate pain, He called on the God of Israel. And what was His prayer? It was for the ultimate blessing and the ultimate enlargement of borders. "Ask of Me, and I will give You the nations for Your inheritance, and the ends of the earth for Your possession" (Psalm 2:8). Jesus prayed for the whole world. He prayed that the hand of God would be with Him, and it was. He was raised from the dead by the power of God. And He prayed to be kept from evil, and He was. He was the sinless Lamb of God, who, though tempted in all ways, never fell into the pain of sin.
And God granted Him what He asked. God has highly exalted Him and given Him the name that is above every name. He has been given all authority in heaven and on earth. His border is expanding every day, as the gospel goes forth and conquers the nations. The kingdom of this world is becoming the kingdom of our Lord and of His Christ.
Therefore, when we pray the prayer of Jabez, we must do so in Christ. We are not asking for our own little kingdom. We are asking for our share of responsibility in His kingdom. We ask for blessing, that we might be a blessing. We ask for our borders to be enlarged, that His dominion might increase through us. We ask for His hand to be with us, because without Him we can do nothing. And we ask to be kept from evil, so that we do not bring shame upon His great name. This is the kind of prayer God is still delighted to answer.