Oh That Thou Wouldest Bless Me

The Story

The first chapters of 1 Chronicles are long lists of names. Fathers and sons, generation after generation. Most of them are just names.

But in the middle of the list of the tribe of Judah, the writer stops and tells a tiny story about one man.

His name was Jabez. When he was born, his mother named him Jabez, which sounds like the Hebrew word for pain, “Because I bare him with sorrow.” Every time anyone called his name, they were saying, He caused pain.

But Jabez didn’t let that name define his life. He prayed.

“Oh that thou wouldest bless me indeed, and enlarge my coast, and that thine hand might be with me, and that thou wouldest keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me!”

And the Bible says simply, “God granted him that which he requested.”

The writer also tells us that Jabez “was more honourable than his brethren.”

Reflection