We do want to think about this prayer, a very well-known prayer and one I'm sure that you've thought upon, prayed over, thought about oftentimes, but I trust the Lord might even bless it afresh to us this evening as we think about it. There's some uncertainty as to who this man Jabez was, at least on our part, in our day and age, so far away from the time when he did live. And when the book of Chronicles was written, most commentators are of the view that Chronicles was written possibly by Ezra. And that would bring it right up to even after the exile period, that return to Jerusalem from the land of captivity. And it was there Ezra's desire to keep together all of this knowledge and information that had been gleaned and that he was the individual who was the writer of the Chronicles. There's a few other commentators who think it was somebody else. But evidently, in Ezra's day, this man was well known. Because as he works his way down through this chapter and down through these names that particularly have to do with the tribe of Judah, he does fill out, then, some details about this man, Jabez. There's many others here who are just listed by name and mentioned, and we know nothing about them at all. But evidently, this man, Jabez, was known about. As an individual, something to do with his background was certainly known, but most of all, what was known was his prayer. And it was deemed worth putting into the Chronicles, and the Holy Spirit has inspired this record as well. Therefore, it's in the Word of God. So he belongs to the royal tribe. His name here is in among those who belong to the tribe of Judah. And if you go back to verse 1 there of the chapter, it will tell you that the sons of Judah. So we're thinking about those who belong to this particular tribe. So he has a great heritage, a great pedigree in that sense. If we think about it in the ancestral way of lineage and descent, this man has a great lineage. He's honorable by birth. But there's some other things that are told to us as well. He had an acquaintance with sorrow. And the margin indicates something to us there about that as well, against his name. It says his name means sorrowful. But then in the verses, we're told that his mother called him by this name, saying, because I bore him with sorrow. So whether she was like Rachel, who died when Benjamin was born, And in dying, she named him, even as Rachel named, well, she called her son Ben-Onai, the son of my sorrows. And then Jacob changed his name to Benjamin, meaning the son of my right hand. It may well be the same here with regards to this man Jabez. Whatever it is, he has got some association with sorrow. And his mother as well, because his mother has given him this name that indicates sorrowful. So it may be that there was that sorrow in his birth or around his birth. But it tells us that he's more honorable than his brethren. We read that about him as well. He was more honorable than his brethren. So he had brothers, but he was distinguished above them in some particular way. In some way, he was more honorable than they were. Maybe it was for the fact that it was for his piety and for his prayerfulness. Maybe this is the very incident that makes him more honorable, that it's his prayer that is noticed. and noted and recorded in the Word of God that he was known as a man of prayer, a man who could pray. And certainly when we'll come now in a moment or two to think about the different parts of his prayer, he's certainly a man who knows how to call upon the Lord. And these petitions that he makes are profitable for us to ponder and think about. So it might be this that makes him honorable. Certainly being an individual of prayer is an honorable thing in God's eyes. It might not be so much in the world's eyes. The world might care not for any individual who would be known as a man or woman of prayer, but in God's eyes it's an honorable thing. And whatever advantages ancestry may bestow upon an individual, how much better it is that they themselves would, and we ourselves, would be individuals of prayer. What potential does that not open up for us if we can be those who know how to come to the throne of grace, know how to plead before God, know how to pray? Surely then we are well-fitted to obtain many blessings from God, because it is by prayer that God's blessings are obtained. And therefore, if this man is indeed known for this, well, what a thing it is to be honorable in this regard. If you go back just a chapter or two there, to chapter two in verse 55, that last verse of that chapter, you'll find that there was a place called by this name as well. So there's a man called Jabez, but then there's a place as well that is called. And it would seem that it's connected with the tribes of Judah, or the tribe of Judah as well, because the tribe of Judah is mentioned in chapter 2. For example, you'll read there of Caleb. And there are some commentators who actually believe that Jabez was another name for Othniah. Remember Caleb's younger brother that you read about in the scriptures. There are some Jewish commentators that believe that Jabez is actually Othni, Caleb's younger brother. But there's a connection here because in chapter 2, 1 Chronicles 2, 55, there's a place that is called by this name. And it says there in verse 55, and the families of the scribes which dwelt at Jabez. And we already know the name of this place. This place, this name means sorrowful. So here's a place that has got this name as well. So we've got a man who has this name, and we've got a place that has this name as well. And it tells us that this place was associated with the book, because we read about it being the dwelling place of the scribes. And the scribes would have written out the law of God. No printing presses back in those times, not for many hundreds and thousands of years after that was the printing press ever about. So everything had to be copied out by hand. And there were those scribes that did so. And even that is a wonderful study on its own. If you ever come upon anything like that, that will tell you how the Jews went about copying out the scriptures. And what they would even do when they came to the divine name? Writing out, you know that they wouldn't even pronounce the divine name, the name Jehovah. They substituted Lord. Our English translators have done that, not exclusively, for there's a few places where the name Jehovah does appear in our English Bible. But by and large, our English translators did the same. And you know that the word Lord in capital letters indicates that it's the name Jehovah. But the Jews wouldn't pronounce it, because they had such reverence for the divine name. But even writing it, even copying it out, in fact, they substituted. This is where the whole idea of using the name Lord, they would put in, instead of writing out, there's four letters to the name Jehovah. Hebrew doesn't have any vowels. So you're only writing out the consonants. So there's only four in the name Jehovah. But they would write in the name Lord in the margin. And that's what they would read then. So there's what is written, and then there's what is read. But when they would come to the divine name, these scribes, they would wash themselves from head to toe. They would not want any defilement. Now, it ended up being a superstition. Over time, it became a superstition. But initially, it showed the reverence that they had for God, the reverence that they had for the Lord, even for His name, and what that name meant, what that name meant. That when they came to write out this name, the divine name, in writing out any book of the Bible, And they would come to the divine name. That scribe would go and wash from head to toe. And then he would come back, and then he would write out those four letters of the divine name. And then he would write in the margin the name Curius, which is the Hebrew name for Lord. And that's how they would function. Such was their reverence. And here's a city that has this name. And it would seem that it's a city in Judah as well. And it has this name Jabez. And it is associated with this work of the scribes. So if you take that man Jabez and think about his name and say, well, on one occasion, the man who's got the name, he's got association with prayer. Here's a place that has got that name. And it's got an association with the word of God. And those two things absolutely fundamental in a Christian's life, the place of prayer and the Word of God, two absolute essentials in the Christian's life, that the Christian knows how to pray and to wait upon the Lord and seek the Lord, but also that the Christian is an individual who knows the Word of God, who spends time with the Word of God, meditating upon it, pondering it. So there's this place as well, and it may well be the place that Jabez lived. It was called after his name. That we are not told. All we know is that there was a place and a man who was given this name in the scriptures. And both of those are very significant when you think about Jabez himself and his name and what's referred to him here in his prayer and then the city as well and the copying out of the scriptures in that place. And that really sums up a Christian's life. If a Christian is to go on with God, here are two things that are absolutely essential in their life. They're going to have to be an individual of prayer. They're going to have to be an individual of the book as well. And is that what makes Jabez so honorable? That these two things are prominent in his life, prayer and the Word of God. And may that even be so in our own lives as we think about it. We want to come to think here tonight about what is given to us in chapter 4, verses 9 and 10 here about him. and his praying. First of all, notice the focus of his praying. It says there that he called on the God of Israel. The God of Israel. Well, the God of Israel is Jehovah. That's who the God of Israel is. We know some of the names for the other gods. The gods that were mere idols, whether it's Baal, or Dagon, or Ashtoreth, or some of the other idols that are mentioned in Old Testament times, we have the name of those gods recorded in the Word of God. And we know that they were only idols. You can think about Dagon, for example. Remember the time the ark of God was taken by the Philistines, and they carried it into their cities, and they put it into the house of Dagon, their god, and they come out in the morning, and the idol had fallen over, and they prop him up again upon the stand where he was, and they come out again, and the next time he's fallen over, and this time, the palms of his hands are broken off. Remember, on the threshold. The Philistines wouldn't walk on the threshold, wouldn't step on the threshold from that day onwards. But what was their God compared to the Lord? Their God was only an idol, and even the idol had to fall down in the presence of the Lord. And when it says here that Jabez is praying unto the God of Israel, he's praying unto Jehovah, he's praying unto the living God. He's not praying to an idol. He's coming to the one who is the only true and the only living God. He's coming to the one then who can indeed answer prayer. Only a living God can answer prayer. Otherwise, prayer is just an empty, vain exercise. And again, with regards to Baal, we know that to be the case, for you only have to think about the false prophets on Mount Carmel on Elijah's day. when the two sacrifices were taken. And Elijah said, you offer yours first. You call upon your God, the God that answers by fire. Let him be God. And we know the portion well enough to know what happened with the prophets of Baal, how they let it all out. And then they began to cry. And they cried, and they cried, and they cried. And Baal never answered them, never heard them. They started to cut themselves with stones, thinking that if they mutilated their own bodies in this way, that somehow this would make their God more interested in them. And Elijah mocked him, because he knew Baal is only an idol and cannot hear prayer. But what a difference when Elijah spread out his sacrifice, and then he prayed. He prayed to the God of Israel. He prayed to Jehovah. He prayed to the living God, the God who answers, who answered by fire on that day. Because the God of Jabez is the living God. When he calls upon the God of Israel, he's calling upon the living God. He's calling upon the God who has revealed himself. and Holy Scripture. You see, yes, there are things we cannot know about the Lord. God is knowable, but He is incomprehensible, and that's not a contradiction. You can know certain things about something or someone, but you don't know everything about them. You know, you might know something to work a computer, but you mightn't be able to take one down and take it apart and build it from scratch and all the different parts of it. You don't have, or I don't have that knowledge to do that, but we have enough knowledge to work it in a certain way. We have a knowledge about something, but we don't comprehend everything about that subject. And it's the same with the Lord. God is knowable because He has revealed Himself in His Word. And yet, as we come to know this God in His Word, what we discover is that He is incomprehensible. But we cannot bring Him within the circle of our knowledge. That's really what the idea is of incomprehensible. You cannot bring God within, say, the circle of your knowledge, even if you do it pictorially and draw a circle just to help the understanding of it. You can't bring God inside the circle, and that circle is the sum of your knowledge or my knowledge. You can't bring all that God is inside that circle. So yes, God is knowable, but God is incomprehensible. And that's how He reveals Himself in His words. So the God that Jabez was praying to is the God who has revealed Himself in Holy Scripture. We know who this God is. We know something of His greatness, that He is infinite, unchanging, eternal. We know something of this God. This is our God. This God is our God. The psalmist said that in subsequent years. After the time of Jabez, he said, this God is our God, and he will be our guide even unto death. And we can say the same. We can come tonight and read these words about Jabez and that opening line there of verse 10, where it says, he called on the God of Israel. And we can say, this God is our God. And all that we come to learn and glean here from Jabez and from his life and from the word of God in general about him, Whatever we can glean, whatever we can come to know about Him, we can come to this point and we can say, this is our God. This God is our God. This God who reveals Himself in Holy Scripture, who reveals His greatness, who reveals the fact that He's able to answer prayer, that He's not an idol, that He is the living God. This God is our God. We have no other way of knowing Him other than in His Word. There may be many ways whereby we can come to know another individual, those that we meet, interact with, whatever. But there's only one way that we can come to know God, and that's through His Word and through observing His attributes as they are manifested in His Word. That's how we come to know Him. This is tying in the point that we made there a little moment ago about the city called by this name. It's the city of the scribes. It's the place where the word of God is copied out and studied. We cannot come to know the God of Israel other than through his word. And the more time we spend with the Word of God, the more we'll come to know the God of Israel. The less time we spend with the Word of God, the less we come to know Him. There's no substitute. There's no shortcut. There's no way somehow that we can bypass this method that has been laid down from the beginning of time and from when the Word of God came into existence. There's no way we can get around this. It is by spending time with His Word that we come to know Him. And the more we spend time with the Word, the more we will know Him. Those who have the greatest knowledge of God and the greatest understanding of God and His ways are those who spend time in His Word. pondering it, meditating upon it, considering it, observing God at work as He manifests Himself in His attributes. This is how we come to know this God. This God is also the covenant-keeping God. Israel's God is particularly highlighted in that regard. The name Jehovah is particularly connected with that truth. There is that basic meaning in the name that has to do with the I am that I am, the self-existent one. But as that name is used certainly at the beginning of its usage in the Word of God, it has to do with covenant keeping. God is the covenant-keeping God. You have it in Exodus where it is said that the Lord revealed himself unto Moses, and he had revealed himself unto Moses in a way that he had not revealed himself unto Abraham. And it's to do with the name Jehovah. But it has to do there with the fact of keeping covenant, fulfilling the terms of the covenant. Because Abraham used the name Jehovah. You go back to Genesis, and to the chapters that deal with Abraham, and you'll find reference there to the name Jehovah. So it's not that Abraham didn't know the name, and he never used the name Jehovah. That's not what is being referred to. What is being referred to there in Exodus is that Abraham didn't see the fulfilling of the covenant. He had the promises. He saw them afar off, but he never saw them realized. But the promises started to be fulfilled in Moses' day, because God came down and said to Moses, I'm taking you back to Egypt, and you're going to bring the people out, and you're going to be brought into that land that I promised Abraham. God was beginning to fulfill His covenant, keep covenant. He made the covenant. He promised certain things within the covenant, but Abraham never saw it worked out. But Moses saw the beginnings of that. And that's what the Lord was referring to there in Exodus, when he said that he had revealed himself to Moses in a way that he had not revealed himself unto Abraham. It has to do with the fulfilling of the covenant, because the name Jehovah is tied in with that thought. Israel's God is a covenant-keeping God. And again, we can ponder all of those things, and then we can come and say, this God is our God. We're praying tonight to the same God. as Jabez prayed to the very same God who hasn't changed. And you think of all the changes that have taken place in the world from whatever day Jabez lived down to our time, but God hasn't changed one iota. He has not changed one iota. Not in the smallest little speck of anything has God changed. He is still the same. He is unchanging, immutable. This God is our God. So we can go back to the scriptures. We can go back to the earliest of the scriptures and see the Lord and read about Him and then say, this God is our God. Because though time has brought many changes to earth and to its inhabitants, yet the one who is outside of time, the one who dwells in heaven, has known no change at all. He's still the same God. And if he's able to answer Jabez's prayer, and we'll see that he did, then he's able to answer our prayer tonight, too, at any other time we call upon him, because this God is our God. So you have the focus there. I want you to think something of the fervency, that opening line of his prayer there in verse 10. Oh, that thou wouldest. Oh, that thou wouldest. And here's a man, evidently, who has fervency in his soul. He's praying with fervency. There's only one other place in the Scriptures where that line appears, at least in the English Bible, Isaiah 64. And maybe you've already thought about it when those words were read or just now drawn to your attention. But the opening line of Isaiah chapter 64 has that same form of words. Verse 1, O that thou wouldest rend the heavens, that thou wouldest come down, that the mountains might flow down at thy presence. O that thou wouldest. And surely there is the thought here of fervency, of intensity, of earnestness in spirit. Here is a man yearning for answers to prayer. Here is a man who's fervently seeking after God. As we're told that it is the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man that availeth much. Well, Jabez is certainly manifesting that then. If it's true, and it is, it's the effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man. Well then, Jabez is a man like that. Here's a man who fits into that category. He meets the criteria if there's to be earnestness in prayer, if there's to be fervency in prayer. Well, here at the very start of this man's prayer, that is drawn to our attention. There's fervency. There's earnestness. Oh, that thou wouldest. How important it is to pray with earnestness. That can manifest itself in different ways. It's not shouting at the top of your voice, not necessarily. Earnestness can manifest itself in other ways. It's not necessarily fluency in prayer either. That doesn't define earnestness. Earnestness is something that comes out of your heart and soul. In fact, sometimes it might not even be words at all. Might not even be words at all. Might just be a groaning, yearning in the heart that cannot even be expressed in words. Are there not individuals who prayed like that in the Scriptures? That out of the intensity that was in their soul, that sometimes it wasn't even words. It was just a yearning. But there was an intensity there and a fervency there in the heart. He's in good company, Jabez, when you think about him as he's praying. Jacob prayed like this at Peniel when he was there left alone with the Lord. And he said that he would not let the Lord go until the Lord had blessed him. There was certainly fervency there in Jacob's life that night. He couldn't face going across that brook that night and meeting Esau the next day. He couldn't face it. He just could not face it. He had already been told that Esau was coming with 400 men. And that can only mean one thing to Jacob. He wasn't coming on friendly terms. He wasn't coming to make peace with 400 armed men. In Jacob's mind, Esau was coming for revenge. He had waited years and years and years for revenge. And Jacob is convinced that's what's going to happen. That's why he's coming. That's why he's 400 men with him. It can only mean one thing. And he started dividing up the family. And I just showed you some of the imperfections of Jacob when he started showing his favorites. And he had Rachel, and Joseph, and then he had Leah, and then he had the two handmaids, and their children. His little hunter, he had trouble in his family when he started showing favoritism like that. But anyway, it's only showing what was in his heart. And he got to that place where he could not go over that brook that night unless he met with the Lord, unless the Lord met with him and blessed him. And there was fervency in his soul as he clung on and would not let the Lord go. What about the Savior in the Garden of Gethsemane when He sweat, as it were, great drops of blood? Was that not manifestation of fervency and earnestness where He prayed? The Bible says He went away and He prayed the same words. You know, earnestness may mean we have to pray the same thing many times. Earnestness is not just praying something once and getting an answer from God, the once you pray it. You might have to pray over it many times. The Savior, the Scripture, we're not going to turn it up this evening for time's sake, but look it up yourself. It says about the Savior, He went away and He prayed the same words. And you know how He came back and forth to His disciples and spoke to them. But you have that little gem of information that the Savior went away and He prayed the same words. If the Lord Jesus had to pray the same words, and He had to do it in intensity of souls, so much so that the sweat was coming out through the pores of His skin, will there not be times when you and I have to pray in earnestness the very same thing more than once? If we're going to be in the company of an individual, like Jabez or Jacob or even the Savior. So there's fervency here. I want you also to think about the features of his prayer that are mentioned. There's four of them that are given to us there in verse 10. First of all, he's looking for grace. Oh, that thou would bless me indeed. And any blessing that he's going to receive is going to be because of grace, undeserved favor. That's what blessing entails, is undeserved favor from God. There's no other grounds upon which we can be blessed, no other grounds other than grace, saving grace. So this man's praying on the grounds of grace and looking to the Lord to be gracious and that the Lord would bless him. And you and I come tonight, and on the very same grounds, we cry to the Lord as well, that the Lord would be gracious, that he would grant to us not what we deserve, but that He would answer petitions and prayers that we make, either here in the public place of prayer or at home in the private place, but that He would answer prayer and be gracious, grant us that which we don't deserve, but out of the abundance of His grace, that He would bestow upon us that which will bless us, that which will do us good. He's looking for growth there. Oh, that thou would bless me indeed and enlarge my coast, He wanted an enlargement of his lot. Now, we can think about that in a couple of different ways. It may well be a reference just to the inheritance that he has in the land, that he wants an enlargement of that. You think about the whole tribe of Dan, how that the inheritance that was given to them, they went and enlarged it. They had an inheritance down towards the south just out on the coast near to the land of the Philistines, bordering the land of the Philistines. Samson was off the tribe of Dan, and you think about his interaction with the Philistines. But then the tribe of Dan went away up to the north, right away up to north of the Sea of Galilee, up to the waters of Miron, up in the mountains. Mount Hermon is up there. And they took another area there as their possession. They enlarged their coast. So it may be that Jabez here is thinking along some of those lines, that he's looking for the Lord just to enlarge his inheritance, enlarge his boundary in that sense. But there's another way that the Scripture uses this. Better turn in the right direction. 1 Kings 4. If you'd turn back there, please. 1 Kings 4, Solomon's prayer. Remember how the Lord appeared to him and gave him wisdom. And in that wisdom, we're given a little insight into what that entails. 1 Kings chapter 4, verse 29, God gives Solomon wisdom and understanding exceeding much and largeness of heart, largeness of heart, even as the sand that is on the seashore. What is it referring to there with largeness of heart? Well, it's to do with the capacity to do certain things. It's not a physical enlarging of his heart because he was going to give him health problems if that was going to be the case. But it's what the heart stands for in the Word of God, what it represents. It represents affections. Did the Lord increase his affections? When you think of Solomon in his early days and how he loved the Lord, the Song of Solomon is probably a reflection of that of his early days and his love for the Lord. So this largeness of heart, as we think about that petition of Jabez, oh, that thou would enlarge my coast. More than just an enlarging of our circumstances. There is an application to that in any circumstances of any individual of a congregation or whatever. We certainly want the Lord to enlarge our coast of influence and those that we minister to, certainly. But if we start with ourselves, what about an enlarging of our own heart, enlarging of our own desires after the Lord? That would be a good place for us to start, that the Lord would give us that growth. And then there's guidance that he sought as well, because he's looking for the Lord to direct him. There in 1 Chronicles 4, in verse 10, that thy hand might be with me. And the hand of the Lord was with an individual to prosper them, to guide them, to direct them, to point out the way. And we know that we are in continual need of that. We need the Lord's hand upon us. We need the Lord's hand to be with us. The Lord's hand being with us means that He's going to overrule circumstances and events. He's going to direct our ways. Because His hand, again, what does it suggest? God doesn't have bodily parts. God is a spirit, so He doesn't have a hand as such. But the Bible attributes these things to the Lord, so that they may, it's to help our understanding. So what does the hand represent? Well, you immediately think about work. Isn't that what our hands represent? You think of Moses in Psalm 90, where he prayed, Lord, establish thou the work of our hands. Yea, the work of our hands, establish thou it. last two verses of Psalm 90. So there's the thought of hands and work. Well, when Jabez then is praying, Lord, let your hand be with me. Surely he's thinking, Lord, work on my behalf. Overrule for my good. Come and work out those things that concern me." To take the language of the psalmist, that the Lord would perfect those things concerning us. And tonight, there's many things. Each one of us come to the prayer meeting with many a thought in our mind, our heart, maybe things that you do need the Lord to work out, that He would perfect those things concerning you. Well, here's Jabez praying, Lord, let your hand be with me. And as I say, you could start and think about all that's represented in God's hand and how that would come into play here and affect the life of Jabez and any other believer for that sense. God's hand being with us? Well, if we have God's hand with us, then we have all that we need because of all that that means. But then there's also the thought of guardianship there in verse 10. Oh, that thou wouldst keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me. Oh, here's a man who knows a holy God, and he desires to be holy himself. And I said a moment or two ago about knowing the Lord through His Word. And the more an individual comes to know the Lord, the more they will know of His holiness. That's always the mark of somebody who knows the Lord. they will come to know His holiness. You, again, think of individuals in the Scripture, whether it's Isaiah, woe is me, and you read there in Isaiah 6, whether it's Peter, depart from me for I am a sinful man, O Lord, whether it's Paul, doesn't matter which of the servants of God, Daniel, and others as well that come to mind in the Scriptures who knew something of the Lord, even Moses as well as we've been mentioning, they learned something about the holiness of God. And once we begin to learn about the holiness of God, it will put into us a desire to be holy as well. And that's what's happening with Jabez. He knows his God. He's praying to the God of Israel, and he prays, Lord, keep me. Keep me from evil, that it may not grieve thee and me either. So there's guardianship that is here. Very quickly, to finish this out, you have the fruit of his praying. Because it's mentioned there at the end of verse 10, the Lord granted him. that which He requested. And again, you could take each one of those words. If we think about the word requested, there is a reminder. There is the need to ask of God. We must make request of God. God would have us to make request. And again, there's plenty of exhortations in the Scripture. But you're back there to that word granted, the Lord granted. Well, we started out thinking how He was praying for grace. He was praying not on the basis of what he deserved, but that God would be gracious. And it says God granted to him. God can grant us that which we don't deserve. That's what it says here about Jabez. God gave him that which he didn't deserve. And God has given you and me already much that we don't deserve. We're saved tonight. We don't deserve it. We've got an inheritance laid up in heaven. We don't deserve it. He's granted to us. It's secure in Christ. The Lord has done so much for us that we don't deserve, and He will yet do much more for us and can yet do much more for us even though we don't deserve it. He can grant it in His grace. And when you think here about that statement that is made with regards to Jabez, the Lord granted it to him. Well, the Lord can do the same to you and me tonight. He can grant you and me our desires, our requests, not because we deserve it, but because He's gracious to do it, because He's willing to bless, because He has loved our souls and brought us into union with Himself, and we're His dear children. And therefore, no good thing will He withhold from them that walk uprightly, it says. Therefore, He will grant us our requests. And may that indeed be our experience. May the Lord bless His word this evening as we've thought upon it here in this place. And I trust there's food for your soul tonight, encouragement on the matter of prayer.