STUDY THEME: APPROACHING THE THRONE OF GRACE. 3-02-03

PRAYING THAT PLEASES GOD. THE PRAYER OF JABEZ.

1 CHRONICLES 4: 9-10, 1 KINGS 3: 5, 7-10, ECCL. 5: 1-7

PLEASE OPEN YOUR BIBLE TO 1 CHRONICLES 4: 9-10.

The lesson this Sunday is the first in a series about prayer. There will be five lessons under the general "Study Theme" which is entitled "Prayer Approaching the Throne of Grace."

Few things are more important in the life of the Christian than that of prayer. And yet most Christians talk far more about it than they practice it. Today’s lesson will emphasize the place of prayer in our lives by pointing out different facets of this spiritual discipline as revealed by looking at the prayers of important people of the Bible. The key idea will be that we want to pray in such a way that our prayers please God.

Since we will be spending five weeks on the topic of prayer, let’s spend a few minutes defining prayer. The simplest definition I have found is "Prayer is communion with God;" The offering to Him of petitions for mercies and blessings desired, and thanksgiving and praise for those received. It is the soul’s desire for God.

Prayer is our offering up of our desires unto God for things agreeable to His will, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies. All that true prayer seeks is God Himself, for with Him we get all we need.

The poet says, "Prayer is the souls desire, uttered or unexpressed. The motion of a hidden fire that troubles in our breast."

Prayer is our highest privilege, our greatest responsibility, and the greatest power God has put into our hands. Prayer, real prayer, is the noblest, the sublimest, the most stupendous act that any creature of God can perform.

John Bunyan write, "Prayer is a sincere, sensible, affectionate pouring out of the soul to God; through Christ, in the strength and assistance of the Holy Spirit, for such things as God has promised. Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of His highest willingness.

The prayer that begins with trustfulness, and passes on into waiting, will always end in thankfulness, triumph, and praise. PRAYER, in its simplest definition is merely a wish turned God-ward. More things are wrought by prayer than the world dreams of. He who prays as he ought will endeavor to live as he prays. If we offer prayer before the throne of God, it always should be conducted with the deepest sincerity. Let us beware of playing at praying.

There are many, many prayers in the Bible, some of which are rather lengthy, and others that are remarkably brief. And many sermons have been preached on the topic of prayer. Why do you suppose that is? I would think that it’s because prayer is important. God invites us to pray, and it was certainly modeled in the life our Lord Jesus Christ. So prayer is important!

We can learn a lot from studying the prayers of the Bible. We can learn a lot about the attitudes of the people praying, and how God responds to the prayers of His people. Today we begin to look at those same things as we begin with the prayer of Jabez. I don’t remember ever hearing of this man or his brief prayer until Dr. Bruce Wilkinson wrote the little book, "The Prayer of Jabez." Preachers picked up on it and there have been numerous sermons with that title.

The prayers of Jabez and Solomon pleased God. Eccl. 5:1-7 shows that prayer honors God. These three focal passages are designed to help us pray prayers that are pleasing to God.

1. PLEASE READ 1 CHRONICLES 4: 9-10.

The early chapters of 1 Chronicles consist primarily of lists of names of people---from Adam to the end of the exile. This may seem an unlikely biblical area to provide any helpful lessons for today. Many people skim through or skip over these chapters. But almost hidden amid all the names is a short prayer of an otherwise unknown man named JABEZ who lived some 4000 years ago.

JABEZ was an Israelite of the tribe of Judah. His name means, "pain." His mother gave him this name because she said "I gave birth to him in pain." Names in the Bible had meaning. How many friends do you think a guy like that had growing up. Children are cruel sometimes, and I can just imagine this poor guy being the butt of kids’ jokes and school-yard songs. "Hey, Pain! Wait up! Let’s go out for a pizza.

The writer of Chronicles reported that Jabez was more honorable than his brethren. Honorable is a translation of the Hebrew word, which has the basic meaning of "heavy" or "weighty." In God’s eyes Jabez was no spiritual lightweight but a person strong in the faith.

From what I can gather from the research I have done, Jabez, at the time of his request, was in the process of expelling the Canaanites from the land the Lord had promised Israel. He was doing the work God had given him to do, and he was asking the Lord to help him accomplish it.

You may remember that removing the Canaanites was no easy task. It was a long struggle, and in fact, some were not pushed out, because the Israelites lost heart, or turned to idols.

So here we have Jabez, trying to do what God commands, and he cries out to God for help. Jabez was asking for all that God had for him, and for God’s help in doing his part. But here’s the key: we find it in the first part of Vs. 9. "Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. Now we have already talked about his name, and about how the context of names could determine the outcome of ones life. If there ever was a guy who could be bitter, it was Jabez. His very name could have driven him to a life of hate and bitterness. But Jabez, rather than letting his name determine his destiny, rose above his name, becoming a man of noble nature. What does that tell us? It tells me that your past does not have to determine your future. By giving yourself to God you can become all that God wants you to be, and wants to make you.

Jesus said in his parable of the sower that the good soil represented those with a noble heart, who hear the Word, and retain it, and with perseverance produce a crop. Apparently, Jabez was just such a guy. And that is why, in the midst of 9 chapters of genealogies, he gets special mention. He was a man of noble character. This kind of radical trust in God’s good intentions toward us has nothing in common with the "name it and claim it" faith being preached today.

The Jabez blessing focuses like a laser on our wanting for ourselves nothing more and nothing less than what God wants for us. I know of no blessing so small as to be reasonably expected with out prayer. Nor any so great but may be attained by it.

In essence, Jabez’s prayer was one of surrender to all that God wanted to do for him, in him, and through him. God has many blessings that He wants to give to us, but we often miss the blessings God has for us because we do not ask Him for them; and when we do ask, we make selfish requests designed only to enrich ourselves. Prayer is not overcoming God’s reluctance; it is laying hold of his highest willingness. How do you see God when you pray? He is our Heavenly Father who wants to give that which is best for us; off times we see him as a stingy source who doesn’t give us what we ask for.

The second part of the prayer of Jabez is "enlarge my territory". On the surface this seems to only ask for more land. However, from the context and results of Jabez’s prayer, we can see that there was more to his request than a simple desire for more real estate. He wanted more influence, more responsibility, and more opportunity to make a mark for the God of Israel. Jabez wanted his life to count for something big.

The reward for the faithfulness of God’s servants includes more responsibility. Paul is a good example of this petition. He wrote to the Romans in Romans 15:18-21 that he did not want to build on foundations laid by other missionaries, but his prayer was to take the gospel to where it had not been preached.

"That thy hand might be with me" or "Let your hand be with me" was Jabez’s third request. The Living Bible reads "please be with me in all that I do." Jabez is asking for God’s hand to do the work—not his own: He is relying on the all-powerful hand of God for the fulfillment of the "enlarging of his borders." He was depending on God’s strength—rather than on his own. He wants his enlargement to be accomplished through God’s empowerment.--- Jabez sets a great example. Kneeling in humility to receive a blessing; making a "Declaration of Dependence" for the enlargement of his borders. Not my power/way God---But Yours!

Have you ever noticed? Too often we want God to "bless us" and "expand us"—but then we want to "take over," "be in control." "Make the decisions," "call the shots," "receive all the credit," "Get all the glory!"

Let’s follow the example that Jabez shows us and do it God’s way. After all, his life must have been either remarkable to be mentioned in the midst of all the "begats"! He said "bless me—Enlarge my territory—let me experience your touch, your presence, your power."

The words and God granted him that which he requested show. that Jabez’s prayer pleased God. Thus it can be a model for the prayers of people of faith. Of course, the Model Prayer of Jesus is our primary model, but prayers of other believers can also instruct and inspire us to prayer which is pleasing to God.

PLEASE TURN TO 1 KINGS 3: LET’S LOOK AT VS 5.

David had many sons by different wives. Solomon was the second son born to David and Bathsheba. The first son died. Although Solomon was not the oldest son of David, the king promised Bathsheba that her son would be king after him. When David was old and on his deathbed, Adonijah (ad-oh-NIGH-juh), an older brother, publicly announced that he was David’s successor. He was supported by some of David’s former officials, including Joab, David’s general. Bathsheba and Nathan went to David and told him of this. The old king then made clear to all that he named Solomon to succeed him. In the ensuing events, Adonijah and Joab were killed. All of this intrigue is recorded in 1 Kings 1-2.

The events in 1 Kings 3 took place early in Solomon’s reign.

Solomon had succeeded his father David as king of Israel. David was a great military man who had conquered his surrounding enemies and established Israel as a significant kingdom. God soon would enable Solomon to build on that foundation and develop the country economically. Solomon’s marriage alliance with Egypt shows he was indeed a powerful king during the time of relative Egyptian weakness.

When Solomon became king, he continued the religious policy of his father David. His motivation for doing so was his deep love for the Lord. Solomon’s one variation on that policy was the use of local "high places" in the worship of God. These sites previously had served the cults of the Canaanites in their worship of pagan deities. After Israel conquered Canaan, many of these were converted into sites for the worship of Israel’s God. Unfortunately, many of the heathen practices continued to be associated with these sites. After the construction of the temple in Jerusalem, God banned the continued use of these sites for worship.

However, at the time of Solomon’s coronation as king, they enjoyed immense popularity with the citizens of Israel. The most important of these worship sites was located in Gibeon, eight miles N.W. of Jerusalem. Although David had moved the ark to Jerusalem, the bronze altar and other elements of the tabernacle remained in Gibeon. Therefore, sacrifices to the Lord could only be made in that location. On this occasion Solomon traveled there in order to participate in public worship with his subjects.

The king spent the night at Gibeon, and the Lord appeared to Solomon during the night in a dream. The Lord, in an incredible moment of grace to Solomon, extended an invitation---ask for whatever you want me to give you. Imagine all the things Solomon could have asked God to give him at that moment! We might also ask ourselves a question—what would we ask for in such a situation? Certainly we would want to exercise appropriate discernment. Even if we replied with purely spiritual motives, some requests might ultimately prove more valuable than others. What would you ask God for?

Solomon was careful about his response to God’s offer. He recognized that God was responsible for giving him the throne. He had not acquired his political power because of his own merit, but because his father had been faithful to God. Nonetheless, the responsibility of governing Israel rested squarely on him! Solomon’s was not the accountability of an ordinary head of state. These were God’s covenant people: note the use of the second person possessive pronoun in Vs. 8. God had chosen them from among all the people on earth to be His. Jacob had led 70 members of his family into Egypt to live with his son Joseph. The small number had increased to a population to numerous to count or number. The task of ruling God’s great people in the right manner loomed before him as an impossible endeavor.

Since vs. 10 says that the prayer of Solomon pleased the Lord, we can study it as an example of a prayer that pleases God. What were the parts of Solomon’s prayer? Solomon began by acknowledging the hand of God in the life of David and in his own position as King: O Lord my God, thou hast made thy servant king instead of David my father. Solomon recognized that he was king not because of what he had done but by God’s grace.

Solomon faced the kind of challenge that confronts any new leader who follows a popular leader. In our nation’s history, Harry Truman faced such a challenge when Franklin Roosevelt died suddenly. FDR had been elected president four times. The nation was in the throes of W.W.II ll. Truman felt overwhelmed suddenly to have this new responsibility.

In the Bible, Joshua faced this challenge when he assumed leadership after the death of Moses. Solomon felt the same kind of uncertainty as he succeeded David. David had been king for 40 years, and he was honored as a great man and a good king. Those were big shoes for anyone to fill. Solomon felt grateful for being named king, but he felt unworthy and unprepared to fill the role. Although he was a young adult, he felt like a little child in the face of this task. Solomon was not looking for an excuse but expressing a sense of humility.

I know not how to go out or come in was a way of saying that Solomon did not know how to be a king over Israel. Again he called himself thy servant and said to God that he was in the midst of thy people which thou hast chosen. Not only were they a great people in number, but they also were God’s chosen people. As King, Solomon would need to represent God to His people, and the task overwhelmed him.

Vs. 9 is the heart of Solomon’s prayer because here he asked for something in response to God’s promise in vs. 5. Solomon called himself thy servant a third time. Then he asked for an understanding or discerning heart. This phrase literally means ‘a listening heart of ‘an obedient heart.’ This listening heart will also enable Solomon to listen to others.

Solomon asked for this in order that he could fulfill his role as judge of God’s people. This was one of the roles of Israel’s kings. A listening and obedient heart would equip Solomon to discern between good and bad. People in sin confuse good and evil, right and wrong. God shows His people what is right in order that they may do what is right and defend those who do right. This would enable the king to be an instrument of justice---something very important to the Lord and beneficial to the people.

The fact that Solomon had asked for this pleased the Lord. God knew that under similar circumstances many people would have asked for a long life, great riches, and victory over enemies. Thus the Lord not only gave Solomon what he asked, but he also gave him riches and honor.

Late in life, Solomon reflected on life and its true meaning. In the Book of Ecclesiastes Solomon examined life from a number of perspectives and concluded that ultimate

meaning in life only comes through fearing God and faithfully obeying His commandments. The verses just read are the author’s observations about religion, especially temple worship. This passage focuses on the kinds of worship and prayers that do not please God.

We are surprised that the author warns us to watch our step when we go to church. The first thing to be careful about when we go to worship is our attitude. We have come into the presence of the awesome God. In the scene described there is a decided laxity in worship and preoccupation with the things of the world. The people are quick to make their vows but after making their vows they are reluctant to put them into practice and fulfill their promises.

Vs. 2 warns of a mouth that is quick and a heart that is hasty. Our words should be few. Vs. 3 stresses that a multitude of words reveal a fool’s voice. Vs. 4-6 is not discouraging commitments to the Lord. It is emphasizing that we are to fulfill these commitments when we have made them. The word meaningless occurs throughout Ecclesiastes to describe the emptiness and vanity that comes from a life not focused on honoring God; however when we stand in awe of God, we honor him, and as we come to understand He is worthy of our honor, we tend to pray prayers that are pleasing to God.

NEXT WEEK WE CONTINUE THE PRAYER OF JABEZ SEEKING HOW WE MAY MAKE A GREATER IMPACT FOR GOD. A.V. DAUGHERTY SS03-02-03