The Prayer of Jabez. No, I haven't read the book, and I don't plan on it.
But in my reading today, I came across the 2 verses about Jabez. One is actually about his mom, who apparently suffered and hurt a lot bringing him into the world. The second verse is about him asking God to not give him any pain or trouble, but only blessing.
Now God granted his request . . . but don't think he does for everyone. In fact, his mom had a lot of suffering giving birth to him. What if his mom had prayed the "prayer of Jabez?" Would God have blessed her and spared her pain? No: because she was about to give birth. The very appeal of this prayer is that it is unusual. It's unusual because everybody hurts, and here is one exception.
The fact of the matter is that God never promises us blessing, even when we honor and obey Him. That was the belief back in Job's time. It's called the doctrine of Divine Retribution: if you do good, you are blessed. If you do evil, you are cursed. The entire book of Job is a challenge to this: Job's friends are saying that God works in the confines of this handy little equation, and thus Job HAD to have done something wrong because he's being cursed. Needless to say, the book of Job makes it very clear that God can do whatever he wants: cursing the upright, and allowing the wicked to prosper.
Sound familiar? It's in Ecclesiastes 7:15
In this meaningless life of mine I have seen both of these: a righteous man perishing in his righteousness, and a wicked man living long in his wickedness.
The Bible never advocated the theory of Divine Retribution, except in the confines of a covenant, in which it was more of a condition of the covenant than it was a doctrine.
The crazy thing is that people were still firmly set in this belief all the way through to Jesus' time. When a rich man came to Jesus (oooh, he's rich, which is blessed by God, therefore he MUST be a righteous person and going to heaven) and asked what good thing he needed to do to go to heaven (wait a second . . . He's rich, why is he doubting?); Jesus replied that he had to sell everything, give it all to the poor, then leave everything and follow Him. Now he went away sad and Jesus told his disciples:
"It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God." When the disciples heard this, they were greatly astonished and asked, "Who then can be saved"?
Why were they astonished? Because they still thought that the rich were righteous, and thus if the righteous were so hard to get into heaven, then even more-so the unrighteous. In that they were almost right: the same sacrifice had to be made for both. The playing field was leveled, but now it was impossible for either rich or poor, righteous or wicked to be saved. Thank God for the next line!
Jesus looked at them and said, "With man this is impossible, but with God all things are possible."
And so in acceptance of Christ as savior, we have eternal life and enter the kingdom of God . . . now do we finally get a break from suffering and pain? Let's see what the New Testament says about it:
2 Timothy 3:12
In fact, everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.
Sorry folks, there's no escape. If you live in this world, the prayer of Jabez won't help you: you'll still face pain and trouble, and more than that, persecution.
But before you give up entirely, let's look at the passage in Matthew about rich people and the kingdom of God.
And everyone who has left houses or brothers or sisters or father or mother or children or fields for my sake will receive a hundred times as much and will inherit eternal life. But many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
And so we see that even though we may face troubles, pain and persecution here on earth, God is a loving God that loves to bless, and he will once we are with Him. The hundred-fold that we will receive, however, is minuscule compared to the inheritance of eternal life and a friendship with Jesus Christ that will mature and develop throughout eternity.
And so Divine Retribution is shattered here on earth, but confirmed in the form of God's eternal justice: many who are first will be last, and many who are last will be first.
Comments (4)
Be not deceived; God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap.
Great post! Thank you~
Well written.
I read the prayer of Jabez when it was first popular. I think I was somewhere around 13 at the time. Judging by its sales at the time and all the spin-offs it produced, "prosperity gospel" is alive and well.
God is not a magic lamp to be rubbed, not a magician to whom you must say the magic words. If he was so, i think people would have figured that out long before Bruce Wilkinson.
Hey, when are you coming through Longview again? I was told by someone that you'd probably come by sometime in late January. I miss you guys, and I'd really like to see you again.