1Ch 4:9-10 In what Jabez was "more honourable than his brethren" we are not told. It might be in courage; it might be in learning; it is certain that he was honourable for his piety.
I. Jabez called on the God of Israel. It was the habit of his life; it was the action of each separate day; he was known by this; this lay at the foundation of his courage, his goodness, his success.
II. The prayer of Jabez is (1) earnest; (2) full of desire for God; (3) it is a thorough prayer: he asks no partial blessing.
III. "Enlarge my coast." He prays for more territory to his people and himself-more power, more wealth. These are what we should call earthly and temporal blessings. The best men of the Old Testament did not distinguish between temporal and spiritual, as we do. The thing we have to fear is, not "enlargement" in itself, but possible harm and danger to us in the process-perversion, corruption, the coming in of hurtful elements.
IV. Notice the summing up of the prayer: "and that Thine hand might be with me," etc. So let us seek preservation from evil, inward and outward, by watchfulness, by prayer, by dependence on God, and we need never fear enlargement. Let it go on without limit and without fear if it goes on thus, banked in on either hand by Divine blessing and by Divine care.
A. Raleigh, The Way to the City, p. 190.
References: 1Ch 1:12 .-H. Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xxix., p. 141. 1-Parker, vol. viii., p. 318. 2-Ibid., p. 323. 3-Ibid., p. 327. 1Ch 4:9 , 1Ch 4:10 .-Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii., No. 994; H. Melvill, Sermons on Less Prominent Facts, vol. i., p. 297; Homiletic Quarterly, vol. i., p. 255, and vol. ii., p. 524. 1Ch 4:17 .-J. M. Neale, Occasional Sermons, p. 116. 1Ch 4:22 .-Spurgeon, Evening by Evening, p. 33.
1Ch 4:23 I. Notice how work links men to kings. Here we have potters, gardeners, and hedgers mixed up with the king. The men and women who work, whether with brain or hand, or both, are the people who save the nation from ruin. Is it not so in Christian life and experience? What is a man's religion worth if it does not teach him to labour? Are we not to work out our own salvation, and that for the best of reasons: "It is God that worketh in us"?
II. Kings need different kinds of workers. God needs us. Not that He could not have done without us, but He has elected to win the world by human instrumentality, and-let it be said with reverence-the interests of God are very greatly bound up with the progress of humanity. There is a sense in which God needs us, and cannot carry out His plans without us.
III. "There they dwelt with the king," willing to stay in his service "all the days of their appointed time." Let us be willing to stay. Heaven will keep. Some day we shall go to dwell with the King in another sense. We shall go from the soot of the pottery and the burning heat of the garden to dwell in "quietness and assurance for ever."
T. Champness, New Coins from Old Gold, p. 193.
References: 1Ch 4:23- Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiv., No. 1400; Ibid., Morning by Morning, p. 155. 4-Parker, vol. viii., p. 331. 1Ch 5:26 .-E. H. Plumptre, Expositor, 2nd series, vol. ii., p. 230. 5-Parker, vol. viii., p. 335. 1Ch 6:31 .-Ibid., Fountain, May 1:5 th, 1878. 6-Ibid., vol. viii., p. 341. 7-8-Ibid., p. 346. 1Ch 9:22 .-Clergyman's Magazine, vol. x., p. 341. 9-Parker, vol. viii., p. 351. 1Ch 10:9 , 1Ch 10:10 .-Expositor, 2nd series, vol. vii., p. 309.
1Ch 4:3. These were of the father of Etam- These are the race of Etam. Houbigant. The Hebrew may be rendered, says Kennicott, these or those are the father of Etam. The ancient versions read sons instead of father. At the end of the 7th verse Houbigant reads, and Coz, and so, at the end of the 8th, and Jabez.
1Ch 4:18. The daughter of Pharaoh- Pharaoh, in this place, is not the name of an Egyptian king, but of some Israelite called by that name.
1Ch 4:23. Those that dwelt among plants and hedges- Amongst the plantations, and at Gaderah. Houbigant. See the LXX.
REFLECTIONS.-1st, Among the numerous descendants of Judah, in the line of Pharez, Jabez is especially taken notice of, who seems to be of the family of Aharhel.
1. His name was given him from the pangs of travail that his mother endured: a memorial of the mercy of God to herself, who restored her from the jaws of death; or to him, of the sorrow and trouble to which man is as naturally born, as the sparks fly upwards.
2. He was a great man, more honourable than his brethren, either for wealth, or courage, or wisdom; or, above all, as from his prayer it appears, for piety. Greatness, when united with goodness, is doubly distinguished.
3. His prayer and the answer are recorded to his honour; for, nothing is more truly noble, than in prayer to have power with God as a prince, and to prevail. (1.) The prayer is addressed to the God of Israel, his covenant God. Note; They who draw near to God with faith, as interested in a covenant of grace, may expect with confidence that they shall be heard and answered. (2.) The substance of it is, for God's blessing; either temporal, as the enlargement of his border in the expulsion of the Canaanites; the support of God in his attempts against them, and preservation from danger; or spiritual blessings, as the enlargement of his heart in light and love, and every holy affection; the strength of divine grace to subdue his corruptions; and protection from that greatest of evils, sin, and its present and eternal consequences. Note; (1.) Every blessing, temporal and spiritual, comes from God, and should be sought in the way of prayer. (2.) They who wait upon God, will renew their strength, and be kept from the power of the evil one, the evil heart, and the evil world. (3.) Unless God strengthen us, we become a prey to the weakest of our enemies.
4. God granted his prayer: so ready is God to give to him that asketh, and to supply the largest desires of our souls.
2nd, We have here, among the descendants of Judah, two families distinguished as being craftsmen and weavers. These trades descended from father to son: one of these craftsmen was, it seems, nobly allied, 1Ch 4:18.; for it was not then counted mean to be an ingenious mechanic. Another family had, during the days of Moab's subjection, been sent thither as governors for David; but since those ancient conquests, times were now sadly changed, and they were reduced to be potters and husbandmen to the king of Babylon, and earned their bread with the sweat of their brow. Note; This world is a changing scene: nothing substantial or enduring is to be expected in it. Let it quicken our diligence, then, to secure a better, where our dignity will be secure without variableness or shadow of turning.
