Sermon Archives (June 24, 2001):

Written Off?

  How many times have you been written off?   Has society written you off? Has your family written you off?   Maybe you had a parent or you had a spouse who concluded that you weren’t worth much of anything.  The good news is that God doesn’t work that way.   God doesn’t write people off, and the very best news I have for you is that He hasn’t written you off either.

I’m going to use two passages.  The first is a small passage in the Old Testament, (1 Chronicles 4:9-10).  This book of Chronicles can be somewhat tedious, in that it has list after list of family trees.   But here among these lists of family lineage, we find a short passage out of character with the rest, which tells that God blessed a certain man.  “Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers, and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, ‘Because I bore him in pain.’ And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying, ‘Oh, that You would bless me, even me, and enlarge my territory, that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain!’ So God granted him what he requested.”   The sum of the facts given and omitted tells us much more of the man than what is written.

The second passage is a promise from Jesus that he spoke about himself in the New Testament, (Matthew 12:20).  The same words are also found in Isaiah 42:3 describing the nature of the Messiah towards God’s people,  “A bruised reed He will not break, And a smoking ember He will not quench, till He sends forth justice to victory."    Now, have you ever been a bruised reed.   The promise of Christ is not to put out your fire till He brings you to victory.    Turn to the person next to you, and tell them, he is talking about me.

This story of Jabez comes in a book rich in detail as to family lineage.   So-in-so begat so in so, who begat so in so.   But what is not mentioned is the name of Jabez’s father.   There is a problem here of dishonor.  Whatever the dishonor it was so great that the tribe of Judah refused any remembrance of him. The dishonor upon Jabez’s father is not revealed, but it was serious enough to have his name stricken from the lineage of Judah.

Jabez was different from his brothers.  How so?   He “was more honorable than his brothers” which is to say that the brothers remained dishonorable as had their father.   Being “more honorable” meant also that not this “honor” separated him from the rest of the clan; being honorable meant he was alone without family support.   He is presented as a jewel in a family of darkness.  He seems to be the only one in the family who really cares that he has nothing.  He asks God for something that he could call his own - a home, some land.   His prayer, “Lord,  …. Enlarge my territory.”  This indicates that the family was without land.   The practice in Israel was that every family was given a portion of land, a place to farm and to call home.   Apparently Jabez is left without an inheritance. Heritage is more than property, or money in the bank.  The Bible states, (Proverbs 13:22)  “A good man leaves an inheritance to his children's children.”   Being a good father means setting an example.  Jabez lacked both a good name and a good example.  His family has lost its family inheritance and its tribal name.

Jabez’s mother says of him, “I bore him with pain.”   His mother is not referring to the pain of childbirth, but rather that everything was so painful surrounding the child’s birth, the family, the social rejection that she sees this child as being one without promise.   The name Jabez in Hebrew actually means “sorrowful”, and this was undoubtedly a reminded to Jabez that he was not wanted, born in difficult times, such that the mother sorrowed over even his birth.  

Among us today are those who can well identify with Jabez.   Our society today is one where Fathers are expendable or no longer present; where families are left without homes, land, or an inheritance, where expediency for self and the moment or even the abusive parent has taken away the hope of an honorable name.

How does the world deal with such broken lives?  There is welfare, government programs, attorneys, professional councilors.   And all of these provide much help.  However, the Bible reveals through Jabez that recovery is not found in government agencies.  The world will leave you as a person remembering the name of your past, whereas God wants you to realize the honor of your future that He alone is calling you to.

When a shattered, smashed, and broken reed calls upon our God, His response is the promise of gentle tenderness,  “I can bring you back.  I can bring life back.”    I ask, “Are you crushed?  Has the world dealt you a hand you didn’t ask for?”  If so, your ultimate resource is to come to the Lord.   Jabez offers an example.   Rather than being a “pain”, rather than being “sorrowful” following the ways his entire family had lived, he turned to the Lord and for that he was called “honorable.”

Look at these words, “And Jabez called on the God of Israel saying (and please listen to these words), ‘Oh, that You would bless me, even me.”   When Jabez prayed, he was asking for three things.  First, he asked, “God, bless me.”   We know that everything Jabez prayed for was acceptable because at the end of the verse we read, “So God granted him what he requested.”  Jabez hadn’t corner or forced God into helping him, but rather Jabez was as we can today tapping into the nature of God, which delights in restoring those who are bruised reeds; whose glowing point have otherwise been snuffed out by the lot of this world.

The second thing he prayed, “Lord  .. enlarge my territory.”  He was asking God for a home, and you can pray for that as well.  Jabez third request was this, “ that Your hand would be with me, and that You would keep me from evil, that I may not cause pain.”   What Jabez was asking was this, “Lord, let your hand be with me because the nature of my father and brothers is in me now.  Without your hand upon me, I will become the replication of my past.  My name means ‘pain’.  That’s what I come from.  That’s what life has dealt me. Oh, God place your hand upon me, so that I won’t cause pain; so that I  become a different man.”   And the Bible says,  “So God granted him what he requested.”  Halleluiah.  God granted him his prayer and God will grant your prayer as well.