1 Chronicles 4:9-10 And Jabez was more honorable than his brothers: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bore him with sorrow.… In visiting a foreign land, and seeing nothing but strange forms and faces passing and repassing before us, it affords most exquisite enjoyment to catch at the moment the well-known countenance of some dear old friend or acquaintance. So it is with us here on wearily poring over these chapters of names; we feel as if we were in a wilderness, at sea, on some foreign strand; and what blessed relief do we experience as unawares we arrive at this rare character of Old Testament Scripture, ensconced, enshrined in this desert nook of names. We realise with double zest that proverb of Scripture — "That as iron sharpeneth iron, so doth the countenance of a man his friend." In considering Jabez let us look — I. TO THE CIRCUMSTANCES CAST AROUND HIS BIRTH. He is here brought before us in connection with his mother. Mothers are often mentioned in Scripture as influencing their children for either good or evil — the mothers of the wicked kings of Israel on the one hand, the mothers of Moses, Samuel, Joseph, etc., on the other. The responsibility of mothers. The question was once proposed to Napoleon Bonaparte, "How was a better, a more moral class of young persons to be obtained in the country?" His answer was, "Let us have better mothers." II. TO THE CHARACTER OF HIS LIFE. III. TO HIS PRAYER AND ITS ANSWER. (John Gardiner.) Parallel Verses KJV: And Jabez was more honourable than his brethren: and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, Because I bare him with sorrow. |
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