Homilist 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.… As in life we are being continually surprised by the unexpected turn which events often take, so the Bible sometimes surprises us with unlooked-for disclosures. All of a sudden in the very midst of surrounding dryness a beautiful biography appears, and in two verses a man's life is portrayed, beginning with birth, and containing a delineation of his character, a full report of one of his prayers, and references to his mother and brothers. I. THE SIGNIFICANCE OF A NAME. Jabez was born at a time when "names meant truths and words were the symbols of realities." Jabez means sorrow or trouble. The mother's grief, expressed in the name of her child, was probably the ungodliness of her other children, and there is no more fruitful source of sorrow to mothers than this. II. THE DISTINCTION OF A CHARACTER. More honourable. He had a good reputation. III. THE DEVOTION OF A LIFE. "Jabez called on the God of Israel." IV. THE DIVINE RECOGNITION OF TRUE PRAYER. (Homilist.) 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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