His mother had
named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain” (1 Chronicles 4:9).
Not everyone gets to
be born with a silver spoon in his mouth. The mere mention of your name may not
cause doors of opportunity to swing wide in welcome. And if town leaders offer
you the key to the city just because of where you came from… you can stop
reading right now.
Jabez didn’t live
that kind of life. There was nothing special about Jabez’s family. Koz, his
father (verse eight lists Koz as the father of Hazzobebah, which is probably a
variant of the name Jabez), had an A-list half-brother named Tekoa. Besides
that, Koz was the youngest of four brothers, not counting his other
half-brothers. When it came time to split up the inheritance, there probably
wasn’t much left for Koz.
And Jabez wasn’t
even Koz’s firstborn son. There was Anub, who would get a double share of the
estate (what estate there was) as his birthright.
And if that wasn’t
enough, the day of his birth was a bad day for Jabez’s mother. To commemorate a
difficult birth she named him Pain.
But Jabez had one
thing going for him. He knew where to turn for help. “Oh, that you
would, bless me.” . . . And God granted his request (4:10).
TODAY’S MEDITATION
You may have lots of
strikes against you. Does any of that really matter when you have a God who’s
for you? Imagine a life unconfined by self-imposed limitations.
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