1 Chronicles 4
1 Chron. 4:1-23 take up the genealogy of Judah for the second time. Two names especially stand out in 1 Chron. 2-4. First, that of David, for Judah's kingship is, as we have seen, the principal subject of Chronicles. Secondly, that of Caleb the son of Jephunneh who represents the energy and the perseverance of faith; Hur, who plays a prominent role in Israel's history (Ex. 17:12; 24:14), is a son of Caleb's (1 Chron. 2:19, 50; 4:1, 4). Jabez (1 Chron. 4:9-10) is of the same clan (1 Chron. 44:9-10; 2:55).
Jabez' mother had borne him with sorrow and had named him Jabez: "Sorrow." She had herself experienced the consequences of sin. She acknowledged the curse that was its consequence for man, God's righteous sentence pronounced upon the woman whom the serpent had beguiled, for God had said: "I will greatly increase thy travail and thy pregnancy; with pain thou shalt bear children" (Gen. 3:16). Jabez' mother accepted this sentence by faith. So little did she seek to escape from it, that she passed it on to her son by having him bear the name "Sorrow." On man's side all hope of happiness was lost through the fall and sorrow was his fatal portion.
Jabez began with this conviction; therefore he was "more honorable than his brethren." Then he "called on the God of Israel," knowing that he could only depend on the Lord to be delivered from the curse of sin. He knew, moreover, that this deliverance could be so absolute that he, Jabez, would be able to be without sorrow!
Jabez addresses four requests to God; if God grants them, they will become the proof of his complete deliverance.
This is the first request: "Oh that Thou wouldest richly bless me...." God had cursed man and the earth from which he had been taken (Gen. 3:17). He alone could annul this sentence and replace it with blessing, the first proof of the end of sorrow. He alone could change circumstances in such a way that the sinner, banished from His presence, might be brought to Him to enjoy His grace and unconditional promises. "I will bless thee", the Lord had said to Abraham. When all is in ruin Jabez' faith goes back to the counsels of grace and to the promises of God. Is not his history, related only in this book, well-suited to the general character of Chronicles? "And God brought about what he had requested." In our case likewise, God has abolished through Christ's sacrifice all the consequences of sin, so that we might be blessed in Him with every spiritual blessing in the heavenlies.
His second request is this: "... and enlarge my coast." Here and there these genealogies highlight various individuals whose borders God extended in the promised land at a time when the mass of the people had failed to conquer their inheritance completely. Jair has already given evidence of this in 1 Chron. 2. The names of Caleb, Achsah, and Othniel are likewise examples of this individual energy of faith, which finds its borders enlarged as it relies upon God. So it is with us: our spiritual borders expand in the heavenly sphere while we are upon earth. In order to attain to this we must recognize our irremediable ruin and the incapacity we have demonstrated to extend our borders ourselves, and must manifest humble dependence which relies upon the grace of God alone in order to possess them.
Third, Jabez says: "... and that Thy hand might be with me." He does not rely on his natural energy to enlarge his borders, but rather on the power of God. This is all the more striking since he came from a family noted for its energy.
Fourth and finally he says: "... and that thou wouldest keep me from evil." The evil that introduced sorrow into this world has not disappeared; it is ever present. Jabez knows this well, for he does not ask that it be removed, but he desires to be kept from the evil whose existence he sees. Here again, he recognizes that it is not his will, but the power of God alone that is able to keep him.
Absolute confidence in God's grace and power is the only way of obtaining these things. Jabez obtains them. How could sorrow still subsist in the heart of this man of God when all his requests had been granted? No doubt, sorrow has not disappeared from the earth any more than has the evil which caused it, but Jabez' heart, full of those excellent things which had been granted him, had no room for it.
=============================
The people of God have yet other duties and other activities beside enlarging their borders as Jabez. Joab is "the father... of craftsmen" (1 Chron. 4:14). God has entrusted us with certain functions, humble but very useful in their place, to which we do well to pay attention without coveting higher things. We will thus be kept in humility. Among the sons of Shelah are found "byssus-workers," potters, and gardeners (1 Chron. 4:21,23). These were not noble occupations, but they owed their importance to the fact that these men "... dwelt with the king for his work." Although very humble, they were his fellow workers within the limits that his work assigned to them; on this account the king retained them around his person; theirs was the great privilege, coveted in vain by many nobles and princes, of dwelling near him.
So it is with us too. Let us each fulfill our task; let us beware of coveting a high position among the people of God; let us rather be content with humble things. What our Lord asks is that we carry them out diligently. Let us be faithful in little things as long as we work together in His works. To say nothing of a future reward, we will obtain the inestimable present advantage of "dwelling with the king" and of contemplating His face.
In 1 Chron. 4:24-43 we have the genealogies of the sons of Simeon. As a consequence of Simeon and Levi's sin, these two brothers were "divided in Jacob, and scattered in Israel" (Gen. 49:7). However, they differed from each other in that in grace the Lord used Levi's dispersion to give him priestly functions adapted to his position, whereas it was otherwise for Simeon who continued to bear the mark of God's judgment "And his brethren had not many sons; neither did all their family multiply like to the sons of Judah" (1 Chron. 4:27). Simeon was small in number, partially enveloped in Judah's territory, open to enemy attacks on the south, and without definite borders. But we find here the truth already presented that when collective faith has failed the faith of a few, as previously the individual faith of a Caleb, inspires them to "enlarge their borders." Many "mentioned by name were princes in their families; and their fathers' houses increased greatly" (1 Chron. 4:38). "They found fat and good pasture" where the sons of Ham had dwelt before (1 Chron. 4:40); they even went to "Mount Seir" (1 Chron. 4:42), occupied by Edom. The extent of their possessions depended neither on their numbers nor upon their power. Like Jabez, they bore the consequences of the curse pronounced upon them, but their extreme poverty which they could not deny impelled them to conquer that which God placed within their reach.
Notice that they obtained their blessings under the two reigns of grace in Judah: that of David (1 Chron. 4:31); and that of Hezekiah (1 Chron. 4:41), at a time when the state of the people was already drawing down upon themselves the approaching judgment through the king of Babylon. How all these details constantly bring us back to the great thought of this precious book! All that is according to nature ends in complete failure and is valueless before God; grace is the only thing we can count upon as we rest upon the counsels and election of grace which are established forever.