The prayer of Jabez

Some of you may have just denied me as a Heretic for even mentioning the prayer of Jabez, but that would be just as bad a thing to do as your opponents. For those who have no idea, the Prayer of Jabez was a book written by Bruce Wilkinson in 2000 that promotes this concept of Prosperity Gospel, that God wants us to be rich.

But that's not really what the prayer of Jabez is, it is actually from the Bible, 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, and therefore if we, as mainline evangelical Christians believe that "all scripture is God breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness." (2 Timothy 3:16 NIV) Then the prayer of Jabez must be no exception.

So let's take a look:
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers. His mother had named him Jabez, saying, “I gave birth to him in pain.” 10 Jabez cried out to the God of Israel, “Oh, that you would bless me and enlarge my territory! Let your hand be with me, and keep me from harm so that I will be free from pain.” And God granted his request. (1 Chronicles 4:9-10 NIV)
So on the surface of it, it would seem maybe Wilkinson has a point, after all Jabez called out to God and God did it, God made Jabez rich, ergo he wants the same for us right? Well before we even delve deeply in to this passage we already see one problem. This is just an account, no where does it suggest that what happened to Jabez is the norm, it's just what happened to Jabez it tells us nothing about what we should expect.

But let's look more at this passage. We're told Jabez was more honorable but as we look more at the character of Jabez, it seems that maybe it should have been followed by "just ask him so". Jabez doesn't seem honorable, rather, he sees himself as honorable and of deserving of special treatment. It would seem that Jabez was a pain, he came in to the world causing his mother pain, we can assume that this means more than the usual childbirth pain but rather a more painful experience of childbirth given she doesn't say this of any of his brothers. Indeed the word Jabez sounds like the Hebrew word for pain (which you'll see if you look at your footnote), Jabez's very name means pain, Jabez was a pain. In addition just look at his prayer, it seems very self-centered and self righteous, it's how we always portray the Pharisees as praying, Jabez was only honorable in his own mind.

But why does God grant his request? Jabez wants to be removed from the society, all the other people are annoying him, he reminds me of Ignatius J. Riley from A Confederacy of Dunces by John Kennedy Toole (a good and very funny read if you haven't before). Jabez lives in his own little world, and cares little for what others think or need, but only for his own needs. God grants the request as it seems mutually beneficial, if Jabez doesn't want to experience the growth that can come to us through working through difficulties and "pain" and being in community with others (which can also cause pain) than so be it, Jabez will miss out and the community will be healthier without him. Jabez rather than getting a richer experience, actually ends up far poorer as a result of his request.

For us Jabez presents a challenge, too often we would rather have a comfortable experience of God, just using him as a vending machine and not wanting to be challenged. But as the Israelites found out, the desert, the wilderness, the place where we struggle is where the best growth can be found in a spiritual sense. We don't want to just seek out emotional pain, but we should be looking to use it as an opportunity for growth and praise God for that opportunity.