1 Chronicles 4:9-10
Jabez was more honorable than his brothers;
and his mother called his name Jabez, saying, “Because I bore him in pain.”
10 Jabez called upon the God of Israel, saying, “Oh that you would bless me and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from harm so that it might not bring me pain!”
And God granted what he asked.
Jabez is a pretty well known and longed for set of Verses in the Bible. And in the middle of all those sons had sons and ... sons.
Truly, it's rough reading to read through names that could be Pharmaceutical supplies. God surely was pulling out His Wallet and showing off all the tall, short, fat, beautiful, bold and stylish Children of Israel He loves. And has more photos still to show to you of people you never knew and won't meet... ok, maybe meet ... Later.
Na. God usually has a Plan and Purpose for Hope and Future. There is no dust.
We see Jabez is not too many sentences away from the very recognizable Heavy Hitters of the Bible. Jabez starts at sentence nine from.... Judah. Son of Israel. What do we know from this? We don't have the lineage the Second Temple held on to with such pride. The lineage jumps and doesn't connect. It's long and wordy to show you, 1 plus 500 is missing. The slaves had an idea which tribe they belonged to. But they were slaves working with straw. The genealogy is FLAWED. Broken. This precise record is very imprecise.
Jabez arrives in the new country of: it's hard to make a living and there are a lot of us.
† Placement gives us to understand how close the Exodus was to their hearts and memories, being only eight sentences away from Judah. Incredibly secure in knowing the Exodus is nearby. Very astonishing.
This Kingdom of Israel, they are not far away in their memories of the Exodus. A new Kingdom.
Jabez is born after David is listed in the 3rd Chapter and is saying there are so many people in the Tribes, they know you as if you are in The Big Fat Greek Wedding. "Gus: Over here, is my brother, Ted, and his wife Melissa, and their children Anita, Diane, and Nick. Over here, my brother Tommy, his wife Angie, and their children Anita, Diane, and Nick. My brother George, his wife Frieda, and they children, Anita, Diane, and Nick." Useful things: Minopenicillins, Antipseudomonal Penicillins, Beta-lactamase , NaturalPenicillins, and the Penicillinase.
Why is this included?
The Kingdom of David has gotten to be an urban mix of people we can't exactly say hello to. This is a large city. We aren't sure anymore if Nick is Penicillins or Beta-lactamase. He might be the nephew... We just don't know anymore. We have Urban Sprawl.
Does God Himself have Urban Sprawl? Un peu. Maybe. Sorta. He definitely has some who are like baskets of silver with golden apples. Ask God, it's His Quote! Why would God have favorites and be able to see above the crowd to Zacchaeus?
Jabez is here to give us a clue. He was more Noble than His Brothers.
1 Corinthians 1:25-27, commenting on 1 Chronicles and dust storms...
For the foolishness of God is wiser than men, and the weakness of God is stronger than men. 26 For consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth. 27 But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong.
The Bible is pretty official. Read by generations to discover what is what. David has announced His City and Nation is a big, big place. This is a public announcement. David and Samuel and Nathan intend to be Strong in The Lord. Grow the Nation of Israel.
Acts 17:11
Now these Jews were more noble than those in Thessalonica; they received the word with all eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see if these things were so.
Jabez is seen from the crowd, in God's eyes. Acts 17:11. Zacchaeus!
We never hear about Jabez again. Why possibly? This tells you about movers and shakers who stay movers and shakers. If you ever lived in Mississippi, you have heard of Walter Sillers. Someone backed Walter Sillers. Might have been a cousin. Might have been there for decades. They all might have sat in courtrooms to seeing events played out. Yes, they did. Information paths.
Like Jabez asking to be blessed as Jacob did, but Jabez, this is a more mental conversation, and pleasing to the Lord. And in this belief inside Jabez and his real conversation with the Lord, Jabez didn't just sit around. Working Faith & Expanding his borders. We can believe the Promise of God, Almighty, Creator and Father of All. Jeremiah was saved and lived in his home. Alleluia!
The work God gives us is to believe. Jabez is not recorded building the walls and city of Jerusalem. Believe. Faith is you and the Lord God Almighty, adopting you in Jesus Christ.
To see further into Jabez, you are going to have to want to know. Be interested in life stories and if this is Nick of Anita or Melissa. Knowing this is a big world and the opportunities to make life more interesting have to be at hand. (Pandemic times and world equivalent.) Jabez is interested not of moving to Manhattan, Jabez is going to enrich lives. Jabez will take the mundane and make something like a rabbit out of a hat. Bloom where you are planted. Faith is believing God.
Jabez is going to live, live without pain.
He isn't going to have sinusitis and bunions. And without pain. He will be able to give abundantly without concern for his own supplies. Maybe and surely. Haven't we all known someone suffering even things like potential Esophageal Cancer? I know a woman who was being tested in her sixties. She was a widow and fell in love, married and began to bloom like a rose garden. End of need for Esophageal testing. She knitted prayer throw blankets and people asked for them because healing prayer in the knitting group was WORKING.
So, did Jabez have a life of good health? Yes, faith and love bring health. Faith.
Emotional Pain.
Did Abraham, Father of Nations, live without pain? We know he did not. He warred and helped others escape injustice. He had tribal kings and Pharaohs, too, to contend with. He struggled in his faith. Something interesting to us.
Jabez lived without pain because he asked in faith, he believed in the Word and Power of God
and he put his problems in God's Hands. Jabez didn't do as Mary said in Luke 1. Jabez didn't live in the future and forget to live in today. Jabez believed in Today. God is his Hope and Future. Today. The Lord is His and His Borders are secure. The faith to love and be secure.
Matthew 6:34 Jesus said,
Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about itself.
Each day has enough trouble of its own
We'd have to take it on faith, Jabez did this to live without pain.
Abigail looked with faith to be generous, forgiving. Her spouse was an example of the other part of life.
1 Samuel 25
10 Nabal answered David’s servants, “Who is this David? Who is this son of Jesse? Many servants are breaking away from their masters these days. 11 Why should I take my bread and water, and the meat I have slaughtered for my shearers, and give it to men coming from who knows where?”
12 David’s men turned around and went back. When they arrived, they reported every word. 13 David said to his men, “Each of you strap on your sword!” So they did, and David strapped his on as well. About four hundred men went up with David, while two hundred stayed with the supplies.
14 One of the servants told Abigail, Nabal’s wife, “David sent messengers from the wilderness to give our master his greetings, but he hurled insults at them. 15 Yet these men were very good to us. They did not mistreat us, and the whole time we were out in the fields near them nothing was missing. 16 Night and day they were a wall around us the whole time we were herding our sheep near them.
17 Now think it over and see what you can do, because disaster is hanging over our master and his whole household. He is such a wicked man that no one can talk to him.”
18 Abigail acted quickly. She took two hundred loaves of bread, two skins of wine, five dressed sheep, five seahs of roasted grain, a hundred cakes of raisins and two hundred cakes of pressed figs, and loaded them on donkeys. 19 Then she told her servants, “Go on ahead; I’ll follow you.”
But she did not tell her husband Nabal. 20 As she came riding her donkey into a mountain ravine, there were David and his men descending toward her, and she met them.
21 David had just said, “It’s been useless—all my watching over this fellow’s property in the wilderness so that nothing of his was missing. He has paid me back evil for good. 22 May God deal with David, be it ever so severely, if by morning I leave alive one male of all who belong to him!”
23 When Abigail saw David, she quickly got off her donkey and bowed down before David with her face to the ground. 24 She fell at his feet and said: “Pardon your servant, my lord, and let me speak to you; hear what your servant has to say. 25 Please pay no attention, my lord, to that wicked man Nabal. He is just like his name—his name means Fool, and folly goes with him. And as for me, your servant, I did not see the men my lord sent. 26 And now, my lord, as surely as the Lord your God lives and as you live, since the Lord has kept you from bloodshed and from avenging yourself with your own hands, may your enemies and all who are intent on harming my lord be like Nabal.
27 And let this gift, which your servant has brought to my lord, be given to the men who follow you. 28 “Please forgive your servant’s presumption. The Lord your God will certainly make a lasting dynasty for my lord, because you fight the Lord’s battles, and no wrongdoing will be found in you as long as you live.
Abba,Father
How did David pray?
The New Testament tells us when we put our hearts to You,
The Holy Spirit will pray for us.
We can simply put our hearts to You. Proverbs 8.
You find delight in the hearts of mankind.
Placing Jesus as the Light of mankind.
Thank You for renewing Your Mercies Daily.
Help us to build upon Your gift and not let our godly truth slide away.
Yesterday, we had a small dime sized chip in our window, we went to a business
in our area, specializing in car washing and chip repair. They told us they knew our window would cost $1,100 to repair. And when we got back from our lunch, we found they had drilled the window and now it had 3 drill holes and an 8" crack. We found out on YouTube drilling windows stopped in 2017 when a window vacuum was created. The GM said fixing windows
at his place is 50/50 for a repair.
The 500 reviews have one mention of this. He asked we let him do our headliner for $700,
free wash included. Upon asking, we found he doesn't offer a warranty.
Got home to find putting shock in the pool turned the pool black instantaneously, the size of a queen bed. Panicked. Prayed.
-It's called metal cleating. Pool company phone calls said this is quite rare.
Today, all traces of the stain are gone.
Thank GOD.
Yesterday had mercies and glories of God.
But we surely saw stress to put us all in an early grave.
God reward Goodness and stop evil very quickly.
The Economist says 8% inflation is rubbish and the rules were changed on
reporting to give us this junk. My face moisturizer costed $11 for centuries, now it's $24. Walmart. Hey, that's some pretty big 8%, huh.
Thank You so much for the people who pray for us. Daily. Near and far. Father God, like David help us to stay in Faith, Joy, Peace and Love seeking Your Kingdom. Pleasing to You, Father God.
Blessing Father God seeing the New Year come in with new hearts. Your Direction. Our Thanks for Your Word of Healing upon Elliott and Harby and their family.
Asking more of Your Heaven on earth in Your Good will for all of our loved ones and all the people praying. Saints and a new generation covering Your Good Creation in great prayer. Hearts pleasing to God.
In the Name of Jesus Christ. Amen.
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment