Last fall (2000), a mildly popular Bible teacher released a little book about an obscure passage in an overlooked book of the Old Testament. It sat on store shelves almost unnoticed for several months. Then shortly after Christmas, sales exploded, and the hardback hit the New York Times bestseller list, surpassing even Harry Potter. And that wasn't counting Christian bookstores, either. Summer 2001 brought an abundance of merchandise and spin-off materials, including Bible studies and evangelistic tracts. Even the unusual size and shape of the book have influenced recent releases. In 2001 there were arguably more new items in America about Jabez than about David, Moses, or Paul. This character, his story, and his prayer take up all of 35 words in the Hebrew Bible, yet they have reportedly revolutionized the lives of millions of Christians.
The Christian community is a reading community, and as such it receives influence from books quite often. Witness, for example, the stir caused by Michael Drosnin's The Bible Code in 1998, the volunteerism inspired by Henry Blackaby's Experiencing God in 1990, and the enthusiasm about end-times prophecy inspired by Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth in 1970 and Tim LaHaye's Left Behind series begun in 1995. Nearly every evangelical pastor of a large church has read Rick Warren's The Purpose-Driven Church, and youth groups are regularly introduced to Passion and Purity or I Kissed Dating Goodbye.
The importance of how Christians live their lives and understand their beliefs goes without saying. Consequently, books with an extensive influence need to be analyzed critically not just in terms of their literary quality, but in comparison with biblical teaching. No expositor, not even the apostle Paul, is above testing, and the theology of Christian writing is uneven enough that it is unsafe to assume a book is correct simply because it is popular or has changed lives.
First, a summary of the book, for those who have not read it: The Prayer of Jabez tells the story of how Bruce Wilkinson came across this simple biblical account. Virtually all we know about Jabez is that he prayed for a blessing, and his request was granted. Wilkinson began daily praying the same prayer Jabez prayed, and found himself blessed. For the last thirty years, he has been commending this prayer to others, and the remainder of the book fleshes out each line of the prayer. He closes with an injunction to pray the prayer, word for word, every day and to re-read the book periodically. The prayer of Jabez is the key to abundant blessing.
Note: This article focuses on presenting a good interpretation of the biblical passage. For a more thorough evaluation of the book, see this off-site link.
As always, the key to evaluating a commentary on a biblical passage is a correct understanding of the text under consideration. I'm not giving my full study of the passage here, but these are the essentials:
The text, 1 Chronicles 4:9-10, reads as follows, translating literally from the Masoretic Text and punctuating on the basis of the Masoretic accent system:
Now Jabez was more honorable than his brothers;
I make the following observations about the context and style of the passage:
Keeping this in mind, we can say this about the content of the passage:
Let's compare our discoveries with Wilkinson's message.
First of all, Wilkinson makes little mention of the Hebrew behind the translation he uses. This is not in itself problematic; most of his readers would not know Hebrew. The problem here, however, is that his translation (NKJV) obscures several important aspects of the passage. We lose the connections within the prayer, so that it appears that Jabez makes four requests rather than three, "bless me" being an undefined, separate request. The purpose clause appears to modify the final request instead of the whole prayer. The NKJV idiosyncratically translates, "that I may not cause pain," against the Hebrew, Greek, Latin, and all other major English translations (including the KJV). Most importantly, nearly all English translations render the Hebrew 'im as "O that!," wishing to give a complete sentence. However, this obscures the nature of the prayer as an oath; oaths often consist of an "if" statement with the "then" clause unexpressed. A recognition of any of these points would have helped Wilkinson's exposition.
Wilkinson's second major problem is interpreting the passage against its context and style. He misses the concrete, generally defined nature of blessing as understood in the Old Testament. The request for land becomes a request for the effectiveness or extent of one's ministry. Wilkinson draws from all over the Bible for the symbolic import of God's hand being with someone, but without nailing down the specific meaning the chronicler most likely intended here. The harm and pain Jabez wishes to avoid become Satanic temptation and sin, as opposed to the more down-to-earth struggles that concerned Jabez when he prayed.
A third shortcoming of the book is its formulaic use of the prayer. There is no indication in this passage or elsewhere that this exact prayer is the key to receiving God's blessing. The most one can gain from it is that it is permissible for people like Jabez to ask for blessing, and that God at least sometimes grants such requests. This is a far cry from the average reader taping it to the bathroom mirror and reciting it every morning, expecting life-changing results. Wilkinson's recommended use of the prayer of Jabez has more in common with the Catholic rosary than with genuine Christian prayer.
Finally, and most troubling, is that Wilkinson's presentation of God is contrary to the theology Jabez would have held to and the chronicler communicates in his book. Even the revelation available to Jabez was sufficient to show that God's favor was His own prerogative, and that His grace was neither earned nor guaranteed by the asking. Neither Adam nor Noah nor Abraham nor Isaac asked for the blessings they received, and Jacob's priority was determined before his birth, not by his deception. Wilkinson paints a picture of a God whose giving is restrained by our willingness to ask–he even says this explicitly–and he gives the story of a man who goes to heaven to find a warehouse full of blessings God longed to give him but could not because he never requested them. But Christianity is not a fertility religion. The Canaanites went through rituals and mantras to influence Baal to give them fruitful crops and numerous children despite his lack of compassion. But Jabez, the chronicler, and other biblical figures worshiped a God who bountifully pours out blessings on people because they are His. He welcomes us to make requests of Him, but reserves the right to give or withhold independently of our asking.
This is not to say that Wilkinson is a false teacher. He holds to dispensational evangelicalism, a theological system that upholds the truthfulness of the Bible and all the historically orthodox Christian doctrines. He vehemently opposes the health/wealth philosophy that God desires all His people to prosper materially or that we can command God to bless us however we wish. Probably the reason he spiritualizes the requests is to avoid that very interpretation. We all misunderstand one passage of Scripture or another because of our distance from the cultural and historical context of the time, or to our lack of familiarity with the language. There is not time enough to master every portion of the Bible. It is unfortunate, however, that one of Wilkinson's few mistakes has influenced the understanding of more people than any of his rightful understandings has. For what it's worth, Wilkinson's follow-up book, Secrets of the Vine is a much better example of his usual expositional skills; it concerns John 15.
The effects of the book are already becoming evident. On the negative side, the prayer of Jabez has been elevated far beyond its intent, and a recent evangelistic tract actually ranks it alongside the "sinner's prayer" in its importance to the Christian life. Many readers, despite the author's warnings, have sought financial prosperity through praying the Jabez prayer, and no doubt the merchandisers are making a killing off the craze. The positive effects are (1) at least an awareness of the Old Testament and its relevance to the Christian life, and (2) the fact that many Christians are now praying daily who did not before. The testimonies that attribute life-changing blessings to the Jabez prayer should probably attribute them to prayer, period.
Although the chronicler potentially had access to the entire Old Testament, Jabez lived prior to the writing of any portion of the Bible. The traditions of Genesis had no doubt been passed down, and it is possible that news of Job's testing had made its way to Egypt, depending on when he lived. Jabez knew of God's covenant with Abram to give him the promised land, and also of the promise of slavery in Egypt. He knew how ironic were the names of Abram and Jacob, and how God had turned the tables on the firstborn and those highly favored by men–men such as Ishmael, Esau, Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. He also knew that disaster could fall upon the righteous, as in the murder of Abel, the selling of Joseph, and the deaths of Ephraim's sons, and that even the upright could backslide into hard times, such as Noah and Lot.
The theology which Jabez knew was that God was in complete control of the successes and failures in his life, and that the fulfillment of his name depended on God's favor or disfavor. God was a God of justice, but could grant mercy when a man of God prayed, as demonstrated in the life of Abraham. Jabez therefore prayed to God for the protection and favor He had bestowed on the patriarchs, and God responded just as He responded to the prayers of the patriarchs.
The chronicler, with his long-term perspective, knew that God's covenant with the patriarchs had continued with His people through the centuries. Jabez was in covenant relationship with God, and his character confirms him as being godly at heart as well as chosen by descent from Jacob. More specifically, Jabez was of the tribe of Judah, from which Jacob had prophesied the "scepter" would never depart (Gen. 49:10). Even though not a direct ancestor of David, Jabez demonstrates God's special favor upon the royal line and sets up the theme in Chronicles that God is faithful to keep His promises.
Those of us who are Christians are also in covenant relationship with God and, according to Paul, are the continuation of Yahweh's chosen people; the church is the true Israel of God. We may not be from the tribe of Judah, but our covenant is the new covenant, which has as benefits Christ's intercession for us in heaven, and the indwelling of the Holy Spirit, who guides us in accepting, applying, and obeying the Scriptures. We can pray in Jesus' name with confidence, knowing that God has promised to provide for our needs and has asked us to cast our worries and anxieties on Him because He cares for us. In fact, as Christians, we all are already living the abundant life He promised, whatever our material circumstances might be.
Jabez's prayer demonstrates God's faithfulness and even His eagerness to bestow favor and blessing on His people. We should feel free to make requests to God for those things we need, and for a life of joy rather than a life of sorrow.
Notice, however, that Jabez's prayer is only partially reported. Unlike the Lord's prayer, it does not contain all the elements of a "model prayer." Absent is any praise to God, thanksgiving, confession, request for forgiveness, prayer for others, or commitment to action–not that every prayer must have all these elements. Since the point of the passage is that God granted this one man's request, the requests of and for that one man are all we have. Yet the purpose of prayer, holiness, and other aspects of Christian life, is not merely or even primarily to be blessed, but more importantly to foster intimacy with God.
Notice also that Jabez's prayer is not for frivolous desires or excessive wealth. His first request is indeed material, but in context it reflects true need more than desire or greed. His other requests are essentially for divine protection and deliverance from calamity. He is not seeking a life of luxury, leisure, and laughter. He simply wants to avoid a life of misery, specifically the slavery God had promised through Abraham.
Notice finally that Jabez's prayer is a request, not a command or magic formula. The last word of verse 10 indicates that Jabez was placing himself totally at God's disposal for the answering of the prayer. God could as easily and justly have allowed Jabez a life of sorrow for one reason or another. (Presumably, this would have cleared Jabez from fulfilling whatever vow was connected with the request.) Likewise, we must recognize that we should be content however God chooses to deal with our prayers, and should attribute His answers wholly to His grace, and not to the words we prayed or to our manner of life.
What we learn, though, is that the prayers we pray, whether for ourselves or others, whether for material or spiritual needs, we can pray with confidence, provided we are like Jabez: people of character and in covenant relationship with God. If we are not Christians, or are tainted by sinful patterns of life, other biblical passages indicate that our prayers will not be heard. We should then strive to be like Jabez, and then we may humbly make our requests along with praise and thanksgiving to God.
Recommended Reading: The Prayer of Jesus by Hank Hanegraaff (Nashville: Word, 2001).
For a concise statement of my beliefs about prayer, see my Declaration of Faith.
