Sermon Bible Commentary
1 Chronicles 4:9,10
In what Jabez was "more honourable than his brethren" we are not told. It might be in courage; it might be in learning; it is certain that he was honourable for his piety.
I. Jabez called on the God of Israel. It was the habit of his life; it was the action of each separate day; he was known by this; this lay at the foundation of his courage, his goodness, his success.
II. The prayer of Jabez is (1) earnest; (2) full of desire for God; (3) it is a thorough prayer: he asks no partial blessing.
III. "Enlarge my coast." He prays for more territory to his people and himself more power, more wealth. These are what we should call earthly and temporal blessings. The best men of the Old Testament did not distinguish between temporal and spiritual, as we do. The thing we have to fear is, not "enlargement" in itself, but possible harm and danger to us in the process perversion, corruption, the coming in of hurtful elements.
IV. Notice the summing up of the prayer: "and that Thine hand might be with me," etc. So let us seek preservation from evil, inward and outward, by watchfulness, by prayer, by dependence on God, and we need never fear enlargement. Let it go on without limit and without fear if it goes on thus, banked in on either hand by Divine blessing and by Divine care.
A. Raleigh, The Way to the City,p. 190.
References: 1 Chronicles 1:12. H. Jones, Christian World Pulpit,vol. xxix., p. 141. 1 Parker, vol. viii., p. 318. 2 Ibid.,p. 323. 3 Ibid.,p. 327. 1 Chronicles 4:9; 1 Chronicles 4:10. Spurgeon, Sermons,vol. xvii., No. 994; H. Melvill, Sermons on Less Prominent Facts,vol. i., p. 297; Homiletic Quarterly,vol. i., p. 255, and vol. ii., p. 524. 1 Chronicles 4:17. J. M. Neale, Occasional Sermons,p. 116. 1 Chronicles 4:22. Spurgeon, Evening by Evening,p. 33.