I am using the daily Bible reading schedule from “The Bible.net” for my daily Bible reading.

Today, I am reading and commenting on 1 Chronicles 2-4.

    Today’s passage continues the genealogy by discussing that of the tribes of Judah and Simeon. It goes into much greater depth on the tribe of Judah, following the Davidic line to the Exile and several generations after the Return (Zerubbabel, who is listed here along with his descendants, began rebuilding the Temple after the Return from Exile). There is also mention of Jair, one of the early Judges of Israel. According to this passage Jair was a descendant of Caleb, of the tribe of Judah, and of Makir, of the tribe of Manasseh. I am not sure that that is significant, but I am only now starting to notice these connections after reading this passage every year for six years now. Since I am just now starting to see these connections, I regret not starting to read through the Bible every year sooner.

    Also in this passage is the prayer of Jabez, about which a book was written some years back. I continue to believe that the book made too much of this prayer, but we can indeed learn something from reading the short reference to Jabez, and his prayer. A side note on that which is worth mentioning is that despite being in the midst of a list of genealogies, we do not know who Jabez’ father was, nor do we know who any of his children were. Perhaps the most important thing we know about Jabez is that he was more honorable than any of his brothers. (Actually, now that I think about it, Jabez’ presence here reminds me of today auction off being a character in their next book at a charity auction. It is almost as if the writer here mentions Jabez because he personally knew him and owed him a favor.)
    If we want to model ourselves after Jabez we need to start by looking at the second sentence of his prayer “Please be with me in all that I do,…” which is kind of the reverse of the way we should look at it because all that we do should be with God. However, we can work with the phrasing as it is. The only way that God will be with us in all that we do is if we make sure that everything we do is God’s will. Or to put it another way, the only way to be sure that God is always on our side is to make sure that we are always on God’s side. And that is indeed something we should, and need to, pray for because it is only with God’s guidance and direction that we will know what His side is in any given conflict or situation. Going further, even when we know what God’s will is, unless God’s Spirit intervenes we will find ourselves going our own way.
    Whenever I look at a prayer like this, or other passages which seem to promise us the possibility of great success, I am reminded of reading the Martyrs’ Mirror growing up. To this day I cannot help but think of those martyred for their faith during the period of the Reformation. The government authorities tortured them to death. Yet, their joy was so great as this was happening that the authorities took to cutting out their tongues before bringing them out to be publicly executed in a painful manner. The relevance of this to today’s passage is that those martyrs were joyful because they viewed what was happening to them as a great honor: God had deemed them worthy to suffer as Jesus had suffered. If we are truly faithful to God, we will have great success in this life. That success may be great wealth and power, such as King Solomon, or it may be to die in pain, such as most of the Apostles. Yet, when we look at those stories, the Apostles were close to God as death approached whereas Solomon seems to have moved away from God as his life went on.