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Q. Do you believe in the power of Jabez?(one who causes pain)

A. I guess it depends on what you mean by ‘the power of Jabez (one who causes pain).’

If you are asking if I believe that someone’s name determines their ‘destiny’, then the answer ‘no.’

Psalm 139 tells us: "For you created my inmost being; you knit me together in my mother’s womb. I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; your works are wonderful, I know that full well. My frame was not hidden from you when I was made in the secret place. When I was woven together in the depths of the earth, your eyes saw my unformed body. All the days ordained for me were written in your book before one of them came to be."

and

“Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ. For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure and will— to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” (Ephesians 1:3-6)

And

“For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God— not by works, so that no one can boast. For we are God’s workmanship, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do.” (Ephesians 2:8-10)

If you are asking if someone who prays the prayer Jabez prayed in 1 Chronicles 4:10 can expect to be rewarded or given extra material wealth or possessions, then we need to slow down and tread cautiously. Prayer is not a magic wand that can be waved so all our wishes can come true. Prayer, like worship, is connecting our heart to the heart of God.

There are always three potential answers to prayer: “No”, “Yes”, and “Not right now.”

Does God delight in giving His children ‘things’? Yes, but that’s not His primary motivation as He relates to us as our Heavenly Father. His primary motivation as our Heavenly Father is not to give us what we want, but to give us what we need – salvation.

For instance, I love my daughter dearly, but I will not let her eat only ice cream, even though she might love it. Instead I may have her eat broccoli! Am I being mean to her when I give her healthy food to eat instead of ice cream? No! In fact, it’s the most loving thing I can do as her father – give her what she needs not necessarily what she wants.

Now, does that mean I will never give her ice cream? No, of course not! I love seeing her face light up when a bowl of ice cream is set in front of her, and take great pleasure in watching her eat it and enjoy it.

When we ask God for things – for our territory to be enlarged – He will always say ‘yes’, ‘no’ or ‘not right now.’ If the thing we are asking for is in line with God’s will for us (in line with what God has already chosen for us to do), then the answer will either be ‘yes’ or ‘not right now.’ If it is not in God’s will for us, the answer will be ‘no.’

The tough spot we sinful, broken people often find ourselves in is that we want what we want and we want it now. We can’t see the future and all that would happen if we were given what we ask for, but God can. It’s hard to be patient, especially if what we are asking for seems to make sense to us: more financial stability, healing, relationships to be repaired or restored, etc.

Jabez also asked that God would keep him from harm so he would be free from pain. This is basically what we pray for in church when we lift up those who are sick or in the hospital in our prayers. We pray that they be kept from further sickness and be returned to health. In 1^st Corinthians 12, Paul tells us he prayed three times to have a “thorn in his flesh removed” and God said ‘no.’ It’s also interesting to know that Martin Luther had terrible stomach and intestinal problems. He prayed often that God would keep him from pain, and even prayed for a painless death!

In Genesis, God doesn’t actually command people to live to a certain age, rather He says that they will not live past the age of 120: Then the Lord said, “My Spirit will not contend with man forever, for he is mortal; his days will be a hundred and twenty years.” – Genesis 6:3. After the flood, you see the longevity of people start to decrease with ever increasing speed, until you get to Moses who lives exactly 120 years. In Psalm 90 it says “The years of our life are seventy, or even by reason of strength eighty.”

This does not mean that once a person reaches the age of 70 or 80 they should be ignored or put aside. God has also blessed us with medicines and doctors who are able to help sustain life.

However, there is another question, though: is it ever ok to refuse treatment for a life threatening illness or stop life support? The answer to that question is one that will be debated until Christ comes back. In general, as long as there is a chance for recovery and return to health, the Christian aims always to care for the individual, never to terminate life.

Here’s the slippery slope, though: where there is no chance for survival, and/or the treatment for a disease only prolongs the dying process and increases the suffering, it is generally accepted that a person may refuse treatment (or the guardian of that person in cases where the person is unable to speak for themselves). This, then, means the question has to be asked, “Is the proposed treatment excessively burdensome to the person being treated?” The answer to that question is always hard to answer.

Q: I was reading the book of Isaiah, and in chapter 1, verse 18 it says, “Come now, let us reason together,” says the Lord. “Though your sins are like scarlet, they shall be as white as snow; though they are red as crimson, they shall be like wool.” I thought Israel was basically a desert area. Would the people of Isaiah’s day even understood what snow was?

A: Good question! As a matter of fact, it does snow in the Holy Land. In fact, Jerusalem itself was just blanketed with 6 inches of snow when it was hit with a snowstorm on January 30, 2008.

The Holy Land is roughly the latitude as the mid-west United States. Winters there can get as cold as they can in the central part of the U.S. In addition, the Mediterranean Sea boarders the eastern side of the country; “lake effect” snowfall is not an un-heard of phenomenon in Israel.

A: The New Bible Commentary says of Genesis 1: “A modern reader automatically assumes that this section describes Abraham marrying again after the death of Sarah, but there is nothing here to justify this assumption. It seems more likely that he had married Keturah earlier…”

A commentary, critical and explanatory, on the Old and New Testaments says, “Abraham took a wife—rather, “had taken”; for Keturah is called Abraham’s concubine, or secondary wife (1 Chronicles 1:32); and as, from her bearing six sons to him, it is improbable that he married after Sarah’s death…”

So, since Abraham married Keturah, she is his wife. Since he was already married to Sarah when he took Keturah as his wife (a common practice at that time) she was his secondary wife – his concubine.