The Prayer of Jabez 2
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II. But we must proceed to the second petition of Jabez: "And enlarge my coast." What coast was this? I believe it was the limit of his experience, the line of life drawn out by the Holy Spirit on his heart and conscience. A coast means a boundary line, such as divides one territory from another, or terminates a country, as the sea coast is the boundary of our island. Every quickened soul, then, has a coast; that is a territory of inward experience, which is limited and bounded by the line that the Holy Spirit has drawn in his conscience.
Some, for instance, have a narrow experience--a slip, as it were, of spiritual territory. They cannot get much beyond doubts and fears, and guilt and convictions, with, at times, earnest desires for mercy and pardon. Others have their coast a little more extended. The blessed Spirit has moved the line a little farther, and taken in a somewhat larger territory. These are enabled to hope in God's mercy, and anchor in his promises. Others can through faith rest in Christ's blood and righteousness, having received some intimation of favor, but not brought out into the liberty of the gospel. In these the coast has been carried out farther still, and the line embraces a larger space. Others are brought into the light, life, liberty, joy, and peace of the glorious gospel of the Son of God. In these the coast of spiritual experience is still more widely allotted, and they can say, "The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yes, I have a goodly heritage," Ps 16:6.
As the Lord divided the tribes, to cast their inheritance by line, Ps 78:55, so has he cast the lot for every vessel of mercy, and his hand has divided it unto them by line. Isa 34:17. This is as it were the tether which fastens down every quickened soul to his own appointed portion of inward experience. Within this tether he may walk, feed, and lie down. It is "the food convenient for him," the strip of pasture allotted him. He cannot, he dare not break this tether, which is fastened round a tender conscience, and every stretching forth beyond his measure to boast in another man's line of things, cuts into and galls this tender conscience. He may indeed, and often will, wear this pasture bare by treading so much and so long within the narrow circle, and may reach forth his neck sometimes to nibble a few blades of grass a little beyond his strip, yet will he not break his tether to rush uninvited into the green pastures.
A child of God is not like the wild donkey, of which we read that "the range of the mountains is his pasture, and he searches after every green thing," Job 39:8. A living soul cannot thus "snuff up the wilderness at his pleasure," Jer 2:24, "regarding not the crying of the driver;" nor run loose into the field of doctrine, rolling himself amid the thick grass and flowers of promises and gospel truths, and "feeding himself without fear." No; he must have the stake pulled up, and the tether lengthened, and be led by his master into just such a portion as he sees good to give him.
Nor, again, will a living soul be satisfied with a narrow, circumscribed experience. Some seem well contented to be as they are, and have no wish to have a better or more enlarged experience than they think they possess. The old strip round which they have walked twenty years until it is threadbare, amply suffices them. But it is a different thing to break through the tether from presumption, and lie still on the bare ground through sloth. The living soul cannot but earnestly desire to have his coast enlarged. More light, more life, more feeling, more liberty, more knowledge of God in Christ, more faith, hope, and love. To have his narrow, contracted, shut up heart, enlarged in prayer, in meditation, in communion, in affection to the people of God. He is not satisfied with the scanty pasture allotted him, but desires a larger measure of heavenly teaching, to be indulged with more filial confidence in, and access unto God, and to be more delivered from that fear which has torment. "God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem," Ge 9:27.
"I will run the way of your commandments, when you shall enlarge my heart," Ps 119:32. This enlargement of their border the Lord had sworn to Israel, and to give them all the land which he had promised unto their fathers, De 19:8; and therefore when he had said, "Sing, O barren, you that did not bear," he adds, "enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your habitation; spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes," Isa 54:1,2.
Have you any of these fervent desires after light, love, and liberty, that the world, pride, lust, unbelief, covetousness, and carnality may not shut up your heart, but that you may know the love of Christ that passes knowledge, so as to be filled with all the fullness of God? These are good desires, and very different from rushing presumptuously forward, and chattering about liberty, while you are slaves of corruption. It is one thing to look through the fence, and another to enjoy the estate; but it is far better to look through the fences with wishful desires, than to break down the fence as a trespasser. To look upon the coffer is not to be put into possession of the writings, but it is better to wait and cry for the key of David, than break it open, and steal the deeds. And he that is kept in that narrow, narrow path between sloth and presumption will be at solemn seasons crying out with Jabez: "Oh, that you would enlarge my coast!"
III. "And that your hand might be with me." This is the third petition of this heard and answered prayer. Jabez was not for rushing presumptuously on in his temporal concerns more than in his spiritual. Without some divine leading or intimation of God's will he was afraid to step forward. But why this holy caution and anxious desire for the hand of God to go out before him, and be with him? Because he had proved by painful experience, that where the beginning of a thing is not from God, he could not expect the middle to be from God, nor the end. What, indeed, we undertake from carnal motives and selfish ends, God may, and doubtless will, overrule to his own glory and our good, but we shall have small comfort from it by the way. Having smarted, then, from his carnality and self-seeking for by painful experience is this lesson learned, Jabez now wanted to see the Lord's hand stretched out to show him the way, and keep him in it.
The burnt child dreads the fire; and thus feeling all to be wrong, and to go wrong where the Lord's hand is not, the living soul fears to be left to itself. It is not the bare, dry, letter-truth of God's special providence that will satisfy one jealous over himself with godly jealousy. This will do for a professor; but a living child desires to see and feel a fatherly hand with him and over him, going before him temporally, holding him up spiritually, clearing his path, removing all difficulties, and giving him testimonies that what is done in his fear shall terminate in his approbation. If this hand be with us, all is well; if not with us, or against us, all is ill.
Our enemies cannot hurt us if the Lord be on our side; our difficulties, however great, shall not ruin us if his hand be with us; our lusts and temptations shall not prevail, if he stretch forth his hand; and our base and filthy hearts shall not sink us into eternal dismay, if the everlasting arms are underneath. He, then, that can wait and watch the Lord's hand, and only moves when that hand leads forward, will not go astray. But it is the self-loathing and condemnation, the smart and wound of having so rashly and obstinately followed our own ways, that will make us cry feelingly and frequently, "that your hand may be with me."
IV. The last petition of Jabez is, "And that you would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me." It is indeed a base misrepresentation of the doctrines of grace to say that they lead to licentiousness. However ungodly men abuse and pervert them, such is not their effect or tendency in a living soul. I believe that every child of God will be more or less frequently offering up this prayer of Jabez, "That you would keep me from evil, that it may not grieve me." He is not one of those who say, "never mind; sin cannot damn me, nor cut me out of the covenant;" but having his heart tender before God and his conscience alive in his fear, knowing something of the terrors of the Lord, and something too of his goodness, he desires to be kept from evil as being hateful to God, and grievous to his own soul. Sin indulged had brought pain and grief into his heart, had cut deep wounds in his conscience, and burdened him sorely; and remembering the wormwood and the gall, he cried to be kept from it for the future.
Shun as you would a pestilence any one who makes light of sin. Be assured such have never seen or known God, nor Jesus Christ whom he has sent. Had they seen light in God's light, had their secret sins been set in the light of his countenance, or had they ever seen by faith a crucified Lord, they would not, they dare not, speak lightly of that which has been so signally stamped with the wrath of the Father, and suffering of the Son. He who has not been brought to abhor himself in dust and ashes has never seen God, and has only heard of him by the hearing of the ear, Job 42:5,6. Sin is a grief, a burden to every living soul, and when fallen into, cuts his tender conscience, and wounds his mind.
But the expression, "And that you would keep me from evil," implies that Jabez was a poor burdened sinner who could not keep himself. If he could keep himself, this petition would be an idle mockery. He need not to have fallen outwardly to teach him this. There are inward falls, slips of the tongue, glances of the eye, filthy desires, roving imaginations, covetous projects, proud desires, idolatrous lustings, secret backslidings into carnality and worldliness. Jabez does not pray, keep me from evil that it may not disgrace me or expose me, lest it wound my fair fame or gratify my enemies, but that it may not grieve me--that it may not prove an inward source of trouble, may not intercept communion, bar access, bring a cloud before the mercy-seat, rankle in me so as to produce guilt and terror, may not bring down heavy chastisements, and make me a limping cripple all my days. He was not one of those who can be very pious openly, and very impious secretly, a whited sepulcher fair without, and within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanness.
"And God granted him that which he requested." That was the best of all. It is not prayer, but the answer to prayer that brings the blessing. "A man has joy by the answer of his mouth," Pr 15:23. And it was Jabez's mercy not merely to pray for spiritual blessings, but to have them richly bestowed. The Lord did bless him indeed, did enlarge his coast, guided him with his hand, and kept him from evil.
In drawing this feeble portrait of Jabez, I have also described, however faintly and imperfectly, the desires and breathings of the people of God. But remember that I have not said that they are always in this state. Had I said so, if I know any of these things by experience, I should have told a lie, and the very worst of all lies a pulpit lie. It is only at certain seasons, rare and solemn moments, under the special visitations and overshadowings of the blessed Spirit, that the people of God thus pour out their hearts before him.
There are many times when it seems as if this present world could satisfy us, when we build up our earthly paradises, and seek as it were ease and rest here below. But the voice soon comes, "Arise and depart, for this is not your rest." As the Holy Spirit brooded over the dark waters of chaos, so will he sometimes brood over the soul, infusing life and feeling, and drawing forth earnest desires such as passed through the soul of Jabez; and then it seems as if nothing would or could satisfy us but a blessed answer.
Let me, then, ask you a few questions. Do you know the God of Israel by his own manifestations? Do you call upon him in solemn moments of secret supplication, when every thought lies open to his eye, and your whole soul seems prostrate before him, as if he and you were alone on the earth? Are you seeking real blessings at his hand, blessings indeed! Are you crying to him to enlarge your coast? Or are you well satisfied with your present attainments, looking down upon others as babes, while you know all that is to be known. If you are sitting in the easy chair of the sluggard, or roaming over the 'mountains of presumption', you desire no spiritual enlargement of heart.
But if you are a poor burdened cripple, that would gladly enjoy light, love, and liberty, I well know you are sometimes pouring out your soul, if not in the words in the meaning of them, "Oh, that you would enlarge my coast!" Can you rush headlong into every scheme without seeking the Lord's sanction and guiding hand? Then you have not the heart nor cry of Jabez. And can you go to the very borders of evil, or even dally with sin, sheltering yourself under the falls of saints, without any groans for the past or cries for the future? Can you without piercing pangs of conscience indulge bosom sins, and go recklessly on in base lusts? Then you give little evidence that you are under such teachings as Jabez was favored with.
I know by painful experience what man's base heart is, but I believe I know also something of the desires and breathings of Jabez, to be delivered from the dominion of evil, and if I did not, I should conclude that I was dead in sin. One word more and I have done. If the Lord the Spirit has breathed into our souls the same hungerings and thirstings, longings and desires that he communicated to the soul of Jabez, a similar answer is annexed in the secret counsels of God to them, and when that answer comes with power, it will make us willing to crown Jesus Lord of all.
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