Jabez called on the God of Israel, saying, Oh that you would bless me indeed, and enlarge my border, and that your hand might be with me, and that you would keep me from evil, that it not be to my sorrow! God granted him that which he requested.
Take the Pharisee. He stood in the Lord’s house, and he thought he had the Lord’s blessing, and it made him very bold, and he spoke with exaggerated self-complacency, “God, I thank you that I am not like other men,” and so on. He had the blessing, and he surely believed that he deserved it. He fasted twice a week, and gave a tenth of all he received. He felt he had done everything. His was the blessing of a quiet and contented conscience; he felt that he was a good, easy going man. He was an example to the community. It was a pity everybody did not live as he did; if they had, they would not have needed any police. Pilate might have dismissed his guards, and Herod his soldiers. He was just one of the most excellent persons that ever breathed. Yes; but he was not really blessed. This was nothing but his own arrogant conceit. He was nothing but a mere windbag, nothing more, and the blessing which he imagined had fallen on him, had never come. The poor tax collector, whom the Pharisee thought was wicked, went to his home justified before God rather than he. The blessing had not fallen on the man who thought he had it. Oh, let every one of us here feel the sting of this rebuke, and pray: “Great God, save us from ascribing to ourselves a righteousness which we do not possess. Save us from wrapping ourselves up in our own filthy rags, and believing that we have put on wedding garments. Please, bless me Father! Let me have the true righteousness. Let me have the true worthiness which you can accept-the righteousness that that comes through faith in Jesus Christ.”
