“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.”
1 Samuel 7:12 (NIV)
One of the hymns Parkdale loves to sing is called “Come thou Fount of every blessing”, and yet the beginning of the second verse contains a puzzling phrase “here I raise my Ebenezer here by Thy great help I’ve come”. 1 Samuel 7 gives us the truth behind this statement, for it shows us the origin of the concept. It describes how God helped the Israelites by subduing the enemy and restoring towns to the Israelites. Now it is important that this help followed 2 significant acts of faith on Israel’s part, for verses 3-6 describe true repentance and a restoration of true worship, and verses 7-9 describe their cry to their God for help. They didn’t turn back to their false Gods when danger approached, they cried out to their true God. Nothing like a real and present danger to reveal the true nature of our hearts, and the true object of our worship! They had truly turned to God, they proved it by their acts of repentance and by their prayers for help, and so God helped them. Now Samuel wanted them to remember that God helped them this far, and so he raised a stone and named it Ebenezer (stone of help), a stone that they would see in their normal travels, that would remind them that God has helped them this far, and encourage their hearts to trust Him for future help.
Friend- can you look back on your life and see where God has helped you?
Build a reminder- not a shrine- but a memory stone of some kind,
tell your spouse, tell your kids, tell yourself, build a memory
that will encourage you to believe that He is willing to help you now.
For if He brought us this far, can we not believe that he will carry us to the end?
He will! Ask Him for the help you need today.
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