What is the first thing that comes to mind when I say the word "Ebenezer"? How many of you said Scrooge?? That's the first thing my son says! And honestly, it's the first thing that comes to mind for me too. Ebenezer Scrooge is, of course, the main character in A Christmas Carol. Just as a side note: Muppets Christmas Carol is hands-down my favorite version of that story.
But I'm not here today to talk to you about Muppets and Scrooge. Nope. I'm going to tell you what an Ebenezer is. It's not just a grumpy old guy who doesn't want to share his money. That's only in in the Christmas story. In the Bible an Ebenezer is something else entirely.
Let's grab our Bibles and look at 1 Samuel, chapter 7. Think back to last week and what we learned about the Ark of the Covenant. It was a very special, very holy chest where God himself would send his Spirit to be among the people. Not just anyone could touch it, only the priests. And even they had to follow special rules and be very respectful. This wasn't like some cool pirate's chest anyone could take and have the treasure inside.
But sometimes the Israelites would stop obeying God, start making very bad choices, and then get into battles with other people. In this case, it was the Philistines. They battled with the Philistines a lot. It's safe to say if you're reading about Philistines in the Bible, they're bad guys. And sometimes the Philistines would win against the Israelites and they would take the Ark of the Covenant. The funny thing is wherever the Philistines put the Ark of the Covenant people would get really sick, and even start dying! They moved it around a few times until they finally decided they didn't want the special golden box of Israel's God, and they gave it back. But the Israelites still weren't safe from the Philistines.
And here in 1 Samuel 7, the Israelites realized that God had allowed them to be punished because they had sinned against him. They had even started worshiping other gods. Gods that weren't real! The Israelites felt very sorry for being unfaithful to God, for forgetting what he had done for them, for not doing what was right.
So Samuel tells the people first to destroy all the places where they were worshiping the fake gods. After they did that, he gathers everyone together outside of a city called Mizpah. Once they were all gathered together, they drew water up from a well and poured it out before God. They went all day without food and they confessed their sins to God.
But when the Philistines heard that all of Israel had gathered together, they decided to get their army ready and head towards them to attack. Let's read what happens next, 1 Samuel 7:7-13 "The Israelites were badly frightened when they learned that the Philistines were approaching. “Don’t stop pleading with the Lord our God to save us from the Philistines!” they begged Samuel. So Samuel took a young lamb and offered it to the Lord as a whole burnt offering. He pleaded with the Lord to help Israel, and the Lord answered him.
Just as Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines arrived to attack Israel. But the Lord spoke with a mighty voice of thunder from heaven that day, and the Philistines were thrown into such confusion that the Israelites defeated them.The men of Israel chased them from Mizpah to a place below Beth-car, slaughtering them all along the way.
Samuel then took a large stone and placed it between the towns of Mizpah and Jeshanah. He named it Ebenezer (which means “the stone of help”), for he said, “Up to this point the Lord has helped us!”
So the Philistines were subdued and didn’t invade Israel again for some time. And throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the Lord’s powerful hand was raised against the Philistines."
That was another really cool miracle God did for the Israelites! Because they were coming to God truly sorry for being unfaithful, and completely trusting that the only way they could be saved was with God's help, God again showed his faithfulness. He scared away the Philistines with thunder! I bet that was some really loud thunder. Like the kind of thunder that shakes your whole house and makes your dog start barking.
Did you catch the Ebenezer? It's a stone. The name actually means "stone of help". Of course, the stone itself didn't do anything. It's just a rock. And even in the story, Samuel didn't use it to kill anyone or trip somebody or even hide behind it. But the stone acted as another reminder of God's faithfulness. Samuel is putting up another memorial so everyone can remember that God has been faithful to help his people whenever they cry out to him.
You wanna know what else is cool? Some of the names of Jesus are 'Rock of Ages', 'Stone of Israel', or even simply 'Rock'. Jesus is our "stone of help."
There's a song we sometimes sing called "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing". It was written 262 years ago! That means it was written even before the Declaration of Independence. And so some of the words in it are old-fashioned and kinda confusing. We don't really talk the same now as people did then.
Let me give you the words for the second verse.
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Hither by Thy help I'm come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
Did you hear Ebenezer again? Now, if you're just singing this at church one day and you don't know the story of Samuel and the Philistines, you're going to start wondering what Ebenezer Scrooge has to do with Jesus. The answer is....nothing really. But now you know that an Ebenezer is a stone that helps us remember God's faithfulness. The second verse of "Come Thou Fount" is talking about making our own memorials to remember how God has helped us and kept us going. It also talks about how we have hope to arrive at home in heaven with God. And we have that hope because of Jesus. Jesus came to save us even while were lost in our sin. He rescued us on the cross, his own blood covering our sins. We're going to talk more about that next week!
Isn't that amazing? We are rescued from danger, just like the Israelites were rescued from the Philistines. And we can lift an Ebenezer too. It doesn't have to be a stone. Maybe you can draw a picture, or take a picture to help you remember when God has helped you. Maybe you can save something from your schoolyear to remind you how God stayed with you when you felt worried about a test, or left out from your friends. I think we all should take time to think about how God is helping us now, and raise an Ebenezer so we can always remember how God was with us even when we had to stay at home all the time.
So now you know what an Ebenezer is! And when Christmas rolls around and you watch the Muppets, or Mickey Mouse, or whatever version you like, you can remember that an Ebenezer actually helps remind us of God's faithfulness.
Let's pray.
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