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I Will Raise My Ebenezer!

by Susan Hanson
1/25/2022 / Christian Living

"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

I had heard the hymn “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing” in church when I was young. I have heard it a few times in various churches since becoming a Christian fifty years ago in the autumn of 1972. I heard it again last week, but it was as if I had never heard it before. The whole hymn took hold of me like none other and the third verse will not stop running through my mind – “Here I raise my Ebenezer, Here by Thy great help I've come”.

It wasn’t long before many of the instances in my life when God’s great help got me through the rough times rambled through my mind… the house fire that took everything our family of five owned when my daughter was ten days old and her brothers were two and four years old, the sudden death of my son when he was 30, abuse and finally divorce after 49 years of marriage, and so many more. At the time of every “difficult season” I did not blame God and did acknowledge that He was there all the time, although I confess that I questioned “why” a lot!

So why did this hymn grab me and not let go now? I suspect Ecclesiastes 3:1 is active here.

Meditating and studying brought answers to my wondering mind and I learned much. First, I looked up the story of how this hymn came to be written. I had not been a wild child like Robert Robinson was before he wrote this hymn and almost quit, thinking it irrelevant, and chalked the whole thing off to one of those times a song gets stuck in your mind for a while, and you can’t get rid of it. But something would not let me do that.

After finding that the word “Ebenezer” came from the story in the book of First Samuel, I went to a few commentaries to see what they had to say. Jamieson, Fausset & Brown :: Commentary on 1 Samuel 7:12 says little, but it is enough for food for thought. “Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen--on an open spot between the town and "the crag" (some well-known rock in the neighborhood). A huge stone pillar was erected as a monument of their victory (Lev 26:1). The name--Eben-ezer--is thought to have been written on the face of it.” The term “Ebenezer” is a Hebrew word literally meaning “stone of help.”

The short version of the story in First Samuel tells us that the Philistines had attacked the nation of Israel, but God gave them an amazing victory over these enemies. After the battle, Samuel set up a stone on the battlefield and said, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” This stone was a reminder to the nation of Israel that God had protected them and gave them a magnificent victory so that when future generations passed by the Eben-ezer they could ask their parents what took place there.

That’s all well and good, I thought, but I already knew that, so there must be something more God wants me to understand about this.

In my own mind I have been rather critical of the ancient Israelites now and then. How could they possibly forget all that God had done for them over and over again? Surely, I would never forget and start to worry and fret…would I? Oh, yes, I have done exactly that. Sometimes in our most desperate or dismal times we are equally as capable of forgetting that God has yet to fail us as the nation of Israel sometimes was.

I believe we can all look back and remember times that we know that without God we just would not have made it through. And we recall those moments sometimes. But not enough. Granted, it is very impractical for every Christian to set up big stone monuments everywhere God has performed something miraculous or showed His faithfulness toward them, but is it not as important in the 21^st century as it was in Old Testament times to remind ourselves of God’s faithfulness?

I am thankful that Robert Robinson’s hymn, "Come Thou Fount," speaks of raising an Ebenezer. That is strange language for us today, I admit, but I firmly believe that modern hymnbooks should never have changed it. We need to be reminded of some of these things now, centuries after Samuel and others observed this tradition.

Years ago, we had commercials on TV reminding us to take pictures to remember those “kodak moments” in our lives, but what about “Ebenezer moments”?

Oftentimes, the kodak moments we photographed were ordinary everyday things we cherished with our loved ones as well as the big things in life like graduations and weddings. So, what about the ordinary everyday Ebenezer moments that might otherwise slip by unnoticed simply because they are so ordinary? I know I am guilty of letting many daily deliverances go unnoticed, at least until recently when I began considering “Ebenezer”.

There is no one right or wrong way to remember God and how he has moved in your life and I’m sure some people may have set up stones in modern times as reminders of what God has done for them. But there are other ways to capture those Ebenezer moments for our own encouragement in difficult times as well as for future generations to learn from. I have considered combining kodak moments with my Ebenezer moments in a scrapbook or photobook, or making a list in a notebook somewhere, but right now the idea of a poster, more visible than a journal or scrapbook, to draw or paint a tree with plenty of branches, and room for more, to remind me what my God has done for me over the years does seem to be standing out as the likely candidate for my Eben-ezer.

“Yes, as sure as God has helped so far as to-day, he will help us to the close. "I will never leave thee, I will never forsake thee; I have been with thee, and I will be with thee to the end." Courage, brethren, then; and as we pile the stones, saying, "Hitherto the Lord hath helped us," let us just gird up the loins of our mind, and be sober, and hope to the end for the grace that is to be revealed in us, for as it has been, so it shall be world without end.” Charles H. Spurgeon

Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing

Come Thou fount of every blessing
Tune my heart to sing Thy grace
Streams of mercy never ceasing
Call for songs of loudest praise

Teach me some melodious sonnet
Sung by flaming tongues above
Praise the mount, I'm fixed upon it
Mount of Thy redeeming love

Here I raise my Ebenezer
Here by Thy great help I've 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
(Precious blood)

Oh, that day when freed from sinning
I shall see Thy lovely face
Clothed then in blood washed linen
How I'll sing Thy sovereign grace

Come my Lord, no longer tarry
Take my ransomed soul away
Send Thine angels now to carry
Me to realms of endless days

Oh, to grace how great a debtor
Daily I'm constrained to be
Let Thy goodness like a fetter
Bind my wandering heart to Thee

Prone to wander, Lord I feel it
Prone to leave the God I love
Here's my heart, oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

Here's my heart
Oh take and seal it
Seal it for Thy courts above

I was raised in church but always felt like I was missing something. Now the Word of God excites me! My curiosity enhances the pursuance of discernment. I have often felt discouraged, but not totally defeated knowing that in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us.

Article Source: http://www.faithwriters.com-CHRISTIAN WRITERS

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