DECEMBER 12

WHERE’S YOUR EBENEZER?

1 SAMULEL 7:3-13


“ Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.” (1 Sam. 7:12)

God had just won a great victory for the Israelites. As they assembled to pray and repent as a nation, the Philistines attacked them. The people cried out to God for help and the Lord was violently agitated and irritated with the Philistines. That’s what the word thundered in verse 10 means. God routed the Philistines before the Israelites.

Samuel placed a large stone at the site of the battle and called it Ebenezer. The Hebrew word Ebenezer means “stone of the help.” Samuel was placing a visual reminder for everyone present, and generations to come, that God was the one who had helped the people of Israel defeat their enemies.

The Lord commanded the observance of many feasts to remind His people of the things He had done. He also commanded us to reverence the landmarks of others by not removing them (Deut. 19:14, 27:17, 22:28, and 23:10). All of this stresses the importance of having markers that remind of God’s faithfulness.

Psalm 103:2 says, “Forget not all his benefits.” The reason we’re commanded not to forget is we will if we don’t make an effort to remember. That’s what the stone Ebenezer was for.

Do you have Ebenezers in your life? Each one of us has many instances where God has been faithful, but whether or not you’ve marked that spot is a different matter. Let the Lord direct your memory back to His faithfulness and put a marker there in your mind. Then visit that place often! (AW)