An Ebenezer Moment

An Ebenezer Moment:

The Annual Report

Sexagesima

Collect: O Lord God, who seest that we put not our trust in any thing that we do; Mercifully grant that by thy power we may be defended against all adversity; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen

Homily Text: 1 Samuel 7:12 (3-13)

3 And Samuel spoke unto all the house of Israel, saying, “If ye do return unto the Lord with all your hearts, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth from among you, and prepare your hearts unto the Lord and serve Him only; and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.”

4 Then the children of Israel put away the Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the Lord only.

5 And Samuel said, “Gather all Israel to Mizpah, and I will pray for you unto the Lord.”

6 And they gathered together at Mizpah, and drew water and poured it out before the Lord, and fasted on that day, and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the children of Israel at Mizpah.

7 And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines.

8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel, “Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.”

9 And Samuel took a sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the Lord; and Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the Lord heard him.

10 And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel; but the Lord thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel.

11 And the men of Israel went out of Mizpah, and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under Bethcar.

12 Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer [that is, The stone of help], saying, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”

13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the border of Israel; and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.

Have you ever known anyone named Ebenezer? Perhaps you think of that man with the flinty heart: Ebenezer Scrooge. You may have sung the hymn that has the line, “Here I raise my Ebenezer” and still scratch your head and wonder what it means to “raise your Ebenezer.” Today I want to tell you the story about how we got that name and what it means.

1. The Story

The time between Israel’s conquering of the land God promised and the time when they got their first king was a chaotic time. People did whatever was right in their own eyes. There was a repeated pattern:They rebelled against the Lord and worshiped other gods. The Lord would allow their enemies to oppress them. The people would cry out to the Lord for help. The Lord would send them a judge. You probably think of a judge as someone who carries on judicial functions. Judges did administer justice in Israel, but they also were military leaders who delivered God’s people from oppression. The last of the judges was Samuel, whose mother took him to the Temple as soon as he was weaned and gave up to the Lord.

Twenty years after Samuel began to lead Israel there was something of a religious revival and reformation in Israel’s life. The people began to mourn after the Lord - they wanted a restoration of their relationship with the Lord. Samuel told them what to do if they sincerely wanted to return to the Lord with all their hearts.

First, they must put away their pagan gods. They worshiped the Baals, a fertility god, and the Ashtaroths, Baal’s female counterpart. Second, they must direct their hearts to the Lord with trust, love, and loyalty. Third this must not be a temporary change, but they must continue to serve the Lord only. Samuel promised that, if they truly returned to the Lord, the Lord would save them from their enemies, the Philistines. The people did what Samuel told them. They got rid of all their false gods, and they worshiped only the Lord. In the Christian life, rather than repenting and turning to the Lord when he sends us trouble, repenting and returning ought to be a constant way of life for us. Martin Luther said, “When our Lord and Master Jesus Christ said, ‘Repent,’ he willed the entire life of believers to be one of repentance.”

Samuel told them to gather people from all over the land to meet at a place called Mizpah, which was about 7 miles north of Jerusalem on a major north-south highway. At Mizpah he would pray to the Lord for them. They did as Samuel instructed. When they had gathered at Mizpah, they drew water and, rather than drinking it, poured out before the Lord. They also fasted. These were acts of repentance, self-denial, and consecration to the Lord. They confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.”

We will soon be in the season of Lent. It is a time when many Christians will give up something beginning on Ash Wednesday and continuing to Easter. This can be a good practice, so long as we don’t think we are gaining the Lord’s favor by our self-denial or think that that denying ourselves something like wine or sweets is enough. The purpose of Lent and any self-denial we practice is: (1) to remind us we will die and there is an eternity before us, (2) to call us to examine our relationship to the Lord and find if we have moved away from the Lord, if how our faith has cooled, if there are areas of disobedience in our lives, and (3) and to call us to a whole life of denying ourselves, repenting, and consecrating ourselves to the Lord.  

When the Philistines heard that Israel had massed at Mizpah, they got nervous that Israel might be gathering an army to attack them, so their lords led their army toward Mizpah, where  Israel was gathered. When the people of Israel heard that the Philistines were on the march, they got very afraid. So they turned again to Samuel, and asked him to intercede with the Lord: “Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for us, that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines.”

Samuel took a nursing lamb, killed it, and offered it as a burnt offering to the Lord. The burnt offering was an offering that involved the whole animal being consumed on the altar. The burnt offering had two significances it. It was an atonement to cover the sins of the people. And it was a consecration symbolizing offering themselves wholly to the Lord. And Samuel prayed. He cried out to the Lord for Israel’s deliverance.

As the smoke of the offering was rising, the Philistines prepared to mount their attack. But the Lord had heard Samuel’s prayer. He thundered with a mighty sound against the Philistines - possibly a great thunderstorm with large hail. This threw the Philistines into a panic. Their army was thoroughly routed. The Israelites pursued them and won a decisive victory.

Samuel knew the people must not forget what the Lord had done. So he set up a stone and gave it the name Ebenezer, which means “Stone of Help.” He declared, “Hitherto hath the Lord helped us.”  That is, “So far, up to this present moment the Lord has helped us.”

2. The Significance

What was the significance of the Ebenezer stone for Israel? What is its significance for us?

2.1. The stone was a memorial of the Lord’s help to Israel. We still use stones for memorials. We memorialize the lives our our loved ones by placing memorial stones on their graves. If you go to the Civil War battlefields at places like Gettysburg or Vicksburg, you will find that they filled with large stone memorials given by the states to honor soldiers who served and died. Stones say, “We must not forget, and we must not let future generations forget.”

The Ebenezer stone Samuel set up said, “It is the Lord who gave us this victory; it was not by our power or skill. Let us give him the praise and glory, not ourselves.”  It said, “The Lord has been with us and helped us till this day. The Lord delivered us from Egypt. The Lord guided us through the wilderness. The Lord gave us victories over the Canaanites so we could possess this land. The Lord did not abandon us because of our sins, but time and again sent us deliverers. And even now, the Lord helped us win victory against the Philistines.”

“Hitherto” or “till now” the Lord has helped us is not meant to say, “The Lord has helped us till now but may not in the future. It offered encouragement for the future. If the Lord has helped us till now, why should we doubt he will help us in the future?, Israel could forfeit the Lord’s help if they turned away from the Lord and turned back to the pagan and false gods. But, if Israel maintains her trust in the Lord and loyalty to him, the Lord will always be her helper against her enemies.

2.2. We too should set up our Ebenezer stones. They may not be literal stones, but we must determine to remember the Lord’s faithfulness and help.

As individuals we should set up our personal stones of remembrance of the Lord’s help. Whether we have distinct memories of our coming to faith in Christ, we all should memorialize our salvation. “Christ died for my sins. The Holy Spirit gave me the gift of faith to trust in Christ. The Lord has preserved me through many ‘dangers, toils, and snares.’ ” There should be memorial stones set up in our hearts that call us to daily thanks for God’s salvation.

But we should also memorialize our many personal deliverances - that God has helped us through the trials and crises of life. Do you remember the Lord’s deliverances? Do you give thanks for them? Do they create in you confidence in the Lord’s future goodness? With 5 kids and a minister’s salaries there have been times when I got into a financial panic, but Susan would always say, “Has the Lord not provided and brought us through every time in the past?”

Ebenezer stones are for us as a church. The giving of the Annual Report should be a day we set up a stone that testifies to the Lord’s help to us since our founding in 1981 and particularly in the year 2016. How have we made it since 1981 till today? The Lord has helped us. Look over the past year and the trials we have experienced. We might not have got through them, but we did. Why? The Lord has helped us. Look at the Financial Report. We have faced a number of substantial but unanticipated needs. These could have discouraged us, or even sunk us, but the Lord helped us and has provided.

Today we say, “Till now the Lord has helped us. As he has helped us till this day, we believe he will help us in the days to come.”

Now we come to the greatest memorial of all. Not a memorial in stone, but in bread and wine. The memorial of the saving death upon the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ.