Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen, and called its name Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us.” (1 Samuel 7:12)
Rocks in your head? Isn’t that a derogatory statement, a form of ridicule to indicate that someone is crazy?
Yet here is Samuel setting up a big solitary stone in the ground that would serve as a constant reminder to the people of Israel of a great victory God had given them over a treacherous enemy that vastly outnumbered them. An enemy which had caught them at a most vulnerable moment – they were not standing ready for war, but were engaged around the altar in worship, offering sacrifices of repentance.
He called that rock ‘Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the LORD has helped us”’, a name which testified to the Lord’s presence with them all the way ‘to this place,’ or ‘to this hour.’ Though previously the faith of the people had been found lacking as they resorted to presumption in taking the ark into battle against the Philistines and suffered great defeat (chapter 4), now as they repented and looked to Him with faith in the overwhelming danger they saw His victory.
Throughout the generations the lesson this stone declared was clear
Even when they weren’t physically passing the stone Ebenezer its reality was implanted in their memory to serve as a daily reminder, a touchstone of grace calling them to trust in God’s presence and grace.
Rocks in your head? Yes, in effect that is what believers are to have, and that without being crazy. Far from it! In Psalm 124 the call goes out, a cry from the priests in Jerusalem and the echo of which is heard by the pilgrim as they travel to Jerusalem, “Let Israel now say…”
As Israel looked back over their nation’s history, as individual believers looked over their personal history, they would and should see the many evidences of God’s gracious help and victory, that He was alongside them on the way. Every year as they gathered did they not have more accounts to declare? An ever expanding exaltation of praise to lift up? A renewed cause to speak to themselves and one another in admonition to trust in God?
As we gather Sunday after Sunday, do not we? Are you setting up rocks in your head? Are you engaging in an every expanding exaltation of praise, thanksgiving to God and of admonition to self and others?