There’s a line in the famous hymn, ‘Come Thou Font’ that we sing, and for the longest time it made absolutely no sense to me:

“Here I raise my ebenezer, hither by thy help I come.” 

Ebenezer? Like, Scrooge? What does it mean to raise an ebenezer? Is an ebenezer important? Well, I did what any study-happy woman does, and I googled it. When in doubt, someone out there has probably already answered your question. What came up was a passage from 1 Samuel. It is a scene which takes place after the Ark of the Covenant is returned to Israel, and the people of Israel’s reaction to that event:

“Then all the people of Israel turned back to the Lord. So Samuel said to all the Israelites, “If you are returning to the Lord with all your hearts, then rid yourselves of the foreign gods and the Ashtoreths and commit yourselves to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.” So the Israelites put away their Baals and Ashtoreths, and served the Lord only.

Then Samuel said, “Assemble all Israel at Mizpah, and I will intercede with the Lord for you.” When they had assembled at Mizpah, they drew water and poured it out before the Lord. On that day they fasted and there they confessed, “We have sinned against the Lord.” Now Samuel was serving as leader of Israel at Mizpah. When the Philistines heard that Israel had assembled at Mizpah, the rulers of the Philistines came up to attack them.

When the Israelites heard of it, they were afraid because of the Philistines. They said to Samuel, “Do not stop crying out to the Lord our God for us, that he may rescue us from the hand of the Philistines.” Then Samuel took a suckling lamb and sacrificed it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. He cried out to the Lord on Israel’s behalf, and the Lord answered him. While Samuel was sacrificing the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to engage Israel in battle. But that day the Lord thundered with loud thunder against the Philistines and threw them into such a panic that they were routed before the Israelites.

The men of Israel rushed out of Mizpah and pursued the Philistines, slaughtering them along the way to a point below Beth Kar. 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.” So the Philistines were subdued and they stopped invading Israel’s territory. Throughout Samuel’s lifetime, the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines.” - 1 Samuel 7: 3-13 

Ebenezer was the name given to the location of the stone marker memorializing the LORD’s delivery of the Israelites from the Philistines. A lot happened in that passage. The Ark returned to Israel, the Israelites repented and turned their hearts back to God, and God gave them victory in their battle against their enemies. This was a time worth remembering. 

It is interesting, this is not the first time a stone has been used as a marker for the Israelites. All the way back in Joshua 4:1-9, the LORD instructed Joshua to have the Priests build a memorial of twelve stones (to represent the tribes of Israel) to commemorate the Israelites crossing the Jordan. But, if you go even further back, you find the first mentions of stone memorials in Genesis 28:10-19, after the LORD makes a covenant with Jacob. Jacob sets up a stone that he anoints with oil to mark the importance of that place and that encounter. I read these passages (and a few others not listed here) and I wondered why the author of ‘Come Thou Font’ chose to reference 1 Samuel 7, instead of another passage.

The writer, Robert Robinson, wrote this hymn at the age of 23, after his conversion to Christianity. He used the word ebenezer as a reminder of where his blessings had come. He wanted to remember how the LORD had rescued him from dangerous paths and gave him salvation. This was much like Samuel and the Israelites when they raised the first ebenezer stone to remember their return to faith, and the LORD’s faithfulness to save.

About four years ago, I started a prayer journal/ diary. I recorded my innermost dialogue with God, scriptures, hopes, and struggles. When I first began, I was doing it because it helped to write things down. But two years into journaling, I started to flip back through the pages and discover prayers that God had fulfilled, needs that had been met, hopes that had been seen through. I realized that these journals, although in the moment seemed like frustrated scribbles and tearful pages of prayer, were transformed through time into beautiful ebenezer stones of God’s enduring faithfulness in my life. 

It is important that we as Christians keep “ebenezer stones” in our lives. Be it journals, or songs, or days, or pictures, whatever they may be. We are by nature forgetful, and in a moment of crisis it is easy to have amnesia in our faith. “Has He ever been there for me?” “He never answers my prayers!” “I don’t know if I can trust Him to provide.” But we leave ebenezer stones in our lives to point ourselves back to the goodness, the power, the truth of God. If you think I’m getting a little crazy, allow me to point out. God gave us the greatest ebenezer of all time. The cross. It stands, and will always stand, to remind us of who God is, and what He has done.  

“Once you were alienated from God and were enemies in your minds because of your evil behavior. But now He has reconciled you by Christ’s physical body through death to present you holy in His sight, without blemish and free from accusation- if you continue in your faith, established and firm, and do not move from the hope held out in the gospel. This is the gospel that you have heard and that has been proclaimed to every creature under heaven, and of which I, Paul, have become a servant.” - Colossians 1:21-23 

Do you have an ebenezer stone you’ve raised to remember something God’s done in your life?

Have you ever considered the importance of creating markers of your faith?

Take some time today to write down, or reflect on the ways you’ve seen God’s hand in your life. 

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mia Grace loves sunflowers, words, old hardcover books, and fountain pens. She adores Jesus Christ, and seeks to listen and obey him in her life. Her life verse is Isaiah 52:7, and her prayer is for every girl to grasp the height, weight, depth, width, and power of Christ's love for them.