What Is Your “Ebenezer?”

The first lines of the second stanza, in our Sda Hymnal, #334 sparked an interesting question during family worship yesterday.

Here is the line:

“Here I raise my Ebenezer; Hither by Thy help I’ve come…”

One comment was made which we all got a chuckle about; but which we also took quite seriously, and did some digging in the Bible, to sort it out.

The comment/question went something like this:

“Well, what is our Ebenezer? I don’t want to sing about lifting one up, unless I know what an ‘Ebenezer’ actually is! I have been singing that song for years, and have never known what I was singing about.”

So, on this bases; I want to ask forum participants:

“What Is Your ‘Ebenezer?’”

[ March 10, 2002: Message edited by: DavidTBattler ]

Well, here's a clue. "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 Samuel 7:12.

Sounds like "Ebenezer" means "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." In other words, it is a statement of faith that God is helping us.

According to Strong's Concordance the name Ebenezer means "stone of the help."

In doing a word study on the word "rock" we find that God is our Rock (Deut 32:4). 1 Corinthians 10:4 narrows it down more specifically by saying "that Rock was Christ."

So, when we raise our Ebenezer we are raising up Jesus and our faith in Him and remembering how Jesus has helped us so far.

Thank you for stimulating me to do this study! Now I know what "Here I raise my Ebenezer" means. I've wondered about that too, but forgot to study it out.

[ March 10, 2002: Message edited by: Jean Miller ]

I think many of us have sung that song without knowing what it meant. I wasn't fully aware of it, until around '88. I will never forget that a former much loved pastor gave a sermon about "our Ebenezers" at a Homecoming Weekend. I had been out of church from around '79 to '86. I realized then, that the night Jesus called me so strongly, and I came back to Him and to the church in Nov.'86 was truly an Ebenezer in my life!! There have been many others, but,without that one, I wouldn't be posting on this board today!

I also remember a pastor preaching on the story of how Esau sold his birthright for a miserable bowl of soup.

The pastor then asked: "What is your cup of soup?"

So it is with our "Ebenezer."

What specifically, is your personal Ebenezer?

1 Samuel 4:1 And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out against the Philistines to battle, and pitched beside Ebenezer: and the Philistines pitched in Aphek.
1 Samuel 5:1 And the Philistines took the ark of God, and brought it from Ebenezer unto Ashdod.
1 Samuel 7:12 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.

Eben-ezer

Stone of help, the memorial stone set up by Samuel to commemorate the divine assistance to Israel in their great battle against the Philistines, whom they totally routed #1Sa 7:7-12 at Aphek, in the neighbourhood of Mizpeh, in Benjamin, near the western entrance of the pass of Beth-horon.

On this very battle-field, twenty years before, the Philistines routed the Israelites, "and slew of the army in the field about four thousand men" #1Sa 4:1,2 here, and at #1Sa 5:1 called "Eben-ezer" by anticipation). In this extremity the Israelites fetched the ark out of Shiloh and carried it into their camp. The Philistines a second time immediately attacked them, and smote them with a very great slaughter, "for there fell of Israel thirty thousand footmen. And the ark of God was taken" #1Sa 4:10

And now in the same place the Philistines are vanquished, and the memorial stone is erected by Samuel (q.v.). The spot where the stone was erected was somewhere "between Mizpeh and Shen." Some have identified it with the modern Beit Iksa, a conspicuous and prominent position, apparently answering all the necessary conditions; others with Dier Aban, 3 miles east of ‘Ain Shems.

So, apparently, our "Ebenezer" is not always a place where God helps us?

Do we really know what to hold up, when we sing the song and say we want to hold up our Ebenezer?

[ March 11, 2002: Message edited by: DavidTBattler ]