My favorite fiction author is Charles Dickens. He was a master of satire, using it to comment on social injustices during the Victorian era. (He grew up in extreme poverty with a father in debtor’s prison.) His parodies feature memorable characters such as Oliver Twist, Tiny Tim, and Uriah Heep, whose traits are often sharply exaggerated.
Perhaps the most famous of these is the miserly grumbler, known for his scowling “Bah, humbug!” to well-wishers—Ebenezer Scrooge. So unforgettable is Dickens’s Scrooge that most people cannot think of anything else when they hear the name “Ebenezer” (and few have given that name to a child since).
However, “Ebenezer” has a biblical origin, and it wasn’t always a person’s name, it was a location. It is first mentioned in 1 Samuel 4:1: “Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek.” In that account, Israel presumptuously believed they could defeat their enemies, the Philistines, if they brought the Ark of the Covenant onto the battlefield. They lost both the battle and the Ark, which would not be returned for many months.
The second reference is 1 Samuel 7, where Israel again faced a battle against the Philistines. This time, the Israelites chose humility, and the Lord blessed them.
So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the LORD. And Samuel cried out to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him. As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the LORD thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion, and they were defeated before Israel. And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car. Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, “Till now the LORD has helped us.” (1 Sam. 7:9–12)
The first time at Ebenezer, the people presumed they could control God, but the second time, they humbled themselves and sacrificially sought the Lord’s favor. The first resulted in an unexpected, humiliating defeat, while the second brought an unexpected, glorious victory! The Lord’s triumph was so great that the prophet Samuel commemorated it by setting up a stone and naming it “Eben-Ezer,” which means “the stone of help.”
More than two millennia later, the term was commemorated in song by Robert Robinson, who, in 1757, wrote “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing.” The song’s second stanza reads,
Here I raise my Ebenezer;
hither by thy help I’m come;
and I hope, by thy good pleasure,
safely to arrive at home.
Jesus sought me when a stranger,
Wandering from the fold of God;
He, to rescue me from danger,
Interposed His precious blood.
The song’s reference to “raising my Ebenezer” prompts Christians to look to and remember the Rock of their salvation. This was Abraham’s reaction to the Lord providing a ram as a substitutionary sacrifice for his son. He memorialized God’s gracious provision by giving the place a name.
So Abraham called the name of that place, “The LORD will provide”; as it is said to this day, “On the mount of the LORD it shall be provided.” (Gen. 22:14)
Likewise, Moses was so deeply moved by God’s protection that he also commemorated the location. “And Moses built an altar and called the name of it, The LORD Is My Banner” (Ex. 17:15). Just as people return to battlegrounds to remember great victories, so Christians can mark places to remember God’s faithfulness.
Are there objects or places in your life that serve this purpose? Have you identified specific items that point to God’s ongoing care for you? Find some Ebenezers! Use physical objects and specific locations to remind you to thank God for His past faithfulness and to trust Him with your future. It will change your attitude from “Bah, humbug” to “God bless us, every one!”
Remember this and stand firm, recall it to mind, you transgressors, remember the former things of old; for I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like me. (Isaiah 46:8-9)