Ebenezer: The Stone Of Help Series

Ebenezer: The Stone of Help

(Based on a sermon preached Sunday evening, May 18, 2025 at New Hope Baptist Church near Fulton, MO. This is not an exact transcription.)

Introduction: Ebenezer. The name reminds us (me, anyway) of some characters I’d rather forget—as in, Scrooge. The word almost sounds dark until we remember what the LORD did for Israel at, you guessed it, Ebenezer.

In the historical context, Israel was either controlled by or harassed by the Philistines. Chapters 4 through 6 describe how Israel took the Ark of the Covenant out of the Tabernacle, onto the battlefield, and lost the Ark and the battle to the Philistines. The Philistines took the Ark back to their homeland and suffered—literally—for the seven months they held the Ark in their land. Finally the Philistines decided enough was enough and sent the Ark back to Israel. There’s an illustration of mine on Sermon Central called “Unwanted Items—The Ark of the Covenant” that goes into greater detail about this theme than I can do here.

Now, at this time, the Ark is located at Kirjath-Jearim, one of the four cities of the Gibeonites who surrendered to Israel during the days of Joshua (see Joshua 9). Remember that the Ark had been placed on a cart, and the Philistines hitched two cows to the cart then turned them loose. The idea was that if the Ark made it to Israel—hauled in a Philistine wooden cart by two Philistine cows!—then truly the God of Israel made it happen. If not, they reasoned, it was purely chance that all the bad things had happened to them.

Did they really expect anyone to believe this?

So then, the first part of this story about Ebenezer includes the time when the Ark was taken to another place: this time, it seems, by Israelites.

1 The Encounters at Kirjath-Jearim

Text: 1 Samuel 7:1-4, KJV: 1 And the men of Kirjathjearim came, and fetched up the ark of the LORD, and brought it into the house of Abinadab in the hill, and sanctified Eleazar his son to keep the ark of the LORD. 2 And it came to pass, while the ark abode in Kirjathjearim, that the time was long; for it was twenty years: and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.

3 And Samuel spake 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 did put away Baalim and Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only.

We’d probably think that having the Ark of the Covenant returned to Israel would be a reason for the Israelites to celebrate—but there’s no record they did. In fact, the writer states the Ark was in the house of Abinadab for twenty years but didn’t record any mention of rejoicing it was back!

Now after those 20 years, Samuel came to Kiriath-Jearim. I can’t say for sure which came first, the nation lamenting after the LORD (and we’re never told why) or Samuel’s appearance. He did have a very active ministry in Israel, going “in circuit” between Bethel, Gilgal, and Mizpeh then returning to Ramah, his hometown (see 1 Samuel 7:15-17). For whatever reason, there is no record he ever came to Kirjath-Jearim even though it wasn’t too far from Ramah (see the on-line map at https://bibleatlas.org/full/mizpeh.htm).

Samuel was now at Kirjath-Jearim, no doubt at the LORD’s direction, and his message was short and to the point: “If you (as a nation) return to the LORD, then put away the strange gods and Ashtaroth (more about that in a moment); then prepare your hearts unto the LORD and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hands of the Philistines”.

What’s sad is that once again, Israel had abandoned the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob to worship idols. This had happened time and again ever since they left Egypt—just a short time after God had brought them out of Egypt, and while Moses was on the mountain receiving God’s Law for Israel, the people built a golden calf and started a full-fledged party or ceremony as part of the worship of that thing (see Exodus 32)! Ditto for the six to seven (or more) times during the Days of the Judges when Israel rebelled, repented, and repeated that mess for decades.

What’s good, though, is that Israel listened to Samuel’s message and did something about it. They put away the Baalim (false male gods) and Ashtaroth (false female deities) and served the LORD only. This reminds me of Jacob’s second journey to Bethel and how he told all of his household to do the same thing, namely, get rid of the “gods” or images, and get rid of them NOW. Jacob buried these things near an oak tree nearby (see Genesis 34-35 for the full story). And don’t forget Joshua’s exhortation in chapter 24 of his book, plus Israel’s pledge to get rid of the idols they had kept (why?) for as long as they had.