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.
As promised, a word about Ashtaroth. First, this is a plural noun. In Hebrew, words can be made plural by adding either an –im suffix (Baal, Baalim) or –oth (Asherah, Ashtaroth). There is a difference of opinion among several commentators. Some think this is a carved, wooden (graven, KJV) image used in idol-worship. Some others think it refers to a grove of trees where women who dedicated themselves to serve these false gods encouraged men to engage in “worship” by basically committing adultery. Many years after this, Gomer, the wife of Hosea the prophet, bragged about the gifts her lovers had given her (see Hosea 1-3). At any rate, these were things the Israelites were worshiping, and they had no business worshiping anything or anyone other than the One True God. So they got rid of the false and embraced the true, once again.
Now, all this took place at Kirjath-Jearim. The Ark had been there 20 years, but now Samuel is going to ask Israel to meet at another place.
2 The Prayers of Israel at Mizpeh
Text, 1 Samuel 7:5-11, KJV: 5 And Samuel said, Gather all Israel to Mizpeh, and I will pray for you unto the LORD. 6 And they gathered together to Mizpeh, and drew water, and poured it out before the LORD, and fasted on that day, and said there, We have sinned against the LORD. And Samuel judged the children of Israel in Mizpeh.
7 And when the Philistines heard that the children of Israel were gathered together to Mizpeh, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the children of Israel heard it, they were afraid of the Philistines. 8 And the children of Israel said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. 9 And Samuel took a sucking lamb, and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto the LORD: and Samuel cried unto the LORD for Israel; and the LORD heard him. 10 And as Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel: but the LORD thundered with a great thunder on that day upon the Philistines, and discomfited them; and they were smitten before Israel. 11 And the men of Israel went out of Mizpeh, and pursued the Philistines, and smote them, until they came under Bethcar.
The Ark of the Covenant had been at Kirjath-Jearim for 20 years and, apparently, stayed there until the days of King David (see 2 Samuel 6:1-4). Note that Samuel had come to Kirjath-Jearim to urge Israel to repentance and getting rid of the false gods and idols that, again, had come into Israel. Samuel then commanded Israel to meet him at Mizpeh, which was about 10-20 miles northeast of Kirjath-Jearim.
Samuel then offered a drink offering, pouring out water before the LORD. Oddly enough, there is no reference to water being a prescribed offering; the Law commanded various amounts of wine to be offered, but not water. We’re not told why Samuel used water but one guess, and only that, was to show Israel how serious it was to follow the LORD completely.
And that wasn’t all. Verse 6 states Israel fasted as well as spent time in confession and repentance. Samuel, as a judge, did indeed judge Israel while they were at Mizpeh. Again, we are not given any details but it was enough that they, at least at that time, got serious with the LORD.
This was for the best, as we’ll see in the next few verses. While Israel was spending time in repentance, prayer, judgment, and maybe more, some uninvited guests were about to make their entrance. When they did, needless to say, the Israelites were terrified. We need to remember that weapons of war were scarce for Israel, and in fact, the Philistines had made sure there were no blacksmiths in Israel. One reason, of course, is that blacksmiths not only made tools, but weapons, too, and the Philistines wanted to keep tight control over who got what when it came to tools—or weapons (1 Samuel 13:19). Granted, this verse refers to a future time, but it’s likely the Philistines had already clamped down on what tools and weapons Israel could have—and use.
When Israel saw the Philistines approaching, “armed to the teeth” as some suggested, it’s no surprise Israel was frightened! They had listened to Samuel, meeting him at Mizpeh, and then spending time in prayer, fasting, finally getting right with God. All this, only to see a lot of enemy soldiers coming straight for them.
Now, Israel seemed to remember one very important lesson, namely, not to bring the Ark of the Covenant out of its designated storage place. That had happened nearly 21 years ago, and the loss of over 30,000 soldiers, plus seeing the Ark carried off to the Philistines, might have been more than most of them could bear. This time, though, they did something different.
The first thing they did was head straight for Samuel! The Israelites “cried out” to him, asking him to pray to the LORD to save them from the Philistines. One wonders why they didn’t do this themselves, unless they were still afraid the LORD would not answer.
Then Samuel took a “sucking lamb (one that was not yet weaned, apparently)” and offered it. This was unusual as the Passover Lamb was to be one year old (Exodus 12:5), and for the other offerings, such as the twice-daily burnt offering (Exodus 29:38-41), the lamb for the Feast of the First fruits (Lev. 23:12), the lamb/s offered as part of the Nazirite vow (Numbers 6:12-14), and the lambs offered by each of the Twelve Princes or Leaders of each tribe brought to the Tabernacle (see Numbers 7) all of the lambs were to be one year old. To be sure, there were a few other offerings where the age of the lamb was not mentioned (e.g., the peace offering in Lev. 3; the female lamb for the sin offering in Lev. 4; and the trespass offering of Lev. 5).
After all this, Samuel cried unto the LORD and best of all, the LORD heard him! Israel found out that the LORD was with them all the time, and He was about to give them deliverance. And all of this took place while Samuel was offering the suckling lamb as a sacrifice.
It seems the Philistines had been coming closer and closer to the assembled Israelites as Samuel was supervising the burnt offering. Verse 10 states the Philistines drew near to battle (I take that to mean they were close enough to pounce--admittedly a somewhat overused verb these days) on Israel, perhaps as before. That wasn’t going to happen now, however.
The Philistines and Israel both experienced something I don’t think has happened before or since. The writer says the LORD thundered with a great thunder that day; they were also “discomfited (“confused” is another translation per https://biblehub.com/hebrew/2000.htm)” and they were smitten (also “defeated” per https://biblehub.com/hebrew/5062.htm) before Israel. According to verse 11, the men of Israel left Mizpeh and pursued the Philistines all the way to Bethcar (location unknown according to several commentators).
Now, with victory theirs, what would Israel do next?
3 The Memorial Stone named Ebenezer
Text, 1 Samuel 7:12-14, KJV: 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. 13 So the Philistines were subdued, and they came no more into the coast of Israel: and the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14 And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even unto Gath; and the coasts thereof did Israel deliver out of the hands of the Philistines. And there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
Israel, at least those gathered at Mizpeh, had just seen a miracle! They seemed to have few if any weapons of war themselves, but they had seen the LORD fight for them. We may not have all the details but we do have the brief comment: they asked (cried out!) Samuel to pray for them, Samuel cried out to the LORD and the LORD answered by thunder and other means to deliver His chosen people!
After the battle was over, and I’m guessing Samuel waited for the soldiers to return, it was time for a memorial. After all, Israel had built a few during their days in Canaan: the double memorial of stones from the Jordan and land arranged to make a memorial or reminder (see Joshua 4); and there was another, more somber memorial for Achan and those who took part in his sins (see Joshua 7). Joshua had also built an altar of stones near Mount Ebal and wrote a copy of the Law on that altar, another memorial from the days of conquest.
And now, Samuel took a stone, apparently uncut and never touched by a tool, and set it up between Mizpeh and Shen (location unknown). He called the stone Ebenezer, meaning “the stone of help”, and mentioned, “Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.” It goes without saying that the LORD had helped Israel many times before this, and would do so many times in the future, but Samuel seems to be reminding the people of what had just happened.. If nothing else, that would and should remind Israel that no other “god” could or would save them but the God of Israel would, did, and had just done it in their presence!
There’s also one other thing that’s mentioned in this passage: Israel was able to re-take some of the cities which the Philistines had conquered before. Ekron and Gath (both about 20 miles from Kirjath-Jearim according to https://bibleatlas.org/full/kiriath-jearim.htm). So then, the LORD had not only delivered Israel from a Philistine attack, He had also enabled Israel to reclaim some their previously lost territory.
For us, we need to remember that we are not engaged in physical war against the Philistines and we are not encouraged to manage land in Israel. These are all events for Israel in the past and it’s also important to recall that the LORD is going to give Israel all the land He promised them. There won’t be any need for Ebenezer stones in the future, but it sure was a reminder for the Israelites of those days. They wouldn’t have had to look very far to see that stone, that Ebenezer stone, in a field somewhere, saying, “The LORD has helped us up to this point!”
Scripture quotations taken from the King James Version of the Bible (KJV)
