Here I Raise My Ebenezer

May 10, 2021

Finding your way doesn’t mean you always know where you’re going. It’s knowing how to find your way back home that’s important.”

- Clare Vanderpool

Sometimes we lose our way, but it does not necessarily mean we are lost. Sometimes it is a matter of simply being reminded of the way back home.

The Bible is filled with examples of individuals and people groups who lost their way, only to realize that God always provides a way back home.

When the children of Israel were exiled to Babylon, it was because they had disobeyed God and had lost their way. But God was faithful, meeting them right where they were and ultimately leading them back home.

When the Prodigal Son took his fortune and squandered it on worldly pleasures, God met him where he was and pointed him back toward home, where his father welcomed him with open arms.

Sometimes we just need a reminder of how to get home.

In the well-known hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing,” written by Robert Robinson in 1758 at just 22 years of age, we sing...

Come Thou fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing thy grace

Streams of mercy never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

In the next stanza, we sing:

Here I raise my Ebenezer

Here by Thy great help I’ve come

And I hope by Thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home

Most people have sung this hymn for years never knowing what they were singing. What does it mean to raise my Ebenezer?

In 1 Samuel 4-5, the Children of Israel were engaged in battle with the Philistines and had decided to take the Ark of the Covenant into battle as a good-luck charm. However, they were defeated, and the Ark was captured by the Philistines. In chapters 6-7, the Ark is returned to the Israelites, they repent of their sin and turn back to the Lord. In 1 Samuel 7:12, Samuel takes a stone and sets it up as a monument. He names it “Ebenezer,” which means “Thus far the Lord has helped us.” It was to remind the Children of Israel that, though they had lost their way, they were not lost. God remained faithful and eventually the Israelites found their way back home.

As we navigate our way through Covid and through life in general, it can be easy to lose our way; but we, too, are reminded that God is faithful, and if we lean into Him, He will guide us back home.