Ebenezer

    It's Christmas time folks! We all have traditions at this time of year that are peculiar to each household: traditions that are eagerly anticipated and kept close. One of my family's favorites began in 2009 with the release of Disney's motion capture rendition of "A Christmas Carol" with Jim Carrey. 

I'll never forget the first time we watched it together in our dear friends' living room; friends who were more like chosen family than anything else. It may sound silly, but the memory is so vivid that I can still taste the popcorn and candy canes we munched, and even feel the texture of their couch!  It was the first "scary movie" I'd been allowed to see, and 11 year-old me couldn't have felt more grown up. There was one problem though: it was scary. So, while I understood the point of the story, the rich goodness of Dickens' genius was a bit overshadowed by how much I'd trembled while I watched Scrooge's ghostly encounters. 

Fast forward to today, and this classic holds a treasured place in my heart. It started with the movie, but has grown to include the original book and a masterful radio theatre adaptation by Focus on the Family. And the story grips me more deeply, and moves me to tears more readily, every year as I grow older. If you haven't read the book or heard the audio drama, I strongly encourage you to check them out! 

In enjoying the tale each year, I usually discover something that strikes a new note in my soul, and I'd love to share this year's discovery with you. It's a simple thought really, just one word in fact: Ebenezer.

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    It's highly intriguing to me this Christmas that Dickens chose 'Ebenezer' as the  first name for Mr. Scrooge. I wonder if it was something he selected on purpose, or if it just sounded like a good and crusty name for a crusty old man. But for today's post, I'm going to assume that the choice was poignantly intentional. Why? Because the word 'Ebenezer' is one loaded down with biblical meaning. Are you ready to do a little, okay actually a lot of digging into God's word with me? Let's go! 

The word 'Ebenezer' appears only three times in Scripture, and all of them are in 1 Samuel. The first use is in 1 Samuel 4:1, and it turns out that Ebenezer was a physical location in Israel.  Let's take a look at what that passage says:

"And the word of Samuel came to all Israel. Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer, and the Philistines encamped at Aphek. The Philistines drew up in line against Israel, and when the battle spread, Israel was defeated before the Philistines, who killed about four thousand men on the field of battle. And when the people came to the camp, the elders of Israel said, 'Why has the LORD defeated us today before the Philistines? Let us bring the ark of the covenant of the LORD here from Shiloh that it may come among us and save us from the power of our enemies.' So the people sent to Shiloh and brought from there the ark of the covenant of the LORD of hosts, who is enthroned on the cherubim. And the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, were there with the ark of the covenant of God."

Now, it's important to get a bit of context on this passage to really understand what is going on. I'm not sure who originated this phrase, but it's very true that "Scripture interprets Scripture!" So what is  going on in this chapter? Actually, a whole lot.

 Back in chapter 3, Samuel is a young man (possibly between 12 and 16 years old) and has just heard directly from the Lord for the first time. And the word he receives is not an easy one. In his very first conversation with the God of his fathers, Samuel is instructed to be the second person to prophesy the destruction and death of the high priest Eli and his sons, Hophni and Phinehas. God was judging these men for three specific offenses: 

He condemned the two sons for 1: their flagrant contempt of God's law by robbing the people of the choicest portions of their sacrifices to Him, and, 2: for either raping or having affairs with the women who served at the entrance to the Tabernacle. Both of these things were deliberate acts of defiance towards God and the office of priesthood. In fact, in introducing the two brothers in 1 Samuel 2:12 the author says that, "...the sons of Eli were worthless men. They did not know the LORD." (emphasis added)

The third condemnation was towards their father, Eli, for looking on while his sons wreaked havoc and flew in the face of God. By being complicit and not taking action against his sons, Eli essentially made them more important than God. And that's something the Lord will not stand. 

At the end of 1 Samuel 3, Samuel has delivered his first prophecy to Eli, and the first verse of chapter 4 tells us that the prophecy has spread throughout all Israel. 

Yikes. 

    Now, back to Ebenezer. Ebenezer is mentioned as the place the Israelites camped to battle the Philistines, and the site of the actual battle. And this particular battle was an ugly one. So ugly that the elders of the nation roll up to figure out what went wrong. Now, I haven't done deep enough research to know this for certain, but to my knowledge we aren't given details on these elders like we are given on Phinehas and Hophni. However it's clear from this text that they have about as much regard for the Lord as these infamous brothers. Instead of examining their own hearts and the hearts of the people to see whether they even ought to be doing battle at that moment, they lash out, crying that God has defeated them. And then they make the situation even worse with a common but deadly error.  They assume that they can get God to do what they want by performing worship on their own terms. 

These elders thought that removing the ark of the covenant from the Tabernacle and bringing it with them into battle would guarantee their victory over the Philistines. Instead of asking the Lord directly for guidance and help, they decided to mess around with the holiest object possible: the object that represented God's covenant to Israel. In modern terms, they were basically degrading it to the significance of a rabbit's foot. Let's look at what happens next.

"As soon as the ark of the covenant of the LORD came into the camp, all Israel gave a mighty shout, so that the earth resounded. And when the Philistines heard the noise of the shouting, they said, 'What does this great shouting in the camp of the Hebrews mean?' And when they learned that the ark of the LORD had come into the camp, the Philistines were afraid, for they said, 'A god has come into the camp.' And they said, 'Woe to us! For nothing like this has happened before. Woe to us! Who can deliver us from the power of these mighty gods? These are the gods who struck the Egyptians with every sort of plague in the wilderness. Take courage, and be men, O Philistines, lest you become slaves to the Hebrews as they have been to you; be men and fight.' So the Philistines fought, and Israel was defeated, and they fled, every man to his home. And there was a very great slaughter, for thirty thousand foot soldiers of Israel fell. And the ark of God was captured, and the two sons of Eli, Hophni and Phinehas, died."

Wow.  

The passage goes on to say that when the news reached Eli that the ark of the covenant had been captured, he fell from where he was sitting at the gate, broke his neck, and died. When the Lord says He's going to do something, He does it. And in this instance it meant decisive judgement on those who did not take Him or His holiness seriously. 

    The next use of the word "Ebenezer" appears in chapter 5 verse 1. 

"When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod." 

I can just picture the scene: a once mighty camp more than 30,000 strong where shouts of Israel's misguided confidence had shaken the ground, now replaced with a death-hushed, desolated battlefield. The silence broken with the raucous reveling of the Philistines as they seize the ark. The same ark that the Lord would later strike Uzzah for touching, irreverently handled by the bloodied hands of Israel's bitter enemies. Talk about failure and defeat of the highest order. 

    The epic story of the ark's fate continues in chapters 5 and 6, but for today we're going to fast forward to the final mention of Ebenezer. The tone in chapter 7 is much different from the previous chapters: the ark has been returned to Israel after 7 months with the Philistines, and Israel enters a season of lament. The author says it best, so get ready for a slightly lengthy excerpt!

"And the men of Kiriath-jearim came and took up the ark of the LORD and brought it to the house of Abinadab on the hill. And they consecrated his son Eleazar to have charge of the ark of the LORD. From the day that the ark was lodged at Kiriath-jearim, a long time passed, some twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented after the LORD.

And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, 'If you are returning to the LORD with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the LORD and serve Him only, and He will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines.' So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the LORD only. 

Then Samuel said, 'Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the LORD for you.' So they gathered at Mizpah 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 people of Israel at Mizpah.

Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel  had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel. And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines. And the people of Israel said to Samuel, 'Do not cease to cry out to the LORD our God for us, that He may save us from the hand of the Philistines.' 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 below as 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." So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the LORD was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites." - 1 Samuel 7:1-14 (emphasis added) 

 

There is so much we could unpack here, but I'm going to try and touch on just a few key points that leapt out at me.

- First, it's incredibly interesting to me that Israel deliberately performed idol worship for twenty years after the ark was returned to them. Actions are products of our hearts' condition, and often those actions solidify that heart condition further. They didn't regard the Lord while they had the ark, why should they regard it now? But then, something changes. It's as if the people suddenly realize how far they've wandered, and they are devastated. They want to change, but it's been so long since they were near the Lord, they no longer know what pleases Him. Dickens sort of touched on this in "Christmas Carol" when he wrote: "Men's courses will foreshadow certain ends, to which, if persevered in, they must lead. But if the courses be departed from, the ends will change."  

- That quote leads to my next thought: Samuel's answer to Israel's searching is incredibly simple: put away your idols, turn your hearts to the LORD, and serve Him only. This heart change, or to keep the wording of Dickens' quote, departure from their current course, had to be immediate and physical. Root out everything and start over. Then (and only then) does Samuel agree to intercede for Israel. And God, in His rich mercy, repairs the breach the Israelites made. He changes their course and their end.

- Speaking of their changed 'end,' it's a beautiful one. It's like the Lord went back point for point over their failure at Ebenezer and did it His way. The ark stays right where it belongs, not yanked all over the place to become a talisman at a whim. His people's immediate response to the danger is not to run towards an object to guarantee victory, but to run to Him to save them. Even the roaring is there! At Ebenezer, Israel yelled in rebellious hope that the ark would give them what they wanted, at Mizpah the LORD Himself thunders at His people's persecutors. The first time the shouting only goaded the Philistines to fight more fiercely, the second time they are literally undone by the explosion of a holy God. Every single territory stolen from the Israelites is restored, and peace reigns.

- The word "Ebenezer" in Hebrew means "stone of help." Samuel raised this stone to physically remind the people that the Lord is their deliverance. He has and always will be their help. The stone also stood as reminder of what happens when a heart turns from its idols and follows wholly after the Lord. It's a reminder of their victory and their failure, the clean heart and the filthy, the restored blessing and the previous removal of it. Even when Israel did not acknowledge Him, He remained faithful. 

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So... beyond using one quote from the book, what on earth does A Christmas Carol, or Christmas in general, have to do with all of this? Well dear reader, here's what I've been chewing on:

If you look at the book as a whole, the entire plot follows a sinful old man being forced to examine, or remember, his life. The faithfulness of the Lord plays an unmentioned but crucial role in each vignette he sees. Scrooge is forced to confront the slow corruption of his heart by an idol: "a golden one." He then experiences what he currently misses as a result of this idolatry and the harm it does to others. He has been defeated and a failure at life to the highest degree. Finally, he is confronted with the grim end his course foreshadows. And that end is coming. Fast. 

Like the Israelites, his response is once of great lament. And the solution to his predicament is the same: put away your idol, direct your heart to the LORD, and serve Him only. Dickens doesn't use those words, but it's what he means when Scrooge cries in panic to The Ghost of Christmas Future while standing at his own grave: 

"I will honour Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all the year. I will live in the past, the present, and the future. The spirits of all three shall strive within me. I will not shut out the lessons that they teach. Oh tell me I may sponge away the writing on this stone!"  

Ebenezer's life is a 'stone of remembrance' to his own heart: one that will always be before him in the days he has left. And after his transformation, he goes back to each wrong he can still make right, and rights it. Peace reigns. 

I love the last two paragraphs of "A Christmas Carol," and I think they fit in perfectly here:

"Scrooge was better than his word. He did it all, and infinitely more; and to Tiny Tim, who did NOT die, he was a second father. he became as good a friend, as good a master, and as good a man, as the good old city knew, or any other good old city in the good old world. Some people laughed to see the alteration in him, but he let them laugh and little heeded them; for he was wise enough to know that nothing ever happened on this globe, for good, at which some people did not have their fill of laughter in the outset; and knowing such as these would be blind anyway, he thought it quite as well that they should wrinkle up their eyes in grins, as have the malady in less attractive forms. His own heart laughed; and that was quite enough for him. 

    He had no further intercourse with spirits, but lived upon the total abstinence principle, ever afterwards; and it was always said of him, that he knew how to keep Christmas well, if any man alive possessed the knowledge. May that truly be said of us, and all of us! And so, as Tiny Tim observed, God bless us everyone!"

    I'd like to take this idea one step further before wrapping up what has turned out to be a rather long (but hopefully encouraging) post. For us Believers, Christmas itself is a kind of Ebenezer. We take this time each year to remember what God has done for mankind, who we were without Him, and who we are now because of Him. "Keeping Christmas well, all the year round" is an act of worship to the One who has shown such great mercy to a wayward and sinful people. We celebrate the fruition of God's biggest promise: Emmanuel, God with us. 

It's not traditionally a Christmas song, but the hymn "Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing" comes to mind, particularly the second and third verses. Want to take a listen with me?

 "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.

 O to grace how great a debtor

Daily I'm constrained to be!

Let that grace now like a fetter,

Bind my wandering heart to Thee.

Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it,

Prone to leave the God I love;

Here's my heart, O take and seal it,

Seal it for Thy courts above."

As we wrap up our first year together here on this tiny corner of the ol' internet, may we truly keep Christmas well: holding our hearts before us in grateful worship, boldly declaring; "Till now, the Lord has helped us." 

Merry Christmas, Dear Reader.