Try Again

I Samuel 7:12-13: "Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, 'Thus far has the LORD helped us.' So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again."

Seven months earlier, the Israelites under the leadership of Eli the Priest and his two sons (Hophni and Phinehas) were rebellious against the Lord. Although these people believed themselves privileged due to their ancestry, they "had no regard for the Lord" (I Sam. 2:12). Eli's sons were so wicked that they treated the sacrificial offerings to the Lord with contempt by taking the first portions for themselves, and they were known for sexual promiscuity with women who served at the tabernacle. Eli was aware of these detestable practices, but chose not to intervene and stop this sacrilege. As the Israelite people were known for a form of "spirituality," they in fact were worshipping pagan deities that gave them license to live immoral lives of self-indulgence.

In response to this gross evil by the Israelites, "the Word of the Lord was rare" (3:1). God chose not to reveal Himself to His people since they were not going to respect Him as the Sovereign Lord. Eventually, the Israelites would find themselves in battle with their western enemies, the Philistines, at a town called Ebenezer. The initial battle was a defeat, with the Israelites losing 4000 in the skirmish. Hophi and Phinehas, who were observing the demise of their brothers in battle, called for the Ark of the Covenant, thinking that having a religious relic with them would be the talisman that would bring victory. As the Ark was brought into the Israeli camp, the people shouted with confidence, so much so that the Philistines began to think that the Jewish God had entered their camp to bring them victory. Arrogantly, the Israelites returned to battle with the Philistines, but they would be utterly slaughtered by their enemies. Thirty thousand of their men would be killed, and Hophi with his brother Phinehas would be killed as well.

Seven months would pass before the people would fast and confess to the Lord that they had sinned against His Majesty (7:6). The prophet Samuel instructed the people that the key to God's favor was for the people to return to the Lord "with all of their hearts" (7:3). This of course meant that they had to rid themselves of the idols that they worshipped and the detestable acts that they practiced in utter defiance against the One True Lord. When the people responded accordingly, the Lord then brought His people victory over the Philistines in battle. It was God who threw these pagans into such chaos that they were "routed by the Israelites." No mere association with religion brought the Israelites success against their enemy; rather, it was power of God bringing victory once His people were willing to surrender themselves completely to His Lordship.

Samuel then took the people back to the place where they had lost the initial battles to the Philistines (Ebenezer) and set a memorial stone there. He called the rock the "Stone of Help," so that the Israelites would remember that it is only through the power of God that the people would be delivered from their adversaries. I believe that he took them back to Ebenezer to remind them that this was the place that represented the point in time where they departed from fellowship with the Lord, and this was the place that began their period of defeat at the hand of their foes. It's as if God wanted His people to go back to the place that represented their separation and recommit themselves to His Lordship so that they could try again and this time experience victory from following God obediently.

There is a good word for us in this passage. When we look within ourselves and find that we are suffering from the lack of God's blessing in our lives, and when we discern that our sin is the cause of such a dearth of God's presence, we may need to go back to the place where we got off track with our intimacy with the Lord and repent of our sins. Sometimes, this involves sitting down with pen and paper and assessing where we began our sinful pattern and why we chose to go in that direction away from the Lord. And as we offer prayers of contrition and surrender to the Lord, we can be assured that He is the Faithful and Just One who will forgive us of our sins (I John 1:9). We then can raise our symbolic "Stone of Help" in our hearts, knowing that the Lord will provide blessing and victory over our proverbial foes.