EBENEZER

April 8

Then Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and he named it Ebenezer.

And he said, ‘Thus far Yahweh has helped us.’  

I Samuel 7:12

​Whenever I perform a funeral service, I always read this scripture at the gravesite, and then I explain to those attending:

​“When the Philistines attacked Israel, the Jews called on Samuel for prayers that they might be delivered. Samuel then sacrificed one lamb as an offering, and as the Philistines drew near, God sent a powerful thunder that confused the Philistines and allowed the Israelites to overwhelm them and win the victory. The Israelites then set up the stone called ‘Ebenezer’, meaning ‘Up to now God has helped us.’

​‘Someday you may come back to this grave. You will see a stone with _________’s name on it. What that stone will mean will depend entirely on your faith. If you don’t have Christ in your life and His salvation in your soul, then this stone will speak to you as a Philistine: it will be only a picture of death and loss of one you loved. It will be a source of fear and defeat in life.’

​‘But if you return here as a born-again Christian with Jesus in your heart and His Word as your guide, if you know that God sacrificed that one Lamb for you, and that that Lamb was the Jesus Christ Who died for your sins, then this stone will be an Ebenezer, a sign of victory and hope, left here to remind you how He helped your loved one through life and then into eternal glory.”

​In saying this at the grave, I have found how it leaves those who are left behind with a picture of the Gospel, a choice to make, and an encouraging invitation for the Christian to return some day to remember the victory.

Davy L. Troxel