Ebenezer Stones (Part 1)

(This multi-part article is adapted from a sermon I preached in 2005.)

People love to memorialize significant events in their individual and group experiences with physical monuments or mementos. It seems to be a part of our common human nature to do this.

I can remember as a teenager standing on the USS Arizona Memorial in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, leaning over the railing and looking down through the oil slicked water at the rusting hulk of the great battleship. I could almost hear the bombs falling and feel the fear of the dying sailors. Most of us have stood amidst the monuments and remains of the fortifications at the Civil War or Revolutionary War Battlefield Parks. And, although I have not been there since 9-11, I can imagine the emotional effect of gazing at the site of Ground Zero in New York City.

Why do we keep Wedding Albums full of pictures and mementoes of those special days? Why do mothers wear charm bracelets containing the birth stones of their children? Why do men mount trophy fish or bucks? It seems to be a universal human trait. The message of these places and things is sometimes “Never Forget.” Sometimes the message is “Remember and be thankful.” Or they can mean “Remember, and keep on praying.”

Bible people were just like us in that regard. Many times the significant acts of God were memorialized by physical monuments.

For example, in Joshua 4:1-9 the Israelites were told by Joshua to make a pile of twelve stones to memorialize the miraculous crossing of the Jordan River. They were told that in future generations their children would see the stones and ask “What do these stones mean?” That would be the time to tell them the old story again, and remind them of their spiritual heritage. That memorial became an opportunity to teach the children the ways of God. In Judges 22 the 2 ½ tribes who inherited land on the east side of the Jordan built an altar of remembrance by the banks of the Jordan. Its purpose was to remind their brethren in the other tribes that “We also have a share in the Lord.”

In this article we will look at another such story in the Book of First Samuel. This story also is the background for a well known old hymn. Many of you may have sung this hymn as a child growing up in church while never knowing what it meant. If that description applies to you, as we tell the story today, see if you can figure out what hymn I am referring to. For everyone else- It’s still a great story. When we finish the story I will tell you what the hymn is, and what the point of the message is.


(Part 2 Tomorrow)