Thus Far: The Stone of Help Text: 1 Samuel 7:12-14
Introduction: The Grammar of Remembrance
We are a people who forget. Our natural inclination, as fallen creatures, is toward a spiritual amnesia. We are quick to remember grievances, insults, and injuries, but we are tragically slow to remember benefits, deliverances, and mercies. This is why the Scriptures are filled with commands to remember. Remember the Sabbath day. Remember what the Lord your God did to Pharaoh. Remember the days of old. Do this in remembrance of me. God knows our frame; He knows we are but dust, and He knows that our dust-like minds are prone to let the most glorious realities slip away like fine powder through our fingers.
So God, in His wisdom, not only gives us His Word to remember, but He also gives us tangible signs, memorials, and monuments. He gives us the rainbow after the flood. He commands Joshua to pull twelve stones from the Jordan to be a sign for their children. He gives us the bread and the wine. God condescends to our weakness and gives us physical anchors for our spiritual memories. He knows we need to see, to touch, to taste, to have our history set before us in stone and water and bread and wine.
In our text today, we come to one of these great memorial moments in the history of Israel. After twenty years of Philistine oppression, after years of languishing under the consequences of their sin at Aphek where the Ark was captured, the people of God have finally come to a place of genuine, national repentance. They put away their Baals and Ashtaroth. They gathered at Mizpah to fast and confess their sin. And when the Philistines saw this great gathering, they assumed it was a prelude to war and came up to attack. The Israelites, in a panic, cry out to Samuel, and Samuel cries out to the Lord. And the Lord thundered with a mighty thunder and threw the Philistines into confusion, and Israel routed them completely.
It is in the aftermath of this glorious, God-given victory that Samuel does something profoundly important. He does not simply write a song, or give a speech, or declare a holiday. He sets up a stone. He creates a permanent, physical marker in the landscape to preach a sermon to future generations. This passage is about the crucial importance of remembering God's help, and the tangible results that flow from a right remembrance.
The Text
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.”
So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel.
And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites.
(1 Samuel 7:12-14 LSB)
Ebenezer: The Stone of Help (v. 12)
We begin with the central act of this passage, the establishment of a memorial.
"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.”" (1 Samuel 7:12)
Notice the sequence. First comes the divine deliverance. Then comes the human remembrance. Samuel understands that the victory is not the point; the God of the victory is the point. And if the memory of the victory fades, the knowledge of the God of the victory will fade with it. So he takes a stone, a common, ordinary stone, and he consecrates it by giving it a name. He calls it Ebenezer, which means, quite simply, "stone of help."
This name is a sermon in itself. It is a declaration of dependence. It does not say, "Thus far our military strategy has helped us," or "Thus far our national repentance has helped us." No, it gives all the credit, all the glory, where it is due: "Thus far Yahweh has helped us." This is the fundamental grammar of the Christian life. We are the helped; He is the Helper. Any story we tell about our lives, our families, or our church that does not have this as its central clause is a lie. It is a story told from a god's-eye view, where we are the heroes of our own narrative. The Ebenezer stone rebukes all such pride.
But look at the beautiful qualification: "Thus far." This little phrase is pregnant with gospel hope. It looks backward with gratitude and forward with faith. In looking back, it acknowledges all of God's past faithfulness. From the Exodus to the wilderness, from Joshua's conquest to this very day, Yahweh has helped us. But it also looks forward. "Thus far" implies that the story is not over. The God who has helped us up to this point is the same God who will continue to help us tomorrow, and the next day, and all the way to the end. It is a statement of confidence in God's covenant consistency. The God who began a good work in us will be faithful to complete it.
Every Christian should have a landscape littered with Ebenezer stones. Your baptism is an Ebenezer. The Lord's Table is a weekly Ebenezer. That moment God saved you from your sin is an Ebenezer. That answered prayer, that providential deliverance from a trial, that moment of clarity in confusion, each one is a stone of help. We must be intentional about setting up these memorials in our hearts and in our homes, constantly reminding ourselves and telling our children, "This is a place where God helped us. Thus far, the Lord has helped us."
The Fruit of Remembrance: Victory and Restoration (v. 13-14)
The next two verses show us the direct consequences, the tangible fruit, that grows from this soil of repentance and remembrance.
"So the Philistines were subdued, and they did not come anymore within the border of Israel. And the hand of Yahweh was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. And the cities which the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron even to Gath; and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites." (1 Samuel 7:13-14 LSB)
The results are comprehensive and lasting. First, there is military victory. The Philistines, who had been a thorn in Israel's side for decades, were "subdued." The hand of Yahweh, which had been against Israel in their sin, was now turned against their enemies. This is how the covenant works. When God's people walk in obedience and faith, God Himself fights their battles. The battle belongs to the Lord, but our repentance is the condition for His intervention. When we are right with God, our enemies have to deal with Him, which is a terrifying prospect for them.
Second, there is territorial restoration. The cities that had been lost during the period of Israel's apostasy were restored. God is not just interested in saving our souls in the sweet by and by. He is interested in restoring all things. He cares about property lines, borders, and cultural inheritance. The gospel is not ethereal; it has feet of clay and makes a claim on every square inch of creation. What sin has lost, grace restores. This victory was not just a spiritual feeling in their hearts; it resulted in them getting their towns back. This is a picture of the ultimate restoration, when Christ will restore all things to Himself.
Third, there is regional peace. "So there was peace between Israel and the Amorites." When God's people are right with Him, it has a ripple effect. Even their relationships with other surrounding pagan nations are stabilized. As Proverbs says, "When a man's ways please Yahweh, He makes even his enemies to be at peace with him" (Proverbs 16:7). A faithful church, a faithful nation, is a source of stability and blessing to the entire world. Our faithfulness doesn't just bring peace with God; it brings peace on earth.
Notice the scope of this transformation. It lasted "all the days of Samuel." This was not a fleeting emotional high. This was a generational shift. A generation of repentance and faithful remembrance brought a generation of victory, restoration, and peace. This is the pattern God has set before us. Our task is not to seek quick fixes or momentary spiritual experiences. Our task is to build, stone by stone, a culture of remembrance and faithfulness that will secure God's blessing for our children and our children's children.
Our Great Ebenezer
This story points us far beyond a stone in the hills of ancient Israel. It points us to the ultimate Stone of Help, the Lord Jesus Christ. He is the true Ebenezer. He is the Rock of our salvation, the stone the builders rejected who has become the cornerstone.
On the cross, God set up His ultimate memorial. At Calvary, God thundered with a mighty thunder, not against the Romans or the Jews, but against His own Son, who bore our sin. There, the hand of Yahweh was against our truest enemy, sin and death and the devil. In the resurrection, God routed that enemy completely. He subdued the powers of darkness and made a public spectacle of them, triumphing over them by the cross.
And through this great victory, we have received a lasting peace and a glorious restoration. We who were far off have been brought near. We who were slaves have been set free. We have been restored to the Father's house. And we have peace with God that surpasses all understanding.
The cross is our great Ebenezer. It stands between the Mizpah of our sin and the Shen of our glorification, and it declares forever, "Thus far Yahweh has helped us." He helped us in eternity past when He chose us in Christ. He helped us at the cross when He died for us. He helped us in our conversion when He called us out of darkness. And He will help us all the way home.
Therefore, let us be a people of the Ebenezer. Let us continually set up memorials of God's faithfulness. Let us tell the stories of His help. Let us come to His Table, our weekly stone of remembrance. And let us fix our eyes on Jesus, our great and final Ebenezer, the author and finisher of our faith, knowing that He who has helped us thus far will never, ever let us go.