God is doing things for us all the time. Sometimes we recognize these things, but later, when we go through something similar, we forget what God has done in the past. That’s why we need some Ebenezers.
1 Samuel 7:12 reads, “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer, saying, “Thus far the Lord has helped us.”
In this passage, we see that the prophet Samuel set up a stone and named it Ebenezer, which means to remind people that the Lord had helped them.
After crossing the Jordan river into the promised land, the Lord gave Joshua instructions:
“When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the Lord said to Joshua, 2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe, 3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.” 4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe, 5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the Lord your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites, 6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’ 7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the Lord. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”
Again, we see rocks used to remember God’s help. This was a common practice for the Israelites and should be for us today. No, we don’t have to put stacks of rocks as a memorial to what God has done, but we should write about it and share those writings with our children and grandchildren. They need to know what God has done for their family, so they can trust that God will do the same for them.
How has God helped you? Set up an Ebenezer.
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