“Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying, Hitherto hath the LORD helped us.”
The Feast
Samuel sets up this stone immediately after a significant victory, and the name he gives it, Ebenezer, meaning stone of help, is deliberately chosen to commemorate not the victory itself primarily, but the LORD’s help that made it possible, hitherto, meaning up to this very point, a specific marker of accumulated, ongoing faithfulness.
Notice hitherto, a word looking backward across the whole accumulated journey, not merely this single recent victory, but everything leading up to this exact moment, the LORD’s help understood as a continuous thread running through the entire story, not merely isolated to this one recent, dramatic event.
This offers a model worth applying to your own life, setting up your own Ebenezer, a deliberate marker, physical or otherwise, specifically commemorating hitherto, the whole accumulated help you have received up to this present moment, not merely the most recent or most dramatic instance alone.
Consider today setting up your own version of this Ebenezer, whatever form that might practically take, a deliberate acknowledgment of hitherto hath the LORD helped, the whole accumulated story of his faithfulness up to this exact point, worth commemorating specifically, the way Samuel commemorated it here.
Keep the Feast
- Consider your own hitherto, the whole accumulated story of God’s help up to this present moment.
- Set up some version of an Ebenezer today, marking this accumulated faithfulness deliberately.
- Thank God specifically for help that spans your whole story, not only the most recent instance.
Prayer
Lord, hitherto hast thou helped me, across my whole accumulated story, not only the most recent moment. Let me set up my own Ebenezer, marking this faithfulness deliberately. Amen.
Carry this today
Hitherto, the whole accumulated story, is worth its own deliberate marker.