Thoughts from Mark "Hat" Rackley

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.”

• 1 Samuel 7:12

“’I now beg your further attention, my dearly beloved hearers, while I attempt to illustrate the meaning of the words, which I have chosen for the assistance of your devotions on this joyful day,’ said [Israel] Evans in his victory sermon.

“By these words we are called to a devout consideration of our dependence on the Almighty God, and to a recollection of the many instances of help and relief with which He has condescended to bless us  This is a truth which cannot be justly contradicted; and this is a truth from which America ought to learn her happiness as a nation…. Hitherto hath the Lord helped us!

“The Revolutionary leaders of America understood the meaning of Ebenezer-hitherto has the Lord helped us! There wasn’t a better word in the dictionary to describe their feelings on that day of final victory. And those among them who understood the role of Providence knew that the God who had helped them thus far was needed now more than ever for the future.
“We all have Ebenezer moments in our lives. Looking back, we can see God’s help; and looking forward we can see God’s hand. Hitherto has the Lord helped us.”

• Robert J. Morgan, 100 Bible Verses That Made America

In my recent trip to visit the grandchildren, the oldest of them went with me to Nashville, to sell used books and games.  One of the books that I purchased in return was 100 Bible Verses That Made America by Robert J. Morgan.  As we approach the 250^th anniversary of the birth of the USA, I thought I would do a condensed mini-series on some of these verses, four posts per week for a few weeks – maybe not all 100 verses.

A tale of two pastors.  I will not spoil things by saying how far back we should go, but I heard a wonderful sermon many years ago.

The pastor pulled out the words of an old hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Many Blessings.”  His sermon was a lament that the new hymnal had changed the words because no one knew what an Ebenezer was.

The pastor focused on an Ebenezer being a stone, a stone of remembrance.  And the point in having old words in a hymn that are no longer used should be to educate the next generations in what an Ebenezer is.  Not changing the verse to avoid the line “Now, I raise my Ebenezer”.  And what I remember was that the meaning of a remembrance stone was completely lost in the rewrite.

Then, it is not just a stone where we are required to remember.  Ebenezer means that God has helped us.

Walking up to a stone and telling our grandchildren.  “This is a stone that is called an Ebenezer.  It is here to remind us to remember.”  If that was my grandfather, I would ask, “Remember what?”

The people of Israel forgot what the Ebenezers around the Promised Land were.  We remember that we should remember, but what?  I have no idea.  After a while, we think we did it all, and God was not involved.

That sounds familiar, like our modern history textbooks.

But I said two pastors.

The other pastor came along and we sang a song from the new hymnal.  As I shook his hand on the way out, I complimented him on the sermon, but I complained that the final hymn had words that were massively different than the old hymn and the meaning was lost.  He told me that I had to change as the times change.

No, there is a lot of Scripture that points to us being transformed by God, not conforming to the world.

I reject that notion.  The old words might have a “thou” or “Thee” and as you modernize that word, then you change more for it to rhyme. …

And I quit singing.  Instead I weep for the next generation who gets a watered down message that misses the composer’s point entirely.

Again, the secular world preached that we needed no help from a non-existent God.

But Christians in a Christian church should know that God exists and we need Him.

And when we sing a modern message with modern words that forget God’s working within us, are we worshipping the True God, or are we worshipping ourselves?

The Revolutionary leaders knew that they could not have won the war without God doing the lion’s share of the heavy lifting.

Most victory celebrations these days have no sermon attached at all.  The people involved talk about how they could not have done it without their leaders and their teammates.  And if God is mentioned, the network mutes the microphone after a sentence or two.

America, we need our Ebenezers now more than ever – Hitherto has the Lord helped us…  But only when we seek His will.

Soli Deo Gloria.  Only to God be the Glory.