Rock of Help

Where were you 20 years ago? What was our world like 20 years ago? In 2006, Stephen Harper became Prime Minister. Wii Sports was one of the most popular video games. Twitter was launched. The Da Vinci Code was in theatres. The High School Musical soundtrack was one of the best-selling albums. "How Great Is Our God" was a top worship hit.

20 years ago, some of us were younger. My wife was still in high school. Some of you hadn't been born yet. A lot can change in 20 years.

But a lot can stay the same. 20 years ago, there was war in the Middle East. There was political turmoil south of the border. The cost of living was increasing. The headlines were surprisingly the same as today's.

1. 20 Years (vv. 2-3)

All of this is just to get us thinking about today's passage, which begins with a 20-year jump. We left off last week with the ark of God, a symbol of the presence of Yahweh with His people, being stowed away in someone's house, away from the public eye, away from public worship. From this point, until Solomon built the temple, the ark and the tabernacle had separate journeys. It was kind of a mess, and there's a fair bit that we don't know.

But they would have had a sense of their national system of worship being disrupted. Think about how we felt during those months in 2020 when we weren't able to gather together like this, and how weird and disorienting that would have felt. There's probably some similarities to how Israel was limping along during this time.

And the narrative doesn't pick up until 20 years later. No matter how old you are, we recognize that 20 years is a good chunk of time. It's half of a generation in the Biblical framework.

And 20 years later, there's a bunch of things going on. We don't know if some of these things have been going on throughout the whole 20 years, or if they all kind of came to a climax here at the end. But here's what's going on when the story picks up.

First, Israel is lamenting after the Lord—verse 2. They are mourning their national situation. Second, Samuel has grown and has stepped into a position of leadership. We last left him as a boy. Now he's in his mid-20s at the earliest, and perhaps even into his early 30s. We know from before that Samuel's word had gone out to all Israel and he's been established as a prophet of the Lord. 20 years after Eli and Hophni and Phinehas have died, Samuel is ready to step onto the national scene as a public leader of Israel.

Third, Israel is worshipping foreign gods. We know that from verse 3, where Samuel tells them to put their foreign gods away. Does that seem strange to you that they were both mourning after Yahweh and serving foreign gods? That's actually not all that surprising. Much of the time, the issue for Israel wasn't whether they were going to serve Yahweh or not. It's whether they were going to serve Yahweh alone or not. They were often quite happy to serve Yahweh along with other gods. And here they are, mourning after the Lord while also worshipping all of the gods of the peoples around them who they had been told not to worship.

And fourth, the Philistines are oppressing them again. Verse 3 talks about them being delivered from the hands of the Philistines. Isn't that astounding? After everything that happened in chapters 5 and 6, the Philistines—blind and deaf just like their idols—try to fight against Israel again, and apparently are having some success.

So that's the spot we're in after 20 years. National mourning, foreign gods, Philistine oppression, and yet a godly leader who's been raised up. And if you remember our time in the book of Judges, you'll know that this is actually a really familiar scene. This is Israel at the low point of one of their sin cycles, a place they'd been in again and again and again.

2. Repentance (vv. 3-6)

And Samuel, because he knows the word of the Lord, knows what Israel needs to do next. “And Samuel said to all the house of Israel, ‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart, then put away the foreign gods and the Ashtaroth from among you and direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines’” (1 Samuel 7:3).

A quick word here—in English, the phrase "put away" sounds a bit like a mom telling her kids to put away their toys. Put it back on the shelf until you're ready to use it again in the future.

But that's not what's going on here. The Hebrew word has a much stronger sense of separation. That's why the NIV says "rid yourselves of the foreign gods" (1 Sam 7:3, NIV), and the NASB says "remove the foreign gods" (1 Sam 7:3, NASB). Get rid of them permanently.

Notice also the emphasis there on single-heartedness. "‘If you are returning to the Lord with all your heart… direct your heart to the Lord and serve him only."

Samuel is repeating here the covenant promises that God had given to His people through Moses. This is what He promised to do. If His people prayed and repented and turned aside from their worship of false gods, He would deliver them from the hand of their enemies.

This should blow our minds. Samuel knows who God is, and he knows that this time, God hasn't had enough. God hasn't said, “You’ve been here so many times before, and you refuse to get it, and I'm done with you." Samuel has confidence that this time, if God hears and sees the repentance of His people, He's going to turn and save and heal like He'd done time and time before.

And look what happens: “So the people of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and they served the Lord only” (1 Samuel 7:4).

But for whatever reason, Samuel isn't satisfied with this piecemeal repentance. Israel, as a nation, needs to assemble for a formal service of repentance. So he tells them in verse 5, “5 Then Samuel said, ‘Gather all Israel at Mizpah, and I will pray to the Lord for you.’ 6 So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, ‘We have sinned against the Lord.’"

I'm really not sure what's happening there with the water being poured out before the Lord, other than that this seems to be a religious ritual that had some significance in this service of repentance. The people fast, which is associated with prayer and repentance , and they confess their sins.

Notice the real important order of operations here: they confess their sins after they had actually done something about their sins. They weren't confessing sins that they were actively enjoying. Repentance isn't just feeling bad about sins that you're still enjoying and planning to go back to as soon as church is over. Repentance is a turning away from sin, and here the people have done that: they've put away their idols, and now they confess their sins to the Lord.

And there, at Mizpah, verse 6 finishes by telling us that "Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah” (1 Samuel 7:6). The idea being that Samuel is there, deciding cases, giving instruction, helping the people understand how to live before the Lord. He's functioning as a national leader who is guiding the people into righteousness.

3. Battle (vv. 7-11)

Now this sounds so great. This sounds like a national revival. This sounds like a summer camp, where all your people are together and people are seeking the Lord, and it's all so perfect.

But that's not quite the picture that the Philistines get. The Philistines hear that the people have gathered, and there's one conclusion they jump to: they've mustered for battle. They're coming for us. And there's only one response: let's strike first. Verse 7: “Now when the Philistines heard that the people of Israel had gathered at Mizpah, the lords of the Philistines went up against Israel."

Don't forget the foolishness here of trying to defeat a people whose God gave your god a royal shellacking last time around, but like we've seen, the Philistines are as unseeing and unhearing as the gods they worship. So they're back for more.

And, whether they should be or not, the rest of verse 7 tells us that the people are afraid. "And when the people of Israel heard of it, they were afraid of the Philistines.” There's a good chance they're not prepared for battle. The Philistines are their great oppressors, and the last time they fought them in battle, they were soundly defeated.

But how are they going to respond this time? Last time they dragged out the ark of God like a superstitious trinket and thought that would give them success.

This time, there has been a change. Instead of bringing out the ark of God, they ask their leader to talk to the God of the ark. “And the people of Israel said to Samuel, ‘Do not cease to cry out to the Lord our God for us, that he may save us from the hand of the Philistines’” (1 Samuel 7:8).

They pray! Isn't that good? Isn't that encouraging to see? They're treating God like a person, and through Samuel they're talking to Him and asking Him for help.

And Samuel responds: “9 So Samuel took a nursing lamb and offered it as a whole burnt offering to the Lord. And Samuel cried out to the Lord for Israel…"

A burnt offering was a sacrifice intended to make atonement for sins. Samuel here is functioning like a priest, offering an animal sacrifice to atone for the sins of the people. And then he prays for this wayward, wandering bunch. He knows better than anybody else that they don't deserve God's salvation. But He knows better than anyone that this hasn't stopped God from saving before.

He's made promises that if His people follow Him and keep His covenant, they will be delivered from their enemies. They haven't been following Him alone for very long, but they have been doing so. So, he prays.

And what happens? End of verse 9: "and the Lord answered him. 10 As Samuel was offering up the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. But the Lord thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines and threw them into confusion” (1 Samuel 7:9–10).

Who saves Israel again? The Lord. Yahweh. The same Lord who cut off Dagon's head and hands like a fallen soldier. The same Lord who threw the Philistine cities into panic. The same Lord, this day, "thundered with a mighty sound that day against the Philistines."

The word for "thundered" here is connected in other places in Scripture to God thundering from heaven in storms. It's connected to lightning and hail and is often referred to directly to God's voice.

• “The Lord thundered from heaven, and the Most High uttered his voice” (2 Samuel 22:14).
• “He thunders with his majestic voice, and he does not restrain the lightnings when his voice is heard” (Job 37:4).
• “The Lord also thundered in the heavens, and the Most High uttered his voice, hailstones and coals of fire” (Psalm 18:13).

I remember being out in the bush once and having lightning strike a stone's throw away, and the thunder shook my very being. And according to God, that's what His voice sounds like.

And this is a great comfort for God's people. Some of you really don't like the sound of thunder. Next time we have a storm, and you hear the thunder roar, remember that you're hearing God's battle cry against His enemies—and because of Christ, you're not one of them. The mighty, fearsome rage of God is directed not against you but against those who would aim to harm you.

As it was that day when God thundered against the Philistines, using whatever orchestration of natural or supernatural means to throw the Philistines into total confusion. And what happened? "They were defeated before Israel" (v. 10). Just like the Midianites before Gideon, just like the walls of Jericho falling, just like the plagues on Egypt and Philistia itself 20 years earlier, God routed his enemies without any help from His people.

All Israel has to do is the clean-up project. Verse 11: “And the men of Israel went out from Mizpah and pursued the Philistines and struck them, as far as below Beth-car” (1 Samuel 7:11).

We don't know exactly where these locations are, but our best information suggests that the route from Mizpah to Beth-car was a distance of about 5-15 kilometres, downhill and westward, away towards the Philistines' territory.

In battle language, this is what you call a rout, a disorderly defeat of defeated troops. God defeats, the Philistines flee, and Israel pursues, inflicting casualties the whole time.

4. Victory Report (vv. 12-14)

And so, in verse 12, we move from the battle report into the victory report.

“Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen and called its name Ebenezer; for he said, ‘Till now the Lord has helped us’” (1 Samuel 7:12).

"Here I raise my Ebenezer. Hither by thy help I've come."

"Ebenezer," or אֶ֫בֶן הָעֵ֫זֶר (ʾěʹ·ḇěn hā·ʿēʹ·zěr) in Hebrew, means "Rock of Help." There are a few aspects to this event that are worth considering and celebrating. First, this is not the first or the only place named "Ebenezer." Ebenezer is also the name of the spot where Israel was defeated by the Philistines 20 years before. Chapter 4 opened with “Now Israel went out to battle against the Philistines. They encamped at Ebenezer…” (1 Samuel 4:1). And then in chapter 5: “When the Philistines captured the ark of God, they brought it from Ebenezer to Ashdod” (1 Samuel 5:1).

There was a rich irony in that story we didn't consider at the time: Israel was encamped in a place called "stone of help," and there they got no help from God at all. And that was on purpose—the Lord was teaching them the vital lesson that His ark wasn't a magic box and that He was a person, not an idol like the rest of the idols they were worshipping.

But here, 20 years later, the people have put aside their idols, and they've sought the Lord, and they've prayed for His help, and He has answered them like He promised He would.

And so Samuel redeems the name and says, "This is the real Ebenezer. This is the real stone of help. This is the actual place where the Lord was our help."

So that's one major significance of what's going on here—it brings us full circle to the events of chapter 4 and celebrates the way the Lord has brought His people back into proper relationship with Himself.

A second major aspect here is that this is the last time a stone—or even any kind of memorial—is set up to commemorate God's deliverance of His people. The practice of doing this goes way back, to Jacob setting up a stone after his dream at Bethel (Gen. 28:18), to the twelve stones from the Jordan when Israel first entered the land (Josh. 4:1-9), to the several other stone memorials set up throughout the days of Joshua.

And almost as a capstone to this whole time period, Samuel sets up what is to be the last stone. The fact that it's the last isn't necessarily a bad thing. Going forward, as Israel transitions into a monarchy with a central, permanent sanctuary, God's deliverance will be recorded more and more in written form. But this is the end of an era.

And finally, we can't miss what kind of era this is. If you were to just open your Bible and read "Till now the Lord has helped us," you might get the idea that Israel had been doing great and enjoying God's help and Samuel just wanted to remember that.

But no—this is a people who can't stop disobeying. Who can't stop sinning. Whose seasons of faithfulness are so short compared to their seasons of unfaithfulness. And still, when they repent and turn back, God forgives them and keeps His covenant promises to help them—again and again and again and again.

That's what Samuel means by setting up Ebenezer. Until now, the Lord has helped a rebellious and unfaithful people. Until now, the Lord has forgiven our sin again and again. Until now, the Lord has said "yes" when we've asked for His forgiveness, again.

That's the kind of God He is. He helps His people—even a people like this.

And the report of victory keeps going on, recounting how complete the Lord's help was in that day. Verse 13:

“13 So the Philistines were subdued and did not again enter the territory of Israel. And the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines all the days of Samuel. 14 The cities that the Philistines had taken from Israel were restored to Israel, from Ekron to Gath, and Israel delivered their territory from the hand of the Philistines. There was peace also between Israel and the Amorites” (1 Samuel 7:13–14).

God gave his people a serious victory that day—and not just for that day, but a victory that lasted for decades. The Philistines might have thought that they had gotten rid of God when they sent his ark back, but no, His hand is against them all of Samuel's days. They reclaimed territory that had been taken from them, and, to boot, had peace with another set of enemies that had given them trouble.

Look what God did. Look at the God who saves his people who had just returned to them. He didn't make them wait out a probationary period. He didn't make them sit in the doghouse for a while before he let them in.

Like the father with the prodigal son, running to meet the boy who had just barely made it home, God is eager and zealous to rescue and defend His people even though they've just made it back to Him.

And even though He knows, it will not be long before they are wandering again. We know from the book of Judges—when a judge arises to save the people, how long do the good times tend to last for? Never longer than that single judge's lifespan.

So when we read in verse 15 that "Samuel judged Israel all the days of his life," we know what's coming. By the time Samuel is gone—or maybe even before—the people will be off wandering again. That's just what happens.

And God saves them anyway.

And we should be amazed by that. We should treasure and savour that.

5. Repent & Remember

Because you and I aren't all that different from Israel, are we? How can we look down our noses at them? We're just as prone to wander, just as prone to forget, just as prone to chase after other idols.

That's why these stories are here for us. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope” (Romans 15:4).

Repent

So, friend, where are you today? Are you in the place of Israel at the beginning of this passage, needing to repent? Towards the end of our time last week, we thought about idols—things that we worship beside or instead of the living God. Are there idols in your life that you've been turning to to find joy and satisfaction and security instead of the Lord?

Idols can be sneaky and tricky and hard to find. One of the ways we can think about idols is to consider our emotions. What makes us afraid? What makes us angry? What makes us sad?

There may be things in our life that seem harmless, but when they are taken away—or when we even think about the possibility of them being taken away, we respond with fear or anger or despair. Whatever those things are, they are pretty good candidates for idols.

Or we can think about what we turn to when we feel fearful or angry or insecure or sad. Even good things can be idols when they replace our only rock and our refuge.

For myself, I think about the very thing that I'm doing right now. It was many years ago that I fell in love with preaching, wanted so badly to preach the word. For the glory of God, right? Right?

But then I noticed a really bad pattern in my heart. Whenever I would feel insecure, or belittled by other people, or whenever I felt like people didn't really understand me or weren't giving me the respect I thought I deserved, in my heart I would retreat into my identity as a preacher. I would picture myself preaching and would feel okay and safe.

In other words, the gift God had given me had become my refuge that I would run to, instead of the Lord Himself. Preaching had become an idol.

And I think that's one reason why the Lord so faithfully almost took it away from me a few years back when my health was at its worst. He put me through a process that many of you here watched, seeing me struggle to get through sermon after sermon. My heart needed that. And every once in a while, he sends me a little reminder of how quickly I could be back in that spot, and how much I need Him on a regular basis.

And honestly, it feels a little awkward talking about this, but right now I'm trying to confront what might be another idol a few of us share around here—the idol of trying to look like we're okay. The idol of having it all together.

That idol is so sneaky because it disguises itself as humility. It encourages us to keep our struggles to ourselves because sharing those struggles would mean talking about ourselves, and we're not really that important, right? So we'll be humble and keep it all inside, and then nobody knows how much we're struggling, right?

Our idols are sneaky because they feel so natural and so normal. They don't feel as blatant or as bad as a statue of Baal or Ashtoreth. But we easily forget that a statue of Baal or Ashtoreth felt like the most natural thing for Israel to worship in that culture.

And friends, anything that functions as a God-replacement, no matter how innocent-sounding, is as sinister as a Baal statue.

Now, this is not a call to a mystical life living in the desert, refusing to enjoy any of God's good gifts. God has given us many things to enjoy. Money and food and relationships and hobbies can all be good things the Lord uses to take care of us.

The question for us is, do we receive them as gifts, or, in any cases, have the gifts replaced the giver as the thing we look to for life?

And if at any point in the last week or some time this morning, the Lord has helped you to recognize any of this, I want to encourage you to hear the words of Samuel. Get rid of your idols and direct your heart to the Lord and serve Him only. In other words, repent.

And the good news this morning is that we have a God who, like we've seen, really wants to hear and respond. He's not going to be grumpy about your repentance. He wants to bring you into His family, if you've never come to Him before, and He wants to make you more like Himself.

“But God shows his love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:8). “For if while we were enemies we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, now that we are reconciled, shall we be saved by his life” (Romans 5:10).

Samuel made a burnt offering, but the lamb of God has already been slain for us. Samuel prayed for the people, but “…Christ Jesus is the one who died—more than that, who was raised—who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us” (Romans 8:34).

So come. Cast down your idols. Maybe that will mean real decisions for some people. Maybe really parting with something that you've held dear. It will be so worth it. The Lord is so much better.

Remember

And here's where we want to pivot and think about remembering. Samuel was so keen to not just call the people to repentance, not just pray for the people, not just make an offering for them, but also to make sure that they didn't forget the deliverance that God did give them.

If you know the Lord, you have experienced so much of His grace. Do you know how important it is that we remember?

I love the fact that this passage falls right as our church is celebrating its 60th anniversary. 60 years ago on March 1, a group of people met to discuss a new evangelical work in this town, and two weeks later formally organized as a Baptist church. And right in between those two dates, we're getting to think about remembering.

Can we say, with Samuel, that until now the Lord has helped us? You bet. And what I love about this passage is that it doesn't require us to have a fake, rosy picture of history. We don't have to pretend that the last 60 years of our church's history have been a non-stop series of perfect people doing perfect things. There have been some really hard seasons in our church's history.

But till now the Lord has helped us. It's about His faithfulness to hear and answer the prayers of His repentant people, again and again and again.

I was thinking about Ebenezer stones this morning. How this building is an Ebenezer stone of God hearing and answering the prayers of the people of this church. Maybe you have similar Ebenezer stones in your life—physical reminders of the grace of God in your life.

But Jesus has given us the best "Ebenezer" in the ongoing reminder of His grace we get every time we hold the bread and the cup. And I know that, especially as North Americans, we sometimes feel the pressure to feel or experience something new all the time. And sometimes that happens. Sometimes we get a fresh experience. But part of the point of the Lord's supper is that, like a rock called Ebenezer, it doesn't change as it keeps reminding us of what will never change—the life, death, resurrection, ascension, present ministry, and soon return of our prophet, priest, and king.