EBENEZER . . . NO, THE OTHER ONE.

We were in chapel the other day, and the high school worship team was doing a wonderful job leading the singing when a line from one of the songs made me very curious. The song in question was a modern rendition of a traditional hymn, and it was not a Christmas carol, so the very “Christmas carol-ly” word stood out as rather odd: Here I raise my Ebenezer . . .
Ebenezer? As in Scrooge? Why are we singing about a fictional Dickens villain?

After chapel, I decided to do a little digging. First, I examined the full lyrics. The first two stanzas are:
Come, thou Fount of every blessing; tune my heart to sing thy grace; streams of mercy, never ceasing, call for songs of loudest praise. Teach me some melodious sonnet, sung by flaming tongues above; praise the mount! I’m fixed upon it, mount of God’s unchanging love! Here I raise my Ebenezer; hither by thy help I’m come; and I hope, by thy good pleasure, safely to arrive at home. Jesus sought me when a stranger, wandering from the fold of God;
he, to rescue me from danger, interposed his precious blood.
What a wonderfully deep and poetically rich reflection on God’s love, His mercy, and the fact that our God actively pursues us despite our sin, rebellion, and continual wandering away from Him. While this is undoubtedly the true meaning of Christmas—God coming in the flesh to save His precious but sinful creation—I still couldn’t understand the reference to Ebenezer. What does Scrooge have to do with any of this? And more perplexing, why is he being “raised?”

For that, I needed to dig a little deeper.

The research took me to the eyewitness account of an ancient battle recorded for us in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 7). History describes God empowering the Israelites to defeat the enemy Philistines who had stolen the Ark of the Covenant, symbol of God’s power and presence to His people. Overjoyed that God had protected them (despite their earlier sin) and not wanting to risk ever forgetting this miraculous deliverance, the prophet Samuel erected a stone monument in praise to the Lord. He called it Ebenezer, a Hebrew name that means “stone of help.”

Now, it made sense. “Raising an Ebenezer” means lifting up a reminder of God’s deliverance. And, as the third stanza rightly describes us: Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it, prone to leave the God I love; here’s my heart; O take and seal it; seal it for thy courts above.

We are so prone to quickly forget all the goodness of God. What better time than the Thanksgiving and Christmas seasons to remind ourselves, again and again, of God’s deliverance?

What “Ebenezers” are you raising this Christmas? What tangible reminders can you set in your life to remind you of God’s love and salvation?
Here at Wilmington Christian School, the hallways, the classrooms, the sports fields, and the performance spaces are all filled with Ebenezers. Not grumpy, old misers, but countless reminders of God’s provision and salvation. 

What a joy to celebrate, worship, and remember the God who saved. 
Merry Christmas from Wilmington Christian School!

Educating for Eternity,
Jonathan Nazigian
WCS Headmaster