1 Samuel 7:12 Then Samuel took a stone, and set it between Mizpeh and Shen, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying… That battle was won before a single blow was struck. That victory was achieved at the Throne of Grace, where many a glorious triumph has been gained which never could have been secured elsewhere. Prayer was the mighty weapon which Israel wielded to the utter discomfiture of the Philistine hosts. The power of prayer lies in the power which prayer commands: the power of God. I. THE PRINCIPLES OF THE TEXT, AS THEY ENTER DEEPLY INTO RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE. We are taught: 1. That we all need help from God. Christians need assistance from a power superior to their own as certainly as did Israel at this crisis. Sin, which has robbed man of his original rectitude, has also deprived him of strength. Unrescued by Divine grace, he is utterly powerless. Nor does the most matured Christian possess the least spiritual energy but as he receives it from on high. There is no equality between the power of the Christian's enemies and his own unaided efforts. There are times when the Christian becomes so painfully conscious of this that he is almost ready to quit the field, but this, instead of driving us to despair, should operate powerfully in leading us to God for help, so as to feel with the Apostle: "When I am weak, then am I strong." 2. The help of God is bestowed in connection with the use of the means appointed by God, and it is only in their employment that we can reasonably expect Divine aid. Neither the fact of our weakness nor the promise of Divine assistance has been revealed to lead to the exclusion of human exertion. The text implies that it is "help" that is promised, not the performance of the work for us, but assistance by which we shall be enabled to do our duty. 3. The actual bestowment of this help. The text records a fact: "Hitherto hath the Lord helped us." It was not help promised or provided merely, but help actually bestrewed. Help implies just that amount of assistance which the case requires, and by which the Christian shall be sustained under every trial, and delivered out of the last. II. THE CHARACTER OF THE HELP WHICH GOD SUPPLIES. 1. Suitable and efficient. Without adaptation in the remedy the case must remain unrelieved. The source of the Christian's help stamps its character. It is Divine. 2. Divine help is certain. Human aid, feeble as it is, is very uncertain in its bestowment. By a sad perversity of human nature, there is a disposition to confer favours with a liberal hand on those who are already affluent, while the indigent are sometimes allowed to drag out a miserable existence and pine away in penury. If a man once opulent should be ruined by misfortunes, persons who proudly recognised him when on the height of prosperity pass him by as if the man's calamities had so altered every feature of his countenance that they cannot recognise him. Should an individual fall a prey to his own folly, pride and extravagance, he must struggle with his self-caused miseries alone. And not infrequently a cold, inactive, good-for-nothing sympathy is all that is manifested toward the most deserving. But the causes which render human aid so uncertain cannot affect God. The relation which He sustains to His Church renders it impossible for Him to regard the interests of any of its members with indifference: "God is in the midst of her;...God shall help her and that right early." 3. This help is seasonable, it comes at the right time to a moment. It may not be given just when it is expected, nor when to human eyes it would seem most desirable. But are the Divine plans and arrangements to be precipitated and thrown into confusion just to meet human fretfulness and patience? The God by Whom help is bestowed knows the most opportune season for its bestowment. God is attentive to "times end seasons;" and the Divine slowness has never been opposed to the Divine punctuality. 4. The help of God is constant and unfailing. "Hitherto," wrote Samuel, "the Lord hath helped us." This was at a protracted period in the history of God's people, and up to that time there had nothing failed of all that the Lord had spoken. Whenever they were defeated it was not the result of failure in the Source of their supplies, but of their own unfaithfulness and sins. The promise of Divine help is conditional; and only let the conditions of the promise be fulfilled, and the help shall be continued. The last soldier on the field of Christian warfare; the last labourer in the vineyard of the Lord; the last pilgrim in the toilsome way to heaven, will need help from God as we do at this moment; and all shall have it. III. THIS CONDUCT TO WHICH THIS HELP SHOULD LEAD ON OUR PART. 1. Grateful acknowledgment of past favours. The expression of gratitude was public and monumental. There is a way of making the expression of our gratitude monumental and lasting by making it practical. Seize every opportunity of testifying to the goodness and faithfulness of God. Let the world know what a wise and almighty Helper ours is. Strive to spread the truth of God; and labour to perpetuate the institutions and auxiliaries of the Christian Church. 2. Past help should lead to confidence in God at the present moment. The words of Samuel were retrospective; but this recognition of past help was designed to teach the practical lesson: "Have faith in God" now. When friends meet who have a past to look back upon they soon talk over the difficulties and trials with which they have had to struggle, memory generally recalls them first. At a deeply afflictive crisis in David's life, when our harps would have been unstrung and mute, the Psalmist swept his and pealed forth: "I will sing of mercy and judgment." He saw that the two were blended, and he would sing of both; but as "mercy" greatly predominated, he placed that first in his song. 3. Inspire hope as to the future. (Samuel Wesley.) Parallel Verses KJV: 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. |
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