Well, let us turn to God's Word
here in this chapter that we've read, the first book of Samuel,
chapter 7, and I want to direct you to the familiar words of
verse 12. I know we've looked at this on
previous occasions, but it's such a remarkable verse of Holy
Scripture. First Samuel 7, 12, then Samuel
took a stone and set it between Mishpa and Shen and called the
name of it Ebenezer saying hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And so the theme is that of Ebenezer and you'll see in the margin
that the name means the stone of help. He called the name of it the
stone of help, saying, Hitherto hath the Lord helped us. And so it marks a great work
that God wrought for the children of Israel at that time. He did
indeed grant them a great victory over their ancient enemies, the
Philistines. Verse 13, we're told there the
Philistines were subdued and they came no more into the coast
of Israel and the hand of the Lord was against the Philistines
all the days of Samuel. Interesting that the first time
we read of this place called Ebenezer is back in chapter 4
at verse 1 where it says the Israel went
out against the Philistines to battle and pitched beside Ebenezer
and the Philistines pitched in Aphek. Now there it wasn't of
course bearing the name of Ebenezer because it's not until we come
to the verse before us tonight in chapter 7 that Samuel set
up that particular stone. There in the beginning of chapter
4 the name is used in anticipation of what would happen in due course
in the fulfillment of the purposes of God. Back in chapter 4 that
place was very much a place of sore disaster for the children
of Israel because they had taken the Ark from Shiloh where they
had established the worship of God when they came into the Promised
Land, set up the tabernacle there and worship God at Shiloh they'd
taken the ark from that place into the field of battle and
it had been taken as I said before we read the scriptures it was
a sore disaster then that occurred but now when we come to the seventh
chapter how different the scene it's a place now of a signal
deliverance that God had granted to them Previously in chapter
4 we are told how it was 30,000 footmen, that's 30,000 of their
great warriors that were slain by the Philistines and the Ark
was taken. Last week I sought to preach
from words that we have in Psalm 78, that long Psalm, which recounts
something of the history of the children of Israel and their
many sins and yet God's gracious deliverances. And there, remember,
in Psalm 78, 61 we're told how God delivered His strength into
captivity and His glory into the enemy's hands. That verse
is speaking then of what had happened back in chapter 4 of
this first book of Samuel. Our God was in it, you see. He
delivered His strength into captivity and His glory into the hand of
the enemies of His people. And on that occasion we took
as our text really verse 65 in that 78th Psalm where it reads,
remember then, the Lord awaked as one out of sleep and like
a mighty man that shouteth by reason of wine." Or when they
took that ark and they put it there in the house of their god
Dagon, how God awoke. And how Dagon was made to fall
down before the ark, how Dagon was destroyed. And how God came
even to those men of Beth Shemesh who presumed to look into the
ark because we're We're told quite specifically how the Lord
visited those men because of their foolishness. There at the
end of chapter 6, verse 19, He smote the men of Beth Shemesh
because they had looked into the ark of the Lord. Even He
smote of the people 50,000 and 3 score and 10 men. and the people lamented because
the Lord had smitten many of the people with a great slaughter.
It was worse than what had happened in the battlefield with the Philistines.
And the men of Beth Shemesh said, Who is able to stand before this
Holy Lord God and to whom shall He go up from us? So it was that it was taken by
the men of Kirjath Jiri and as we saw in our reading here in
the opening verses of the seventh chapter it was some twenty years
there Inger, Kirjath Jirim and Israel were left lamenting after
the Lord. It was a long time and eventually
we're told how it was David, David himself who did eventually
bring the the ark up to Jerusalem and it was housed there and of
course that's how it's spoken of time and again in the book
of Psalms when mention is made of the worship of God that worship
very much centers on Mount Zion and we have mention in Psalm
132 of David's determination that
the Ark should be taken to Jerusalem. Verse 5, he says, until I find
out a place for the Lord and habitation for the mighty God
of Jacob. Lo, we heard of it at Etheretar. We found it in the fields of
the wood. We will go into his tabernacles. We will worship
at his footstool. Arise, O Lord, unto thy rest
thou and the ark of thy strength. David celebrates the removal
of the ark ultimately then to that place where it was to be
housed in the tabernacle which was to stand at Jerusalem. Well, coming tonight to what
we have in the words of the text, this reference to Ebenezer, the
stone of help, and to consider something of God's help, and
how that help of God is manifested. And I want to really divide what
I say into two parts. First of all to say something
with regards to God's methods, the way in which God does help
his people. and then secondly to think of
the means that God employs when he comes to the helping of his
people first of all the methods and God's method of course is
that he works all things for his people he works all things
for his people it is a great truth that salvation is of the
Lord and it is of the Lord alone And now we see this typified
time of the gate in the events that are recorded for us in the
Old Testament Scriptures. All these things that are written
for our learning. And we see here the sovereignty
of God in the way in which he delivers his people. What do
we read at verse 10? concerning the way in which the
Philistines are ultimately overcome. Well here is Samuel offering
up the burnt offering. And then the Philistines draw
near to battle against Israel but the Lord thundered with a
great thunder on that day upon the Philistines and discomfited
them and they were smitten before Israel. It is God's work to deliver
His people. When David confronts that giant
Goliath, the champion of the Philistines, he tells him boldly,
the battle is the Lord's. It's the Lord's battle. It's
the Lord who works all things together for his people. Again,
when he brings the children of Israel out of Egypt, It is the
Lord who appears for them by means of the plagues that he
visits upon their enemies and so ultimately the Philistines
rather there the Egyptians send them forth. They spoil the Egyptians
and then of course Pharaoh has that change of heart and he begins
to pursue after them And all of a sudden they find themselves
in great danger. The Red Sea is before them. The
Philistines are pursuing them. And what does God say in Exodus
14? Fear ye not. Oh, he speaks that gracious word,
that fear not to them by his servant Moses. Fear ye not. Stand still and see the salvation
of God which he will show you this day. And so God is the one
who makes the way for his people through the sea. It is God then
who works. This is his method. He shows
himself to be the one who is the deliverer of his people. And again at the end of Deuteronomy
in chapter 32, the last of the five books of Moses, what does
Moses say? The Lord shall judge his people
and repent himself for his servants when he seeth that their power
is gone and there is none shut up or left. God's people have
to be brought to that very end of themselves. They have no power,
they have no ability of their own. Wherever they look, They
cannot find any to deliver them. And we have the same in the language
of the Psalms, in Psalm 142. What does David say? Verse 4,
I looked on my right hand and beheld, but there was no man
that would know me. Refuge failed me. No man cared
for my soul. I cried unto thee, O Lord. I
said, Thou art my refuge and my portion in the land of the
living. Attend unto my cry, for I am
brought very low. Deliver me from my persecutors,
for Thou art stronger than I. Or it is to the Lord God Himself
that His people are constantly looking. The guy in the psalm,
he says, Commit thy way unto the Lord. Trust also in Him,
and He will bring it to pass. This is a lesson that we have
to learn, that the Lord is that one who works all things for
his people. Deliverance is of the Lord. He
hath delivered, he doth deliver, we trust that he will yet deliver
us. And as God works all things for
his people, so we see him as that one who works all things
in his people. Oh, and how we need that God
should come and work in our poor lives and work in our very hearts.
Again, look at the language of Isaiah. There in Isaiah 26, 12,
he cries out, Thou also hast brought all our works in us.
Oh, God works all our works in us. O Lord our God, other lords
beside Thee have had dominion over us. but by thee only will
we make mention of thy name." Well, it's only by God, and God's
name, God revealing himself in the deliverance of his people. And what we have in the Old Testament,
we have the same truth in the New Testament. Paul can say to
the Corinthians, not that we are sufficient of ourselves,
to think anything as of ourselves. but our sufficiency is of God.
How can we even begin to form or fashion the right thoughts?
It is God. It is God who must come. It is
God who must work all these things in his people. But his people,
though God's method is to show himself, working for his people,
working in his people, but his people are not passive. As we
see here at verse 11, the men of Israel went out of Mizpah
and pursued the Philistines and smote them until they came under
Beth-Kah. God's people have to fight the
good fight of faith. They have to lay hold on eternal
life. But we do all this feeling always
a complete and utter dependence upon God. How is it that God's
people then are to engage in this conflict, this conflict
with the enemies of God, the enemies of themselves. How are
they to war against sin and Satan? Well, let us turn in the second
place to the means. The means that God employs, His
method, is that He does the work. He has done all the work for
His people. He does all the work in His people.
But what are the means? Well, two things I want to mention.
First of all, there is prayer. There is prayer. And we see it
so strikingly here. The people prayed. The people
prayed. What do we read in this chapter? Oh, all that long time that the
ark of God was at Kirjath Jirim. And it says in verse 2, The time
was long, it was twenty years, and all the house of Israel lamented
after the Lord. And that's a very striking expression.
They are lamenting after the Lord, and that is really an indication
of their prayers. They are lamenting, they are
crying. We have the book of Lamentations, of course. And what is the book
of Lamentations? Well, it's the prophet Jeremiah,
who lives at the time of the Babylonian exile. He's contemplating
that terrible thing that came upon God's ancient covenant people,
and he laments. And his lament really is a series
of prayers to God. In fact, when the children of
Israel were in Egypt, after the death of Joseph, how they were
brought to lament. There was a pharaoh that rose
up who knew not Joseph, we're told. And how the Israelites,
the Hebrews there in Egypt, were made to suffer. And what did
they do? They lamented. They lamented. The children of Israel, it said,
sighed by reason of the bondage. And they cried, and their cry
came up unto God by reason of the bondage. And God heard their
groaning, and God remembered His covenant with Abraham, with
Isaac, and with Jacob. And God looked upon the children
of Israel, and God had respect unto them. And it's the same
principle here as lamenting after the Lord. It's after the Lord
that they're lamenting. They're not just bemoaning their
condition, they're looking to the Lord. They desire that the
Lord would come and appear for them again. We see at times that
God's people, they cannot really express themselves in prayer,
they can't articulate words that are adequate to express what
they're feeling. And so they cry and they mourn. That was the experience of David.
Lord, he says, all my desire is before thee, and my groanings,
my groanings are not hid from thee. And as with King David,
so with his descendant, with his son, King Hezekiah. Like a crane or a swallow, he
says, so did I chatter. I did mourn as a dove, my nice
pal, with looking upward, O Lord. I am oppressed. Undertake for
me. Have we ever been in that condition?
We're oppressed, as it were. We want God to undertake. We
cannot do it of ourselves. For thee my soul would cry and
send a laboring groan, for thee my heart would sigh and make
a pensive moan, says dear John Berridge, as he comes to worship
his God. And we have that promise, of
course, of the help of the Spirit. He helps our infirmities. Says
Paul there in Romans 8, he makes intercession with groanings that
cannot be uttered. and the Lord helps. Hitherto
hath the Lord helped us is what Samuel reminds the people of.
They have not lamented in vain. They have not cried unto God
in vain. And as we see them lamenting
and praying, so also the Prophet himself was very much a man of
prayer. What does he say to them in verse
5? Gather all Israel to Mishpah,
and I will pray for you unto the Lord. I will pray for you
unto the Lord. And they desire him to do that. In fact, they want him to pray
unceasingly for them. Verse 8, the children of Israel
said to Samuel, Cease not to cry unto the Lord our God for
us. that He will save us out of the hand of the Philistines. And He does that. And the Lord
God hears Him. For the Lord hears Him. He doesn't
pray at all in vain. Verse 9 we read how He took a
sucking lamb and offered it for a burnt offering wholly unto
the Lord And Samuel cried unto the Lord for Israel, and the
Lord heard him. Now the margin says, and the
Lord answered him. When God hears, God answers.
Before they call, I will answer, He says. While they are yet speaking,
I will hear. For God to hear our prayer is
for God to answer. all of our prayers. And how does
God answer? By terrible things in righteousness
will thou answer us, O God of our salvation. Or the Lord heard
him, the Lord answered him, and as Samuel was offering up the
burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to battle against Israel. But the Lord thundered with a
great thunder on that day upon the Philistines,
and discomfited them, and they were smitten before Israel. That's a remarkable verse, isn't
it? Because what happens here is
Samuel is offering up a burnt offering and it's as he's offering
up the burnt offering that the Philistines come near to battle
and then the Lord appears. The burnt offering, of course,
is a wonderful type of the Lord Jesus Christ. All of those Levitical
sacrifices our types, they're all foreshadowing Christ and
that great sin-atoning sacrifice, that one sacrifice for sins forever
that the Lord is going to offer. He is the only ground that we
can have of any confidence before God when we come to pray to Him. Oh, the Lord will appear and
the Lord will help us for the sake of Jesus Christ. We plead
His person, we plead His work, we plead the accomplishment of
that great work, His blood, His obedience unto death, even the
death of the cross. And how the Lord hears that prayer
and answers that prayer that is presented on that basis, the
offering up of the burnt offering, the sacrifice of the Lord Jesus
Christ, He helps. And how we see in Scripture There
are those who come to the Lord for help. We think of the Syrophoenician
woman and her simple prayer when it seems that the Lord is refusing
her. He reminds her that he sent to
the lost sheep of the house of Israel. She's a Syrophoenician. She's a Canaanite-ish woman.
Canaanites cut off from the congregation of the Lord, we're told in the
Old Testament. But she's so bold when the Lord really speaks what might to us
seem to be hard words. He sent to the lost sheep of
the house of Israel and she is not of Israel, she's of that
Canaanite people, that rejected people. And what does she say? The dogs eat of the crumbs that
fall from the children's table. And the Lord commends her great
faith. And he hears her prayer, she
worshipped him and she says to him, Lord help me. That was her
request, all she wants is help, that the Lord will help her by
healing her daughter. It's the same with that man who
comes with his sick child and wants the Lord to heal him, he
has a dumb spirit. And what does the Father say?
Have compassion on us and help us. Oh, there are those who come
to Christ in the gospel and all they want is the Lord to help
the psalmist. The psalmist says in Psalm 12,
help Lord, for the godly man ceases and the faithful fail
from among men. Well, we need that God should
help us in this day. Where are the faithful men Where
are the statesmen? Where are those in high places
that have a regard for God and the Word of God and the ways
of God? All we can do is cry that the Lord would help. Hitherto
hath the Lord helped us. This is the significance of what
is said in the text. Samuel took a stone, set it between
Misbah and Shem, and called the name of it Ebenezer, saying,
Hitherto hath the Lord helped us, or we cannot pray to him
in thine." I was struck by this statement in a sermon of Thomas
Boston's. He says, what are the Christian's
experiences but the return of prayers? What are our experiences? Anything that we experience of
the grace of God, it's the return of our prayers. God says quite
clearly, I will yet for this be inquired of by the house of
Israel to do it for them. He will do it. We have to come
and inquire of Him and ask Him. And sometimes we have to lament
before Him. Well this is the means that God
employs then. He will have His people to pray.
All men ought always to pray, says Christ, and not to faint. We ought to pray to Him, and
that's what we meet for, of course. But then also, a second means
that we see here, there's that need for true repentance. The repentance of our sins. Verse
3, Samuel spoke unto all the house of Israel, saying, If ye
do return unto the LORD with all your hearts, then put away
the strange gods and Ashtoreth from among you, and prepare your
hearts unto the LORD, and serve him only, and he will deliver
you out of the hand of the Philistines. Then the children of Israel did
put away Balaam and Ashtoreth, and served the LORD only. It's all Israel. It's all their
heart, you see. It's serving the Lord only. This is their repentance. And
look at the symbolism that we see here with regards to the
way in which they repent. In verse 6, they gathered together
to Misbah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord
and fasted on that day and said we have sinned against the Lord well fasting is associated with
their repentance but the symbolism of the pouring out of the water
is interesting it's a sign of them pouring out their hearts
they're pouring out their hearts before the Lord as I said Lamentations,
of course, is a book in which we see the prophet lamenting,
praying to God because of the sad state that God's ancient
people have come into. Jerusalem destroyed, the temple
razed to the ground, the people removed away into exile. What does he do in this book
of Lamentations? He pours out his heart In chapter 2 verse 18 he says,
Their heart cried unto the Lord, O wall of the daughter of Zion,
let tears run down like a river day and night. Give thyself no
rest, let not the apple of thine eye cease. Arise, cry out in
the night, in the beginning of the watches, pour out thine heart
like water before the face of the Lord. lift up thy hands toward
him for the life of thy young children that faint for hunger
in the top of every street." And those words you see, pour out thine heart like water
before the face of the Lord. That's the significance of what
they are said to do here in 1st Samuel 7, 6. That's godly sorrow. And that's
so vital a part of real repentance. All godly sorrow worketh repentance
not to be repented of, says Paul. The sorrow of the world worketh
death. The worldly knows something of
sorrow, but it's not godly sorrow. All God grant that we might have
a godly sorrow over sins, that we might know what this real
repentance is. there's symbolism, there's also
the sacrifice, isn't there? We've already referred to it
there in verse 10 as Samuel offers up the burnt offering, the burnt
offering. What's the significance of the
burnt offering? Well, it's mentioned there in the very first chapter
of the book of Leviticus where we have set before us the various
sacrifices that were to be offered in the tabernacle sin offerings,
trespass offerings. But there in the opening chapter
we read of the burnt offering. And what was the burnt offering?
Well, that sacrifice was altogether consumed. It was consumed on
the brazen altar. And it reminds us that in our
dealings with God there can be no half measures. If we're going
to be seeking after Him, we must be wholehearted. or it must consume
us our seeking after this God ye shall seek me it says and
find me when ye shall search for me with all your hearts not
half-hearted but wholehearted in our seeking after the Lord
God and as we come increasingly to
the end of the year should we not be those who are looking
to ourselves and examining ourselves and proving ourselves? Is there
not a need for real repentance? Maybe our religion has not been
as wholehearted as it should have been. Or there's much that has taken place in
the course of this year, of course, with the pandemic and or the
confusion in political circles because of that the whole nation
seems to be under God's judgment and yet we know that really that
judgment begins at the house of God it begins at the house of God
so we have to look to ourselves and examine ourselves but as
we think of God we don't only think of God's judgments we know
that his judgments are also mingled with mercies oh yes, there's
a need for us to repent but there's one who gives repentance, is
there not? the Lord Jesus, him hath God exalted with his right
hand, the Prince and the Saviour to give repentance to Israel
and the forgiveness of sins, he's ascended as that one who
is sovereign in the disposal of repentance and faith and every
grace. Oh, he has led captivity captive,
he has ascended on high, he's received gifts from heaven. He's
that one who has ascended as the great High Priest. And now we have to come and look
to Him for every help. And we have every encouragement
in God's Word to look to Him. We can encourage ourselves surely
even in the words of this verse before us tonight. Can we not
raise Ebeneezer's just as Samuel took a stone and set it between
mist but and shed and called the name of it Ebeneezer saying
hitherto hath the Lord helped us. The Lord has helped us. We
have been brought in good measure through this year. We trust that
the Lord will see us through to the end of the year and into
a new year. and into many other years under
his good and gracious hand and that he will yet come and prosper
his own work. I think of those words that we
were looking at last Thursday from Psalm 78, 65. Then the Lord
awaked as one out of sleep and like a mighty man that shouted
by reason of wine. We want the Lord to awake And
I think of the verse of a hymn. It came to me just before we
left home this evening. It's not in Gadsby's, but it's
in some of the old books. And it's these words of the hymn
that I want to close with tonight. Arm of the Lord, awake, awake. Put on thy strength, the nations
shake. and let the world adoring see
triumphs of mercy wrought by thee. All we pray that God in
wrath will indeed remember is mercy. Well, the Lord bless his
word to us. Now let us sing our second praise
in the hymn 961. The tune, O Nun, 331. Be still, my heart. These anxious
cares to thee are burdens, thorns and snares. They cast dishonor
on thy Lord and contradict his gracious word. He who has helped
me hitherto will help me all my journey through and give me
daily cause to praise, to raise new Ebenezers to his praise. 961.