Thus Far the Lord Has Helped You: Your Own Ebenezer Stone

Introduction

There are mornings when you look at your life and everything feels both given and suspended at once. The past carries traces of real help. The present, though, weighs heavy. On Persecuted Church Sunday, at the ELM, the sermon invites you to put words to what you're living through: "Thus far the LORD has helped us." That's Samuel's cry, in 1 Samuel 7:12, when he picks up a stone and sets it in the ground between Mizpah and Shen.

The passage opens on a shaken people. The ark of the covenant has been set aside for twenty years at Kiriath-Jearim, in the house of Abinadab. The Philistines are pressing in. Israel is groaning. And God sends Samuel, not to condemn, but to gather, to call to repentance, to offer a lamb, to pray. The people return. God delivers. A stone is set up. It's named Ebenezer, "the stone of help."

The preacher reads this story alongside today's persecuted Christians (Kamala in Nepal, Pastor Omar in northern Mozambique), to bring you back to your own journey. Our trials raise the question: where is God? The lives crushed by persecution answer, beneath the surface, one strong thing: God's faithfulness doesn't go out in the middle of the desert, it's revealed there.

Outline of the Message

1. A Time of Oppression and Spiritual Confusion (1 Samuel 7:2 and the Context of Judges)

• The preacher sets the scene: this story closes out the period of the Judges. The people of Israel live through the same cycle again and again. First Israel drifts from God and adopts the idols of the surrounding nations. Then that drift blocks God's blessing and protection. Enemies gain the upper hand and mistreat the people. God then sends a judge to bring the people back to himself and deliver them. Then the cycle starts over.
• The context is also one of a misunderstood covenant. The previous reading (1 Samuel 4) shows that Israel saw the presence of the ark at their side (the sacred chest above which God dwelt) as an automatic guarantee of victory in battle. God, for his part, was waiting for something else: real attachment of the heart, an exclusive setting aside of idols.
• This misunderstanding leaves Israel expecting a help that never comes. The people are lost, disappointed. They rejoiced in God's presence but honored it poorly, an attitude closer to superstition than to obedient faith.
• The ark stayed twenty years at Kiriath-Jearim. The people had set their worship of God aside because they were afraid of it and no longer knew how to handle his presence in their midst.
• The preacher then asks you the questions that concern you today: are you afraid of going further with God than what he might ask of you? Would you rather live on the margins of his presence, propped up on a false security? Do you let your Christian life come down to rules you follow, when Jesus calls you into a real relationship with him? Do you confess the Lord with your mouth without knowing how to please him through obedient faith?
• The oppression is twofold: it's the consequence of the people's unfaithfulness, and the means God uses to bring them back to himself. He turns evil into good, the curse into blessing.

2. The Testimonies of Kamala and Pastor Omar (Persecuted Church)

• Kamala, Nepal. Born into a Hindu family in a poor community in western Nepal. While she's still young, her father converts after a miraculous healing. She herself comes to know a God of love who saves.
• Later, she chooses to marry a Hindu man who gradually pulls her away from the Lord. Her life becomes harder and harder: an alcoholic in-law family, an unfaithful husband who keeps her from practicing her faith. It's in that suffering, realizing that the chaos flows from her own disobedience, that she repents of her unfaithfulness and returns to her Christian family and to the faith.
• Pastor Omar, Mozambique. He serves in northern Mozambique, an area where violent persecution against believers is sadly common practice. With his wife Magdalena, he's called to serve in a small town that had no church.
• He shares the gospel step by step. A small number of people, and sometimes whole families, become Christians. Despite threats, assaults, and even false accusations of kidnapping, he keeps sharing the gospel and forming new disciples.
• One day, an Islamist group attacks him. They throw him to the ground, tie him up, and get ready to strike him violently on the head with a stick. Omar thinks his last hour has come. It's at that exact moment that he experiences a powerful sense of God's presence at his side. Jesus's promise, "I am with you always, even to the end of the age" (Matthew 28:20), comes back to his mind. By faith, he holds on to it like an anchor. His deliverance comes miraculously through the timely arrival of the regular army.
• The shared lesson of these two lives: these Christians hadn't necessarily sinned or drifted from God. They took refuge in him and drew closer to him because things were going badly. This new closeness with God carries on beyond the trial, so that the hardships and persecution end up working for their good.

3. The Need for a Sincere Return to God (1 Samuel 7:3-9)

• Samuel says to the whole 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 hearts to the LORD, and serve him only, and he will deliver you out of the hand of the Philistines." So the children of Israel put away the Baals and the Ashtaroth, and served the LORD only (1 Samuel 7:3-4).
• Samuel gathers the people at Mizpah. They draw water and pour it out before the LORD. They fast that day. They confess: "We have sinned against the LORD." Samuel judges the children of Israel at Mizpah.
• The preacher highlights Samuel's attitude: he doesn't reproach the people, just as God himself doesn't when we turn back to him in sincerity. He welcomes, encourages, reminds them of the conditions for a real return to God, and takes full part in that return himself.
• When the Philistines come up against Israel, the people ask Samuel: "Don't stop crying out to the LORD our God for us, that he will save us out of the hand of the Philistines." Samuel took a suckling lamb and offered it whole as a burnt offering to the LORD. He cried to the LORD for Israel, and the LORD answered him (1 Samuel 7:8-9).
• Kamala's return illustrates the same dynamic. She has to endure divorce and persecution from her brother, who isn't a Christian, but she finds refuge in God and seeks him with all her heart. She's first given temporary shelter at the church, then finds a room to live in with her daughter and rebuild her life. She testifies to God's goodness toward her, because he welcomed her warmly when she repented.

4. A Stone Is Set Up: Ebenezer, Thus Far the Lord Has Helped Us (1 Samuel 7:10-12)

• While Samuel was offering the burnt offering, the Philistines drew near to attack Israel. The LORD thundered with a great thunder that day on the Philistines. They were struck down before Israel. The men of Israel went out of Mizpah, pursued the Philistines, and struck them as far as below Beth Car.
• Samuel took a stone and set it between Mizpah and Shen. He called its name Ebenezer, saying, "Thus far the LORD has helped us" (1 Samuel 7:12).
• The memorial stone Samuel sets up is a sign of gratitude to God and a reminder for future generations. It stands as a reference point, a visible sign, a permanent memory for the people of God's help and faithfulness toward them.
• Samuel's words show that his gaze stretches back over the whole period of the Judges. Despite Israel's repeated falls, God was always faithful. He always watched over his people to bring them back to himself and save them. He never fails to answer when the people turn to him in sincere repentance.
• The question the preacher asks you: aren't you too called to set up markers along the way in your life? To look back with a clear head and recognize the Lord's blessing presence at your side, even in hard times?
• This act of recognition is a healthy act of worship. It puts you in a right posture toward the one who, like a good father, has faithfully led you, protected you, helped you, and at times lovingly corrected you to bring you back to him again and again.
• Maybe you can even place, visibly in your home or living space, memory stones that testify to God's interventions on your behalf. These memories become so many testimonies to your family and friends, making God's faithfulness known and honored.

5. A Faith That Grows in Maturity: The Ongoing Testimony of Kamala and Omar

• When you consider God's faithfulness throughout your walk up to today, you can say with Samuel: "Thus far the LORD has helped us." That strengthens your faith and matures it. You become stronger to face tomorrow's difficulties, because you've already experienced God's goodness and faithfulness in the past, in the middle of trial.
• Kamala shares: "When I was young, I went to church, but it was just a routine. Now, after having faced this situation, I feel closer to God. From my experience, I can say that God sends us trials in life to draw us closer to him. He doesn't abandon us in hard times. He wants us to depend on him and to have faith in him. He helps us overcome difficulties. If I hadn't accepted Jesus Christ, I would be lost. I don't know how I would have ended up. I wouldn't have loved my daughter the same way, and I would have missed out on many blessings. Now, thanks to God, I'm happy."
• Omar and his wife, forced to move because of the persecution, turn to God to know whether they should continue their ministry. God's proven faithfulness strengthens Omar's faith. He even decides to go back to the place where he was persecuted to continue his mission.
• He testifies: "The Lord Jesus wanted us here to serve the disciples and the church of this region, to be also the voice of persecuted Christians, of those who suffer, of those who weep, of those going through trials. Now that I too have been through this, I understand what it really means to be persecuted, to suffer for the name of Jesus. It's something the Lord is making burn in my heart."

6. Conclusion: Thus Far, and for What Comes Next

• Learn to look back and consider God's great faithfulness in your walk with him, and the way he lets trials keep bringing you back to himself. Rejoice in the deliverances he's brought, in his forgiveness always offered, in his kindness shown again and again.
• Building on your past experience of his faithfulness, on good days and bad, learn to keep returning to him, in humility and repentance, so you can grow in faith and in spiritual closeness with him.
• Stay attentive too to the voice of the Holy Spirit within you. Aren't you invited to be, for those around you and for the persecuted church, the concrete expression of God's help and faithfulness?
• "Thus far the LORD has helped us, and he will be our help for all that's still to come."

Key Takeaways

• The cycle of the Judges repeats itself: Israel drifts away, God lets oppression rise, sends a judge, delivers, and the cycle starts again. Your Christian life can follow the same cycle if you confuse God's presence with an automatic guarantee.
• A misunderstood covenant produces a religion of superstition: Israel rejoiced in the ark's presence but honored it poorly. God was waiting for a heart.
• Oppression has two faces: the consequence of sin and a tool God uses to bring his people back to himself. He turns evil into good.
• Samuel doesn't accuse, he welcomes, reminds people of the conditions, offers the sacrifice, prays. That's how God himself welcomes you when you return in sincerity.
• Kamala in Nepal and Omar in Mozambique show that the closeness gained through trial carries on beyond it. Their trials ultimately worked for their good.
• Ebenezer ("stone of help") is an act of worship. Set up markers, visible reminders, to honor God's faithfulness and declare it to those close to you.

Personal Application

1. Is there, today, an "ark set aside" in your life, an area of God's presence you avoid because it asks too much of you, or because you no longer know what to do with it?
2. Are you tempted by superstition, believing that a ritual, a religious practice, or a simple habit keeps you safe, when God is waiting for your heart to return?
3. In what trial you've recently gone through can you now, looking back, recognize the hand of God bringing you back to himself? What "thus far" can you speak today?
4. What "memory stone" will you set up this week in a concrete way (an object, a note, a time of gratitude with your family), to say to yourself and to those close to you: Ebenezer, the LORD has helped us?
5. Are you ready to become, in turn, an expression of God's help for someone, a persecuted Christian to carry in prayer, a struggling brother or sister to visit, a hand to reach out?

Scriptures Cited

• 1 Samuel 7:2-17 (WEB)
• 1 Samuel 7:12 · "Thus far the LORD has helped us"
• 1 Samuel 4 (context of the ark)
• Matthew 28:20 · "I am with you always"

FAQ

What does "Ebenezer" mean, and why does Samuel set up this stone?

Ebenezer literally means "stone of help." By placing it between Mizpah and Shen after the victory over the Philistines, Samuel accomplishes three things in a single act: he gives thanks to God, he fixes the people's memory on a real, dated help, and he leaves the next generations a visible sign that God's faithfulness never wavered throughout the period of the Judges. This stone is an act of worship as much as a lesson passed down. Your equivalent today might be an object, a note, or a regular family time that speaks out loud what God has done for you.

Why does God let oppression reach his people before delivering them?

The preacher gives a two-part key. On one side, the oppression is the consequence of the people's drift: Israel had taken up the idols of neighboring nations and set the ark aside. On the other, God uses that same oppression as a means of bringing his people back to himself. That's also what Kamala's and Omar's lives show: without necessarily having sinned, they naturally took refuge in God because things were going badly, and the closeness gained through the trial stayed with them afterward. God turns evil into good, the curse into blessing.

How can a Christian "set up a stone" today?

It's not a required ritual, it's a habit of worship worth recovering. Concretely: set aside a regular time (monthly, quarterly, yearly) to look back with a clear head, and name precisely the deliverances, the loving corrections, the doors that opened. Write them down. Share them with your family, your friends. Place, if you like, an object in your home that recalls a specific act of God. The goal isn't to build a museum, but to keep the story alive and pass it on, so that, as in Samuel's time, the next generation knows that "thus far, the LORD has helped us."