1 Samuel 7 tells the story of an Israelite victory against the Philistines and what they did to mark that victory: “Then Samuel took a stone and set it up between Mizpah and Shen. He named it Ebenezer,saying, “Thus far has the Lord helped us.” So the Philistines were subdued and did not invade Israelite territory again.” (1 Sam 7:12-13)
The hymn ‘Come, Thou Fount of Every Blessing’ takes up this theme in one of the verses:
“Here I raise my Ebenezer;
Here by Thy great help I’ve come;
And I hope, by Thy good pleasure,
Safely to arrive at home.”
Today on our final prayer walk of January, we walked round one of the new estates on the west side of Goldthorpe, actually in Highgate, and saw this:
I’m not quite sure what these stones represent or if it was just the fact it had snowed overnight that made them stand out so much, but they reminded me of this passage in 1 Samuel. As God gives victories, we need to remember them and mark them in some way so that we remember ‘Thus far has the Lord helped us’. And if the Lord has helped us this far, He won’t let us down in the future!
Some other streets we saw:
