Ebenezer: a symbol of God's provision

The old hymns are awesome. Some of them are really difficult to sing and seemed to be written before people started writing catchy tunes and are as slow as . Sure, some of them are as exciting to sing as watching paint dry but a lot of them are theology lessons set to music. Of course language has changed quite a in the last 250 years so sometimes I'm singing along and I come to a bit where I have no idea whatsoever what the

Here I raise mine 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.

This one line made no sense to me whatsoever. Here I raise mine ebenezer? What? What does that even mean?

Does anyone know?

Well, I took a look. Did a little study. I liked what I found so I thought I'd share it with you as well. The answer can be found in Joshua 4.

Allow me to set the scene. Joshua is leading the nation of Israel out of the wilderness and into the promise land. In the next few chapters we will see the destruction of the city of Jericho. Now Jericho was kind of like the doorkeeper guarding the entrance of the promise land, or maybe the first level boss, but before the Israelites could even consider attacking Jericho that had one significant obstacle to overcome: The river Jordan.

Now, do not mistake the Jordan river for the creek that runs behind the church. This was a fast moving, large body of water about 45 feet wide. It would have been difficult to cross at the best of times, and some scholars believed that this was hardly the best of times. Some think that it would have been the flood season when Israel arrived at Jordan's banks. So, getting 40,000 soldiers and their families over this river would have been an impossible task for Joshua.

An impossible task that probably would have been doubly so once you start considering the tactical situation.
1. With a river like the Jordan there would have been only a few good places to try crossing it.
2. All of those places would have been known.
3. So, drop a couple hundred archers on the far bank and you'll turn someones river crossing into a blood bath. You think the people of Jericho didn't know this?

Also, much like how the Eygptians worshiped the Nile river so the people of caanan would have considered the Jordan a symbol of Baal's protection.

So when God simply stops the river in its track and allows the people of Israel to cross on dry land this is a wake up call to the people of Caanan. They've got 40,000 soldiers dropped on their doorstep, their "god" has proved to be absolutely powerless to protect them.
So its here that we pick up the story.

Joshua 4:1-4
1 When the whole nation had finished crossing the Jordan, the LORD said to Joshua,
2 “Choose twelve men from among the people, one from each tribe,
3 and tell them to take up twelve stones from the middle of the Jordan, from right where the priests are standing, and carry them over with you and put them down at the place where you stay tonight.”
4 So Joshua called together the twelve men he had appointed from the Israelites, one from each tribe,
5 and said to them, “Go over before the ark of the LORD your God into the middle of the Jordan. Each of you is to take up a stone on his shoulder, according to the number of the tribes of the Israelites,
6 to serve as a sign among you. In the future, when your children ask you, ‘What do these stones mean?’
7 tell them that the flow of the Jordan was cut off before the ark of the covenant of the LORD. When it crossed the Jordan, the waters of the Jordan were cut off. These stones are to be a memorial to the people of Israel forever.”

Now, if anyone is thinking "so they made a pile of rocks, big deal, whose going to notice?" Remind yourself of this. Joshua sent a bunch of men, soldiers in fact, out into the river to get themselves a rock to honor God. Do you think they just wandered out and picked up any old rock or do you think they found themselves the biggest rock they could carry. It says that they carried these stones on their shoulders. You don't carry brick sized rocks on your shoulder. You don't even carry rocks the size of your head on your shoulder. You carry big rocks on your shoulder.

This was a pretty cool pile of rocks. This wasn't going to get accidently kicked over by some dude's passing donkey.

So....

Go, send a man from each tribe to get themselves a rock and make a tower so that, generations from now, your children and your children's children will ask you why that giant pile of rocks is there and you'll be able to tell them what I did for you. Tell them so what has happened today won't be forgotten.

Remember what I have done for you, and pass that on to your children. Remind yourself.

So that's an Ebenezer, a reminder of God's provision. Now, I've got a couple questions:

Can you think of any symbols like this in your daily life?

Anywhere else in the old testament? (just about everything)

At church? (crosses)

Did Jesus create? (communion)

Ones you're set up for yourself? (my sword)