Title: God of Ebenezer
Contents
Text: 1 Samuel 7:12-14
Title: God of Ebenezer
The first thing that comes to mind at the end of the year is to say thank you for the grace of God who has kept you up to this point. To express this in one word, it is ‘Ebenezer’. It means ‘God has led you this far’. Ebenezer was not a place of victory from the beginning (1 Samuel 4:1,2). It used to be a place of defeat that I don't want to remember. This was the place where Israel suffered a great defeat by the Philistines. Nevertheless, they set up a victory monument here in Ebenezer, saying, “God helped.”
We know that Israel is a country that should never be defeated. This is the same as our members who believe that there should be only happy and joyful things throughout the year, not bad, sad, or painful things. The Bible clearly testifies that the great people of God in the Bible that we think of are also people who have experienced numerous failures. Why? This is because God leads us beyond our human failures and successes, defeats and triumphs. God is with us in the midst of failure and hardship and has a wonderful plan for us.
In fact, from the perspective of us humans, failure and defeat are really hard to bear. But on the part of God, it is not so. Just as we have our thoughts and will, so God has His thoughts and will. What is the typical wrong attitude that Christians usually think of when they believe in God? It is a thought that is a blessing if it goes well and a curse if it doesn't. But not God. It's a blessing even if it goes well, a blessing even if it doesn't go well. Just as God did not forsake Israel just because they were defeated, we must let go of the idea that God did not help us just because we failed. Rather, we should know that God is the One who makes us realize through defeat rather than through victory. I hope that you will win with the faith of Ebenezer, who is grateful, acknowledging that God always helps us, who is beyond victory and defeat, success and failure.