Eli is our Ebenezer!

Listen to this song today or tomorrow morning for scripture study/inspiration.  There are many renditions of this song and I have listened to many of them but this is THE most powerful rendition of come thou fount I have ever heard… and the most powerful song that I have ever felt in this life.  Brooke sent me this song on a CD when I was serving an LDS mission in Mississippi.  I received it toward the end of my mission and I listened to it every night before bed. 

I bare Testimony that we each are prone to wander and we all hope that by our father’s good pleasure safely to arrive at home.  I have experienced “Streams of mercy never ceasing” my entire life, even when it felt as if life had nothing more to give.  Looking back I see more clearly that Jesus sought me even when a stranger wondering from the fold of God.  I know that I am greatly a debtor, daily I’m constrained to be.  I pray that by HIS goodness he may bind and seal my wandering heart to his… like a fetter that cannot be loosed.  I bare my testimony that you will feel the spirit of God when you close your eyes and listen intently to this song.  I believe it is most powerful with headphones on so you can drowned out the background noise and distractions…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nq-Q22Pf1W8

  

Below are some helpful definitions I found of Ebenezer and Fetter.

  

"Here I raise mine Ebenezer; hither by thy help I'm come;"

What's an Ebenezer?  If you look it up in the dictionary, it's a "stone of help," and in terms of the gospel, the dictionary is not very far off.  The word Ebenezer comes from two Hebrew words meaning "help" and "stone." What the dictionary fails to mention (unless you have dictionary that discusses the history of words--I would love that dictionary if you have one, by the way) is the biblical use of this word.  Samuel once raised a stone at Mizpeh, the site where God's people were victorious over the Philistines.  He called this stone Ebenezer, a stone meant to remind the people of God's help in their victory in battle, and as such, their success in reclaiming the Arc of the Covenant.

If you read 1 Samuel, you'll realize that the Israelites actually lost many battles to the Philistines before they were able to reclaim the Arc of the Covenant.  So it is with our lives, and so it signifies in this hymn.  We raise our Ebenezer after we've won.  This line talks about the end of our mortal life, when we raise our commemorative Help Stone and acknowledge that we've come as far as we have with the Lord's help.  It's a powerful line.  So is the rest of this hymn.

One more line and question:

"Let thy goodness, like a fetter, bind my wandering heart to thee."

What's a fetter?  This is an easier answer.  You know those shackles people put on prisoners' feet?  Those shackles are fetters.  Doesn't sound like something you'd ask someone to put on you, right?  But if you love the Lord enough, you'd want to bind your heart to him, especially if it wandered a lot.  I don't remember much about what the Choir Director told me about this part of the song, but I can't help thinking that the Lord wouldn't shackle us to him, even if we begged.  Referring to doctrine about the Pre-mortal Life and the Plan of Salvation, shackles would've been a tactic Satan used.  I don't even think the Lord would put us on a leash.  He eventually needs to depend on us and count on our decisions.  It's a beautiful expression, to say that you fear wandering so much that you are willing to wear shackles so He can keep you better, but He needs us to make our own decisions, to choose to cleave to Him even when we feel ourselves wandering.  Otherwise, His plan means nothing.  So instead of giving him permission to force you to stay with him,

Choose to Cleave. 

Truly Eli is our family's Ebenezer!

Jason