HELP...I NEED SOMEBODY (From Ichabod to Ebenezer)

Hello fellow needers of HELP...can ya lend a helpin' hand?

Many years ago...I went to the Princess Theater...to watch The Beatles in their first movie...called A HARD DAYS NIGHT. It was an interesting night eating buttered popcorn, eating Milk Duds, drinking an orange soda...and watching... not the movie...but the crowd scream to the point of where you could not hear the movie. Their follow up movie...in color...was HELP.

HELP: "Help, I need somebody...Help, not just anybody, Help, you know I need someone...Heeeeelp!" It is still a great song. Years later...Ringo would lament on the Sgt. Peppers album..."I need a little HELP from my friends."

In my Christian walk...I have found that more than once...I have needed HELP to recover from my own self...as I have chosen to go against the principles of God...and do my own thing. Thank God...for the blood of Jesus...the Word of God...the Holy Spirit (aka the Paracletos...the one called along side to HELP... the HELPER)

In my last Ruminator Rambling...called HAND TO THE PLOW (again and once more)... we spoke of not looking back as we follow Jesus...proclaiming the righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Ghost...aka The Kingdom. We were encouraged by Jesus in Luke 9:62..."No one, after putting his HAND TO THE PLOW...and looking back, is fit for the kingdom of God." While we are encouraged not to LOOK BACK...there is a time when LOOKING BACK could be not only beneficial...but needed. I am not talking about looking back and longing for the "good old days...but looking back to the source of help...realizing that the same help back then will be, and is available in the NOW. NOTE: One is an Ichabod...the other is an Ebenezer. Both fictional characters...and both defining our spiritual condition.

"Whenever crime was running rampant in Gotham City...the police and Commissioner Gorden would shine the BATLIGHT...as a cry for HELP from the Caped Crusader...The Batman. Bruce Wayne would see it... and he would spring into action along with his ward Dick Grayson... and emerge costumed and out of the Batcave to fight evil and injustice. From the comics to the 1940's serials to the camp T.V. show and the various incarnations in the movies...The Batman remains one of my favorite fictional characters...because...he would HELP the HELPLESS.

The saying is...sticks and STONES may break my bones... but WORDS will never hurt me." Nice sentiment...but wrong. Words depending on who is throwing them... and the intent behind their throwing can heal or kill.

Jesus is called the ROCK...a place of stability in a shaking world. The cross is called the scandilon...the ROCK OF OFFENSE...causing people to stumble over the simplicity of the cross. Jesus spoke of people who were STONE tossers of condemnation to throw STONES...if you had no sin. Jesus called Peter...petros (little stone)....but called his revelation that Jesus was the Christ, the living Son of God as a petra (massive ROCK)...and that the church would be built on the that REVELATION ROCK...not on the little stone.

Of course little David...defeated giant Goliath...with a smooth STONE flung from a sling. David had five smooth stones...and only needed one...giving him 4 more left...for any other giants that he may face. NOTE: Just my perspective on future giants).

Now...onto the STONE...that we can LOOK BACK TO...in time of need. Of course the ROCK that we can always...and always should look to...is THE ROCK OF OUR SALVATION....JESUS...THE CHRIST...GOD WITH US...EMMANUEL.

There is a ROCK/STONE found in I Samuel 7:1-17...that became a reminder of how the Lord HELPED THEM...in there time of battle with the Philistines. "Then Samuel too a STONE and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it EBENEZER...saying thus far the Lord has HELPED US." The word EBENEZER literally means...STONE OF HELP.

In contrast to the EBENEZER (stone of help)...there is ICHABOD (no glory...the glory has departed). This is found in I Samuel 4:1-22...and is in reference to the loss of the ark which meant to them...the "absence of glory in Israel". "And she called the boy ICHABOD...saying...The glory has departed from Israel...because the ark of God was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband. She said...the glory has departed from Israel, for the ark of God was taken." (I Samuel 4:21-23)

FINAL THOUGHTS...FINALLY

Well...if you are going to look back...look back to the EBENEZER...and not the ICHABOD. One reminds you that He helped you there...He can help you again...but if you try to live on past victories....you will find the glory to be departed. Keep you hand to the plow...don't look back... but at the same time...return to the first love of your life...and do the things that you first did... (Revelation 2:1-7)

Love and Non-Scrooge Kisses
Rodney "Help Found" Boyd

EBENEZER VERSUS ICHABOD

Greetings literature fans...or as Billy Graham would say it...
LIT..era..ture.

Meet Ebenezer Scrooge. He is the brainchild of good old Charles Dickens who wrote A Christmas Carol in 1843. He describes Ebenezer..."The cold within him froze his old features, nipped his pointed nose, made his eyes red, his thin lips blue, and he spoke shrewdly in his grating voice." Aaaaahhh...just the type of man that you would want to know...or maybe be. Of course the story is a familiar one that has been reduced to celluloid impressions with various movies, T.V. shows and retellings. He is visited by the 3 Ghosts of Christmas (Past, Present, and Yet To Come). As a result he has a life changing experience...as he went from Bah Humbug...to being giddy.

Meet Ichabod Crane... the brainchild of Washington Irving who wrote the short story...The Legend of Sleepy Hollow in 1820. Ichabod is described as having big ears, big nose and a long frame. Irving is also famous for his character Rip Van Winkle.. but that is another Rambling in the making. Ichabod also has been immortalized in the celluloid with everything from Disney remakes to Johnny Deep as a detective investigating the Sleepy Hollow shenanigans.

Ebenezer and Ichabod were mentioned centuries before Dickens and Irving penned their masterpieces. The Dickens you say? Yes and the Irving also.

One mention is redemptive and the other tragic...much like the two stories.

In The Christmas Carol... Mr. Scrooge went from being a miserable...chain forging...prisoner of his own past...who when he experienced his visitations...REPENTED...had a change of heart and became a changed man. For the rest of his life...he was able to look back at that fateful night...and walk out his present that not only changed his future...but all the people that he came into contact with in his world.

Ichabod on the other hand...motivated by his anxiety, worry, and tension...and mostly his fear of the unknown, superstition...and probable harassment by his rival Brom Bones (both had a thang for Katrina van Tassel)...had a dubious end...with either an attach by an apparition...or run out of Sleepy Hollow...NEVER TO BE HEARD FROM AGAIN.

Well...come on Ramblin' Rod...we are waiting. How are you gonna bring this back around to the D.B.R. nothing more...nothing less. How are you gonna make the Bible Connection with Eb and Ich? I'm glad you asked. Let's check out the two references in the Word of God.


Ichabod is mention in I Samuel 4:21,22..."And she named the child ICHABOD...saying, "THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED; because the Ark of God (aka Ark of the Covenant) was taken and because of her father-in-law and her husband. And she said, THE GLORY HAS DEPARTED from Israel, for the ARK OF GOD WAS TAKEN."

The ark represented the presence of God...the place where the GLORY would rest. The name Ichabod became synonymous with DEPARTED GLORY. Much like the fate of Ichabod Crane. No glory...no Katriana van Tassel...only shame, possible death, and disgrace.
We see in Acts 3:19 what happens in the presence of the Lord...and how we get there..."Repent (change of heart, mind, direction, actions)...and return (come back)...that your sins may be WIPED AWAY...in order that TIMES OF REFRESHING may come from THE PRESENCE OF THE LORD." Aaaaaaaaaahhhhh...now that's refreshing. A lot better than having a Jack-O-Lantern hurled at your cranium from a ghostly figure. Glory may have been departed from your life...but you can RETURN...and become REFRESHED again.

Ebenezer is found in I Samuel 7:12..."Then Samuel took a STONE (stone of help)...and set it between Mizpah and Shen, and named it (the stone) EBENEZER,saying, THUS FAR THE LORD HAS HELPED US."

The Ebenezer Stone was a touchstone...for Samuel and the people of God...to look back to as a stone of REMEMBRANCE...that the event in which God moved on their behalf BACK THEN...is a reminder that He can move on our behalf NOW...and in the FUTURE. Scrooge... after a night of introspection...REPENTED...had a change of direction...and now EBENEZER...had an EBENEZER...that would remind him of where he was...and where he is...and where he is going. The EBENEZER STONE keeps us focusing on the FAITHFULNESS OF GOD.

So...what do you want...departed glory or a reminder that GOD IS FAITHFUL?

It was the best of times...and the worst of times...but with JESUS...the worst of times...keep on gettin' better.

Love and Ebenezer Kisses (you must REMEMBER this)
Rodney "Duck" Boyd