For long years Isreal had been cold toward God. They had taken up with the Gods of the Philistines -- the very people they were supposed to have removed. They lost a battle with the PHilistines and lost the Ark of the Covenant! Twenty years later, after a return to the Lord, God gave them a victory over the Philistines and the prophet Samuel set up a stone of remembrance before them and called the stone Ebenezer -- the stone of help.""