Ebenezer Scrooge

Ebenezer Scrooge

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One of the most famous Christmas stories was written by Charles Dickens. A Christmas Carol has been adapted into movies, plays, and animated features. The characters are seared into our consciousness. Most vivid among them is Ebenezer Scrooge, the miserly old banker whose life is consumed with greed. Dickens was a master at naming his characters, which is proven by the way the name Scrooge has become synonymous with stingy selfishness.

The name Scrooge comes from an old word that meant “to squeeze” or “to press.” Dickens used it to mark the old man as a tight-fisted geezer who wanted to squeeze as much as he could out of everyone around him. We hear the name and we can picture him holding tight to every last penny.

Dickens’ choice of Scrooge’s first name is interesting. Although we are familiar with the name, it doesn’t appear in the novel until the first ghost, Marley visits him. Marley was Scrooge’s old business partner, and likely his only friend. Interestingly, only two characters in the story use the name “Ebenezer” and Marley is the first. He says, “I am here to warn you, that you have yet a chance and a hope of escaping my fate. A chance and hope of my procuring, Ebenezer.”

Scrooge answers Marley, “You were always a good friend to me…Thank ee.”

The only other character to refer to Scrooge by his first name was Old Fizzwig, a former employer that Scrooge held in high regard.

The final place we see the first name Ebenezer used is on Scrooge’s gravestone.

So, why did Dickens choose that name? You might recognize the name from the old hymn, “Come Thou Fount of Every Blessing…”

Come thou fount of every blessing

Tune my heart to sing thy grace

Streams of mercy never ceasing

Call for songs of loudest praise

Here I raise my Ebenezer

Here by thy great help, I’ve come

And I hope by thy good pleasure

Safely to arrive at home

The hymn-writer, Robert Robinson, took that idea from 1 Samuel chapter 7. The Israelites were in the process of repenting and worshipping God in a solemn assembly of sorts and the Philistines saw it as an opportunity to attack. Samuel prayed and sacrificed, and God delivered them. Samuel set up a stone as a reminder that they had gotten as far as they had by God’s help. He appropriately called that stone “Ebenezer,” meaning “Till now the Lord has helped us.”

The idea is they hadn’t arrived home yet, they still had a long way to go, but because God had helped them thus far, they could continue to trust him the rest of the way. That is what Robinson was conveying in his hymn. “Here [wherever you are at any given point in life – at that present moment] by thy [God’s] great help I’ve come. And I hope [belligerently confident expectation and not mere optimism or wishful thinking] by thy [God’s] good pleasure, safely to arrive at home [since God brought us this far, we can deduce that he will get us all the way home without fail].”

Think of it this way…when you are facing a financial challenge, think back to other financial challenges you have had to deal with in life. Has God helped you with those? Those are “Ebenezers.” They are markers reminding you that God brought you that far, He will bring you the rest of the way home.

Now, back to Dickens and Ebenezer Scrooge…Why, then, did Dickens decide to name his character Ebenezer? I haven’t talked to Dickens lately, but here is my best guess. First, the biblical Ebenezer was a stone marker, erected for all to see and learn from. Scrooge was meant to be and has successfully been used as a solid reminder of what not to be.

There is also the stone imagery that I think Dickens was playing off of. Scrooge was a stony-hearted person. We see him as cold, calculating, and uncaring. And the name Ebenezer reflects that because the Ebenezer that Samuel erected was a stone monument. But that is only a part of the imagery and maybe even a minor part because the biblical Ebenezer is a good and positive thing. An Old Testament saint would not have heard the word “Ebenezer” as a negative word.

The Ebenezer stone of 1 Samuel was a reminder of God’s mercy and grace. The fact that only two people, both of whom had positive and friendly relationships with Scrooge, call him Ebenezer is telling. Both of these men come to Scrooge to bring about a change in Scrooge’s life. They do come as a warning but they warn to turn him to a different path. As scary as these ghostly figures present themselves to be, they come, not in hatred, but love.

Connecting that to the Biblical account of 1 Samuel, the Ebenezer of that text is raised at a time when the people of Israel were returning to the LORD out of idolatry. God had been gracious and brought them as far as He had despite their failings. He had been kind to them and kept His covenant with them even when they wandered away from him and worshipped false gods. The Lord had helped them thus far, not because of their goodness, but because of His grace.

It seems to me that Dickens was pointing to grace when he gave Scrooge the first name “Ebenezer.” He paints him as a despicable, heartless, man who worshipped money, and yet God extended mercy and grace in calling him to repentance and a new life. It is important to notice that Dickens wasn’t saying that Scrooge’s problem was his wealth. That would be a misreading of the story. Scrooge’s problem what was in his heart, not what was in his hand. He loved money not people.

Scrooge serves not only as a warning against an idolatrous life but as a marker of hope that there is grace yet, even for the chief of sinners. He is raised as an Ebenezer of God’s faithfulness to His covenant of grace. We are supposed to see Scrooge, not as an incorrigibly corrupt sinner, but as a sinner redeemed and changed, transformed into a new and completely different man. Once redeemed, he didn’t lose his wealth, but his wealth lost its hold on his heart. He found a new love - a love for his neighbor - and his wealth was transformed into a vehicle of expression of love.

He is Scrooge, but he is also Ebenezer.

At least that is how I see it.