Last night I had a dream. I don't remember what I was doing. It was just some dream. Then, in the middle of whatever it was I was dreaming, I heard a voice. It was not a still, small voice -- it was loud, and it broke into my dream over the din so that was unmistakable, and unforgettable.
In the morning, I checked, and sure enough, it was still there in my head. The voice had proclaimed, "I AM the God of your fathers." I had waited to see if the rest of the verse was there. Did He proclaim that He was the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob? No. There was a definite stop, right after "fathers."
Yesterday, during our lunch break, Eric made a prediction. He thought we would see this or that happen next in the coronavirus situation we are watching unfold. I do not remember what he predicted. I do remember that he prefaced his remarks to me with something our pastor uses all the time, "I'm not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet." Then he said, "Actually, I'm the grandson of a drunk." To which I replied, "Yeah, and I'm the granddaughter of a child molester." Gotcha.
So what is this, "I am the God of your fathers"? Clearly the voice spoke to me, Margie L. Haley. It was not about someone else. Is there someone in my genealogy who trusted in God?
There are a couple thousand years between the viral spread of the Gospel after the Resurrection of Jesus Christ. Somewhere in there are my ancestors. Eric traced my genealogy once as a project, and found it intersects with mine at some point, making us 17th cousins. There are Revolutionary War soldiers, pioneers who settled the New World, and there are circuit riding ministers among those ancestors, I know. I'm also descended from Charles Martel, a.k.a. "Charles the Hammer."
So who are the fathers of mine who trusted in God? Well, if nothing else, there's Noah! And all of us living on earth today have that man of faith as our common ancestor. He's not someone to take lightly, as a cutesy Bible story. Noah was a man like one of us, in a world going down the tubes, who heard God's voice telling him there would be an escape from the wrath to come, and he had to build it. Noah believed God, prepared wood and constructed a huge floating home in the middle of an arid region, stocked up on supplies, and saw the miracle of all the kinds of animals on earth making a pilgrimage to his location.
Noah preached the Good News of the escape from the wrath to come for a hundred years while he fashioned the ark, and the ark itself was a witness to everybody who could see it -- and who could miss it? All the while, Noah was shamed and shunned and his family with him. I wonder if anybody tried to order him to cease and desist, or if anyone tried to burn down what he was building. But all the while, the door was open. It was a free ride for anyone who would come with them.
One day, the rain came, just as God had promised, and just as Noah had preached. There was a day of reckoning. God, in His mercy, had both warned the people on earth repeatedly, and given them the way of escape. But only eight survived the flood.
When God tells me He IS the God of my fathers, here's one I can be proud of. Noah is in Heaven, cheering me on. Noah sees the world and says, "Yeah, it was corrupt in my day, too. But hang in there, do the Word of God, proclaim the promise of salvation to the hurting, remind everybody that the time is short. And judgment WILL come."
Noah, my ancestor, just as the great "I AM" is your God, He is also mine. He has never changed, but the world has. And it will again. I am inspired by your faith, and I see you as part of that great cloud of witnesses that want to see me finish well. By God's enabling power and grace, I will.
By the way, if you'd like to know more about our common ancestor Noah, the Ark Encounter in Kentucky is scheduled to open again June 8.
