God revealed Himself to Moses as the God of his father, the God of Abraham, of Isaac, and of Jacob. Then He said: “This is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations.” This means that God wants us to know Him as our spiritual father does. There is a legacy of knowing God that pass down.
Moreover he said, I am the God of thy father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob. And Moses hid his face; for he was afraid to look upon God (Exodus 3:6).
And God said moreover unto Moses, Thus shalt thou say unto the children of Israel, the LORD God of your fathers, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob, hath sent me unto you: this is my name for ever, and this is my memorial unto all generations
(Exodus 3:15).
The knowledge of God is a legacy. First, God revealed himself to Abraham, then made a covenant with him. God blessed, accompanied, protected, and fulfilled His promise to Abraham. Then Abraham bequeathed God that he knew to his son Isaac. Isaac knew God as Abraham did. The God who revealed Himself to Abraham now revealed Himself to Isaac. The same God made a covenant with Isaac.
The same God now blessed, accompanied, protected, and fulfilled His promise to Isaac. The God of Abraham became the God of Isaac. Then Isaac bequeathed the God that he knew to Jacob, so Jacob knew the same God as known by Abraham and Isaac. The God of Abraham and Isaac was now the God of Jacob. And so on until bequeathed to Moses.
If we look at the time of Abraham to Moses, God continued to magnify in the lives of His people. Historical facts had proved, when the knowledge of God failed to be inherited by one generation, the next generation will lose God.
And when Joshua had let the people go, the children of Israel went every man unto his inheritance to possess the land. And the people served the LORD all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, who had seen all the great works of the LORD, that he did for Israel.
And Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the LORD, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnathheres, in the mount of Ephraim, on the north side of the hill Gaash.
And also all that generation were gathered unto their fathers: and there arose another generation after them, which knew not the LORD, nor yet the works which he had done for Israel. And the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the LORD, and served Baalim:
And they forsook the LORD God of their fathers, which brought them out of the land of Egypt, and followed other gods, of the gods of the people that were round about them, and bowed themselves unto them, and provoked the LORD to anger (Judges 2:6-12).
Moses succeeded in bequeathing the God that he knew to Joshua, so the God of Moses became the God of Joshua. Joshua also succeeded in bequeathing the God that he knew to his next generations.
But the generations under Joshua failed to bequeath the God of Joshua to their next generations, so they didn’t know the same God. They lost God and sought another God to worship. They hurt God. Then life continued to decline.
From this historical fact we can conclude: The failure of a spiritual father to pass on God to his descendants will lead his descendants to lose God, and when they lose God, their lives will be deteriorating.
The same thing happened in the church. If we see the early church in Acts, the church was so full of God and experienced God. The apostles succeeded in bequeathing God to their next generations, so the church knew and experienced God like the Apostles did.
Acts 8 tells about Philip, who in the first church, was selected to do a social ministry. But when he was stranded in Samaria and preached, the whole town was shaken. He had grace equal to the apostles because he knew the same God as known by the apostles.
The God of the Apostles continued to bequeathed until a certain generation. But unfortunately, that certain generation failed to pass on God of the Apostles, so the church lost God. Services were still running, but God who was known by the church was very different from that known by the Apostles.
The church had lost God, so they sought other gods to worship. Nowadays, music, facilities, and professionalism have replaced God successfully in the church. And always, when the people lose “God that is known by the fathers,” the lives of the people will continue to decline, and they only seek the true God when they are ‘distressed’ as recorded in the book of Judges.
Therefore, I believe, God will raise up spiritual fathers. God will reveal Himself to them, make covenants with them, bless, accompany, and protect them, and fulfill His promises to them.
The spiritual fathers will know the true God, and they will bequeath the God that they knew and experienced to spiritual children who will be resurrected by the Lord to follow them. So that God will be even much greater in view of His people, and people’s lives will continue to rise and not deteriorate.
That is the truth about the legacy of knowing God. The knowledge of God is something that can be passed down to spiritual children, so have the desire to inherit the knowing of God from our father.
FROM FOREVER UNTIL FOREVER
YOU ARE STILL A GREAT AND AWESOME GOD!
Read also: I am Who I am.