As God searched the earth looking for humans whose hearts were towards Him (II Chronicles 16:9), one day He found Abraham pressing the intercom button on the dividing wall. As He began talking with Abraham, God found that He had a human friend who was willing to work with Him to accomplish good in the world. In fact, God and Abraham became the first “friends forever” duo (II Chronicles 20:7) and we are still reaping the benefits of their relationship. Let’s look at some of the aspects of this friendship between God and Abraham (Genesis 11:27 through Genesis 25:10) and see what we can learn:

   • God called Abraham to activate a new life.  Once the two had established a relationship, God wanted Abraham to experience the fullness of His power and grace. For whatever reason, God knew Abraham needed to leave where his family was established in order to fully access the blessings He had for the man. Evidently, Abraham valued his friendship with God over everything else because he chose to move into the new life God offered him by physically pulling up stakes and moving to new territory. 

   • Although there were a couple of times when Abraham lied because he perceived danger, he did reflect God’s character in most of his dealings with other people.  For example, his dealings with his nephew Lot were always unselfish–Abraham never demanded his own way. Even when he rescued Lot and his family from warring kings, Abraham defeated the kings by chasing them away–there is no record of any deaths in that battle. And, Abraham’s compassion went beyond his own relatives because, when God told him of the destruction Sodom and Gomorrah faced, Abraham interceded for those cities–had there been ten righteous people, the destruction would not have happened. (Satan would have been stymied–God does not destroy, Satan does. Remember the Old Testament writers did not understand this reality.)

   • Because Abraham was faithful to seek God with everything he had, God was able to make promises to Abraham that were essential to the coming destruction of the kingdom of evil.  Abraham received God’s promises with an open heart, and the whole human race has and will benefit from those promises. Listen to the promise God gave Abraham when He asked the man to leave his father’s country: “…And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed” (Genesis 12:3 NASB). Do we really hear that? At that point in human history, God was able to make the promise that ensured the ability of the human race to destroy evil. Remember, we overcome evil with good–or cursings with blessings–(Romans 12:21) and the promises of God are yes and amen through Christ (II Corinthians 1:20).

Here’s a question for us to think about–Abraham’s faithfulness to Him gave God the open door to make the promises necessary for the human race to overcome and destroy the kingdom of evil. What will our faithfulness to God achieve? Could we be the ones who God uses to fulfil the promise He made to Abraham that all of the families of earth will be blessed in him? 

         As always, please feel free to comment–just be respectful.

 

     ©2009 by Patricia Zell. All rights reserved.