Genesis Vol 3.pdf - College Press

GENESIS ‘’-’
ment that ennobles the soul and enhahc one’s conviction
of the dignity and worth of the person. But if to be a
friend of man is wonderful, how much more wonderful it
is to be a friend of God! Remember the definition of a
friend by a woman in mourning: “A friend is one who
comes in when the world goes out: I believe that thi
business of Heaven must have stopped for just a moment
when God pronounced above the bier of Abraham the
words, “My Friend.” What an epitaph!
What was it in Abraham’s odreer that made the
patriarch worthy of being called the Friend of God?
1. Abraham believed God. The faith of Abraham was
of such quality that the patriarch has gone down in history
as the father of the faithful (Rom. 4:11, 16; Gal. 3:9,
3:23-29). Abram was seventy-five years old when the
Call came to him. The Call was specific and the Divine
promises were definite. He was to establish a family and
father a great nation; his name was to be great; and
through him all the peoples of earth were to be blessed.
That was what God said. Faith is taking God at His
word, and, nothing doubting, Abram gathered his substance
together and all the family, including Lot, his brother’s
son, and left Ur of the Chaldees. At Haran they left the
rest of their immediate kin behind and they themselves
pushed on to an unknown destination. They went by
faith, not knowing whither they went or where the end
of their journey would be. Theirs was in every sense of
the word the Pilgrimage of faith. (Rom. 10:8-17, Heb.
11:8-12). Faith is the substance of things hoped for
(that which stands under hope) and a conviction with
respect to things not seen. So it was in Abram’s case:
“he went out, not knowing whither he went (Heb. 11:1,
8; cf. 2 Cor. 4:16-18). Note Gen. 12:l-4. God said to
Abram, etc., etc., and “Abram went, as Jehovah had
spoken unto*him.” Where else can we find so great a
communication so simply expressed? And where an
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