Friend of God

Friend of God

By Abraham Israel

In Gen 15:17-18, God made a covenant with Abraham, yet Abraham was not involved in the ritualistic part of the covenant. The question that would come to our mind is, ‘How can the Lord make a covenant with Abram even without him being involved in it?’

The answer to this question lies in the beginning of this chapter by how God [the Son] has revealed himself to Abram by saying, “Do not be afraid, Abram I am your shield, your exceedingly great reward.”

When God said to Abram that He was the one who brought him out of his native place to give Abram this land to inherit [i.e. Canaan’s land], then Abram asked Him ‘how I shall know that I will inherit it?’ To inherit is to receive money, property etc from someone after they have died. He was actually receiving the land by the son of promise who is going to come and fulfill in the natural (Isaac) and in the spiritual realm (God’s Son- Jesus Christ).

Isaac in the natural had to come first and then through that line Jesus Christ, because the Bible says, “…The spiritual is not the first, but the natural, and afterward the spiritual.”(1 Corinthians 15:46). In other words God the Son pointed to Abraham that He Himself [God the Son] is the answer to all his problems and the issue of inheritance.

Why? Because God the Father owns it, all that he owns belongs to His Son (John 16:15). So if the Son dies for Abraham’s descendants, then only they can inherit the true spiritual wealth and material wealth of God (Luke 16:11; Hebrews 2:9-10; Rom 8:15-17).Because Abraham was not able to grasp the meaning of what He was conveying, He spoke in covenant language which all the people who lived during Abram’s time easily understood it.

In those days when people made a covenant, they would cut an animal in to two, down the middle, and placed each piece opposite the other and both the covenant makers will walk around it, opposite to each other in the shape of number eight which represents infinity and eternal covenant and will meet at the centre. This type of covenant is known as the blood covenant (or) the covenant of blood.

This would seal an eternal covenant between the two. If one were to fail in this covenant, the offender must die. Here God the Son chose to represent Abraham’s descendants before God and redeem them. Abraham’s descendants always failed before the righteous requirement of God (Heb 2:14-18). Abram did what God His friend told Him to do and believed His word and as he was waiting for the covenant ritual or formalities to take place, instead a deep sleep fell upon Abraham.

Abraham heard God the Son say to him, how the future of his descendants would be. Finally Abram did not make the covenant with God by passing between the pieces with God. But God the Son promised Him and as Abram believed Him, He made a covenant with God the Holy Spirit (Genesis 15:17).

Here a question may come to your mind (i.e.) How do you know that it was God the Son and the Holy Spirit who made the covenant? The Bible says clearly in Genesis 15:17, “And it came to pass, when the sun went down and it was dark, that behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a burning torch that passed between these two pieces.”

Here the two persons symbolically represented as a burning torch [(i.e.)a bright burning light] and a smoking oven are none other than God the Son Jesus Christ who said in John8:12, “I am the light of the world…” and smoke always represents the glory of God. Where ever it was spoken in the Bible, it symbolically represents the Holy Spirit who is called “….the Spirit of glory” (1 Peter 4:14) and “...the glory of God…” (Rev 15:8; Exodus 19:18).

For example, before the Lord [God the Son] descended upon the Mount Sinai in fire the whole mountain was completely filled in smoke [God the Holy Spirit] like the smoke of a furnace or oven. Here also as in Gen 15:17 it speaks about the smoke that ascended being compared to be like the smoke of a furnace (or) oven (Exodus 19:18).

We can see a parallel as in Genesis 1st chapter, only when the Spirit of God (or) smoke ascends (or) moves over a place, only then God the Son [Jesus Christ] will descend or speak or do His work. In the next verse in Exodus 19:19 when Moses spoke, God the Son answered him by voice after that.

After the covenant has been made between God the Holy Spirit and God the Son, in the succeeding verse the Bible says, “On the same day the Lord [God the Son] made a covenant with Abraham, saying: “To your descendants I have given this land…” ”
(Genesis 15:18). This gives us a clear picture that after God the Son had already made sure that He will fulfill the covenant that He had made with God the Father without fail, and then only He made a covenant with Abram as a friend of Abram.

Only one thing Abram had to do is to trust his friend that He will fulfill it in the future to give Abram an inheritance in the physical and spiritual realm. This covenant that God the Son made with Abraham is different from the previous one which will be effective only after one dies only.

This covenant was a covenant of promise [(i.e.) a friend will give his word of promise and the other will trust him to fulfill it] that God the Son made with Abram.

Abram trusted God the Son that He will come and fulfill the thing that He had promised to Abram (John 8:56; Rom 4:11, 13).No one was ever called a friend by God like Abraham. Even God said of Moses, that He spoke to Moses face to face, as one speaks to his friend (Exodus 33:11) [Note: God only spoke to Moses]. But God was to Abram even closer than that, as a friend itself [God not only spoke to Abraham but revealed himself fully to Abraham].

God Himself called Abraham as His friend (Isaiah 41:8).

Unless Abraham had fully experienced God, how can God say about Abraham as his friend?

Anyone who has experienced God fully must have fully experienced the Trinity because God is a triune God, then only a person can be called as a Friend. Abraham fully experienced God like no other man in this planet earth. God revealed Himself to Abraham as a friend reveals about himself and as a result Abraham experienced God as his very own friend.

He was someone who experienced the fullness of the Trinity as a friend of God.

God the Father met Abraham (Genesis 14:18-20).
He saw God the Son and God the Son made a covenant with Abraham (Genesis 18:3, 14, 17; 15:18).
He saw God the Holy Spirit (Genesis 15:17; Matt 3:16).

Abraham experienced greatly the power of the Holy Spirit in every area of his life. So only God changed his name from Abram to Abraham, from meaning exalted father to father of nations (or) multitudes (Genesis20:17, 18). His capacity to communicate with God increased greatly as he became older and older.

Someone who has closely moved with God and have experienced all the three persons of the trinity [i.e. Father, Son and the Holy Spirit] can only be called as the friend of God. And Abraham was one of them (James 2:23).

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