Abraham’s Journey to Friendship with God - Stephen Russell

Um, just so the Old Testament is about God working with these people, having great patience with them. I know sometimes it doesn't look like that. We don't have the whole story, probably. But so sometimes we read a story and it sounds like God, God's wrath just flared up. Um, I don't know. I feel like probably we don't understand the whole story there. But when you look at the, when you do look at the whole Old Testament and what God eventually does with His people, um, it's about relationship. It's not about follow this law, etc. I mean, you know, relationships require boundaries and restrictions. And so that's true. But the main thing, whether it's in the Old Testament or just when we think about relationship with each other, I mean, or how we, um, how we are with other people, it's, it's about relationship.

So God has to, um, that may sound wrong. God chooses to, um, work with these people where they are. And the amazing thing is, um, read the story of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob, and often the Gentiles are better at their relationships than Abraham or Isaac or Jacob. Think about what Abraham does with his wife. He gives her away twice.

And both of those kings that he gave his wife away to, they were the, they were the righteous person in both cases. Oh, that's true. Yeah. That's such a good point. So these, these, these, uh, Abraham and his family, God is patiently working with them. Abraham did not do what God asked.

It says in, in Acts 7, this is Stephen preaching. He says that Abraham was told to leave his family and go someplace God's going to show while he was in Ur of the Chaldees. When chapter 12 of Genesis starts, he's already in Haran, and he leaves from there. And he went there with his father, and he was told not to go with your family. You know, he went with his father and other relatives. Then he goes with Lot. Okay. So the first time that God talks and works with Abraham, he doesn't respond completely in obedience. And there's this, God keeps working with him. And then finally, the fourth time God meets him, Abraham talks back to him.

This doesn't make sense. You say, I'm going to have a child. It doesn't look like it's happening. Um, and then God, I think like that, that he's, that Abraham doesn't just partially obey God, but starts to say, God, I don't understand this. And then from then on, the relationship really grows. Abraham is called, um, or the, um, interaction between the two shows that he is God's friend. And then the last time God meets him, God says, take your son, your only son, and go where I'm going to show you, and you're going to sacrifice him.

Abraham gets up the next morning right away, gets everything together, and heads out in the direction God tells him to go. That's a big difference from the first time. He doesn't leave right away. It sounds like, well, he does, he, he, if he does leave Ur of the Chaldees right away, he goes and stops in Haran, but he also goes with his family. And then he takes part of his family, uh, to the promised land. So he's not really fully obeying God. The last time that God talks to him, he fully obeys God. And he even is willing to lose the thing that humanly speaking looks like, if I, if I kill my son, I won't get the promise that God gave me.

So, um, what I think is happening is, is Abraham is learning how to have a real relationship with God and with other people. And then in Hebrews, it tells us that Abraham realized that God could give back his son through resurrection. Doesn't say that in Genesis, but that's what it says. And so somehow Abraham has grown immensely. And that's really the journey all of us are on.