Bruce Collins, Evangelist

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God’s Friend Was a Flawed Man!

Meditation for the week of January 13, 2013

And the Scripture was fulfilled which says, "ABRAHAM BELIEVED GOD, AND IT WAS ACCOUNTED TO HIM FOR RIGHTEOUSNESS." And he was called the friend of God. (James 2:23)

Abraham was the friend of God.  He was the model that God uses to explain faith.  Yet when I read about him in the old testament, I would have thought he was a flawed man.  When the Lord told him in Genesis 15:6 that his descendents would be as numerous as the stars, he believed God.  But when the Lord told him in Genesis 17:17 that he would have a son by Sarah he didn’t believe God.  After all he was 100 years old and Sarah was 90.  But he still believed that he would have a lot of descendents, only he thought that they would come through Ishmael.  Ishmael was a son of the flesh. Isaac had believed God’s promise; but he and Sarah had tried to help God fulfill that promise by having Abraham produce a child by Hagar, Sarah’s servant girl. But God didn’t need help, Isaac was on his way.

On two occasions Abraham had Sarah tell kings that she was his sister rather than his wife.  He knew she was a beautiful and desirable women, and he was afraid that he would be killed so that kings could take her as their wife.  Pharaoh almost took her to be his wife in Genesis 12 and Abimelech almost took her in Genesis 20.   God protected Sarah in each case, but I can’t imagine what that did to Sarah’s relationship with Abraham.  He certainly wasn’t a model husband.  How could he love his wife and misuse her in that way?  By the second occasion, he had the promise that he was going to produce a great number of offspring through a child that had not yet been born so he didn’t really need to fear for his life, but he did.  Was that faith?

When we come to Hebrews 11, we find that Abraham did several things right.  When he was called to go to a foreign land and live as a pilgrim, he obeyed God.  He didn’t even know where He was going.  His life may have been flawed when it came to his relationship with other people, but he obeyed God.  His commitment to the worship of the one true and living God was never flawed.  He had his hopes set on a city that he never entered on this earth.  Its builder and maker was God.  He lived for eternity and not for time.  When he was called to offer Isaac upon an altar, again he obeyed.  He had thought God would raise Isaac from the dead and he was willing to make this offering of his unique son.  Apparently, by Genesis 22 he was in sync with God and realized that God would fulfill his promises to him through Isaac, but God would do it His way and not Abraham’s way. 

Abraham had been called out of idolatry and the man-made worship of God.  That was what the Tower of Babel was all about.  Men had decided to approach God their own way.  As a result, they began to worship god’s who were not god’s.  Abraham was never tempted to do that. Even though he was a flawed man when it came to this life, he was not a flawed man when it came to being loyal to the Living God of Heaven.  I believe that is why he was called the friend of God.  Abraham reminds us of the truth that without faith it is impossible to please God for he that comes to God must believe that HE IS (Hebrews 11:6). 

I am glad that God saves sinners (Romans 5:8).  He saves all kinds of sinners.  I realize that when a person is saved, they should show their faith by their works. but there has to be some balance as we preach about the moral life of one who is born again. Would we would have considered Abraham a Christian if he had lived in new testament times?

I think we all need to ask ourselves today whether we are practicing a Christian lifestyle that we have been taught or do we really have unwavering loyal faith in the Lord Jesus who is God and Who died to be our Savior?   That unwavering loyal committed faith in the Lord Jesus Christ is what pleases God.  We can be taught to live like a Christian but only the Holy Spirit can take the Word of God and use it to bring us to this kind of faith in the Lord. Abraham had that kind of faith and was the friend of God.  His morals may have been suspect in the way that he treated his wife and his practical faith was sometimes lacking, but He was always loyal to the worship of the Lord.  He did believe God.  I hope we are known as a friend of God as well.

Bruce Collins

5 Comments »

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January 15, 2013 @ 3:04 pm

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Comment by Amedar

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February 8, 2013 @ 3:01 pm

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Comment by bruce

February 11, 2013 @ 1:42 pm

I have been blogging for years. You can use the right hand column to find older posts.

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