It would hardly be possible to overestimate the importance of a knowledge of God’s dealings with Abraham and his seed for a proper understanding of the Bible. To him the Lord gave this sweeping promise, “I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed” (Gen. 12:33And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee: and in thee shall all families of the earth be blessed. (Genesis 12:3)). From Gal. 3:1616Now to Abraham and his seed were the promises made. He saith not, And to seeds, as of many; but as of one, And to thy seed, which is Christ. (Galatians 3:16) we learn that that seed was Christ, and in Him alone all the blessings of the New Covenant shall be realized. The significance of this subject in the Bible can be assessed by the fact that only a few chapters describe the creation of the worlds, while the rest of the Old Testament is largely dedicated to God’s dealings with this one man and his family.
Abraham is also one of the most interesting characters of Bible history. There are few people mentioned so frequently in the Scriptures. Concordance pages show that besides the many, many places where his name appears in the Old Testament, he is mentioned more than seventy times in eleven books of the New Testament. He has the distinction of being called “the Friend of God” (James 2:2323And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. (James 2:23)).
To prepare Abraham for the place God had purposed for him, the God of glory appeared to him (Acts 7:22And he said, Men, brethren, and fathers, hearken; The God of glory appeared unto our father Abraham, when he was in Mesopotamia, before he dwelt in Charran, (Acts 7:2)) and gave him wonderful visions―visions of the Lord Jesus (John 8:5656Your father Abraham rejoiced to see my day: and he saw it, and was glad. (John 8:56)) and visions of a heavenly city “which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God” (Heb. 11:1010For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. (Hebrews 11:10)).
For the sake of continuity, the name “Abraham” is always used rather than sometimes “Abram” and at other times “Abraham,” with the exception of scripture quotations which are left as the text designates.
There are two main themes emphasized in this book: the practical lessons we can learn from Abraham’s life, and the devotional portraits we can see that give us glimpses of the other Father and His Son. First issued by Gospel Folio Press in 1957, we trust this new edition of Abraham, the Friend of God may continue to be blessed by the Lord, fulfilling in part the promise of God to Abraham that through him the nations of the world would be blessed.