God has made some amazing promises to Abraham: family, land, nation. The question is, “Is that the only reason Abraham is following Him?”

One of the things to note is that Abraham is the only person in the Old Testament who is explicitly given the title “friend of God” (see 2 Chron. 20:7 & Isaiah 41:8). Abraham the doubter, the fearful one, the failure, becomes God’s friend. How did this happen?

In Genesis 16 we encounter a third obstacle that faces Abraham in his journey with God: his own plans and desires.

What is it that led Abraham to have such faith and trust in God? Genesis 15 provides us with the answer to that question. In this story Abraham encounters another obstacle to following God: doubt. In the face of his own circumstances, he has begun to doubt whether God can really follow through on His promises.

Out of fear and a desire for self-preservation Abraham leaves and goes to Egypt, where his fears lead him to lie at the expense of his wife and almost endanger the promise itself. Luckily for Abraham, God delivers him from the consequences of his bad decision and returns him to the land, reassuring him of His promises.

Genesis marks an absolute low point in the story so far: human (and angelic) wickedness has reached such a degree that God regrets that “he made man on the earth, and it grieved him to his heart”

“That’s wrong! That’s terrible! That’s not the way it is supposed to be!” Such are the words we say when we encounter pain, suffering, disease, death, disaster, and tragedy. We scroll through our newsfeeds and are bombarded daily with stories that highlight the reality of the broken world that we live in. So if God made the world to be so good, what happened?!