XI. THE GOD WITH HIS HUMAN FRIENDSHIP
From this point God acted as a friend to Abraham. God with His human friendship came (in His fourth appearing with His eighth speaking to Abraham) as a man, in the form of a man, to visit Abraham as His friend (2 Chron. 20:7; Isa. 41:8; James 2:23) on the level of humanity (Gen. 18—19).
The first time God visited man was when He visited Adam. Adam became fallen and God came to seek him. God asked Adam, "Where are you?" (Gen. 3:9). With Abraham, God’s visit was different. He came to visit Abraham as His friend on the level of humanity, not on the level of divinity. God did not appear to Abraham as a divine being but as a human being. As a man God came to talk to Abraham, and Abraham gave Him water for Him to wash His feet. Abraham also served this One a meal prepared by his wife. This is all on the human level.
God’s appearing to Moses was different from this because it was on the level of divinity. In Isaiah 6 God appeared to Isaiah as the One on the throne in the heavens. That was also His appearing on the level of divinity. But here in Genesis 18 the appearing of God was on the level of humanity. Abraham walked with God, and God conversed with Abraham as one human friend to another. I believe that Abraham’s walking with God was different from Enoch’s walking with God (Gen. 5:24). I do not believe that Enoch walked with God as with a man. But Abraham walked with God as with a man, and God conversed with Abraham as a human friend. He spoke to Abraham concerning His judgment of Sodom, where Abraham’s nephew Lot and his family lived. God came to His friend to rescue His friend’s nephew. Again, we can see God’s hidden care, His secret care, for Lot as one of His elect.
XII. THE GOD WITH FRIENDSHIP IN HUMANITY
The God with friendship in humanity is revealed in His sending of Abraham’s nephew and his two daughters out from the overthrow of Sodom, for the remembrance of Abraham as His intimate friend (Gen. 19:29, 12-22). The God of Abraham is a God of human friendship, and Abraham’s God is our God.
XIII. THE ALMIGHTY GOD
Genesis 20 shows us the almighty God with His friendly care, in saving His close friend Abraham, with His almighty power, from the loss of his wife to Abimelech, king of Gerar. God caused that king’s family to lose the capacity to beget children (vv. 17-18). That was God’s exercise of His almighty power. Then God told that king that Abraham would pray for him. Abraham later prayed for him, and the women of his house were healed. God exercised a friendly care for Abraham by His almighty power.
(The History of God in His Union With Man, Chapter 7, by Witness Lee)
