There are two names by which Abraham is known in the traditions of the East. Though they occur only once or twice in Scripture, yet so well do they correspond to its whole representation of Abraham that they may fitly be taken as his distinguishing characteristics.
1. First, he is “the friend of God.” “Khalil-'Allah,” or, as he is more usually called, “El-Kalil,” simply, “The Friend,” is a title which has in Muslim countries superseded altogether his own proper name. In many ways it has a peculiar significance. It is, in its most general aspect, an illustration of the difference which has been well remarked between the early beginnings of Jewish history and those of any other ancient nation. Grant to the uttermost the uncertain, shadowy, fragmentary character of these primitive records, yet there is one point brought out clearly and distinctly. The ancestor of the chosen people is not, as in the legends of Greece and Rome, or even of Germany, a god or a demi-god, or the son of a god: he is, as we have just observed, a mere man, a chief, such as those to whom these records were first presented must have constantly seen with their own eyes. The interval between the human and Divine is never confounded. Close as are the communications with Deity, yet the Divine essence is always veiled, the man is never absorbed into it. Abraham is “the friend,” but he is nothing more. He is nothing more; but he is nothing less. He is “the friend of God.”
The title includes a double meaning. He is “beloved of God.” “Fear not, Abram: I am thy shield, and thy exceeding great reward.” He was “chosen” by God; he was “called” by God. In him was exemplified the fundamental truth of all religion, that God has not deserted the world; that His work is carried on by His chosen instruments; that good men are not only His creatures and His servants, but His friends. In those simple words in which the Biblical narrative describes “the call,” whatever there is of truth in the predestinarian doctrine of Augustine and of Calvin finds its earliest expression. But the further meaning involved in the title of Abraham indicates the correlative truth-not only was Abraham beloved by God, but God was “beloved by him”; not only was God the Friend of Abraham, but Abraham was “the friend of God.” To expand this truth is to see what was the religion, the communion with the Supreme, which raised Abraham above his fellow-men.
Of no mortal man but of Abraham alone does Almighty God ever speak and say, He was My friend. God employs many gracious, beautiful, and endearing names in speaking of the patriarchs, and prophets, and psalmists, and other saints of His in Israel; but it is of Abraham alone that God testifies to Israel and says, Thou art the seed of Abraham, My friend.1 [Note: A. Whyte.]
2. The second name by which Abraham is known is “the father of the faithful.” Two points are involved in this name also. First, he was himself “the faithful.” In him was most distinctly manifested the gift of “faith.” In him, long, long before Luther, long before St. Paul, was it proclaimed in a sense far more universal and clear than the “paradox” of the Reformer, not less clear and universal than the preaching of the Apostle, that “man is justified by faith.” But Abraham was not only faithful himself, he was also the father of the faithful. Look at the history of the Jewish race. What was the secret of its long, unbroken life, the principle which revived, animated, sustained it amidst all disasters and under every oppression? Was it not faith-faith in a Divine purpose, in a Divine call, in a Divine mission for the race? With all their narrowness and all their meanness and all their weakness, even amidst all their defections, this faith never died out. It was the breath of their national life. The spirit of Abraham never altogether left his children. And so they were despised, and yet they triumphed: they were trampled under foot, and yet they dictated terms to the nations. “The vanquished,” said Seneca bitterly of the Jews, “have given laws to the victors.” He was dismayed by the spread of Jewish beliefs, of Jewish customs, everywhere. What would he not have said, if he could have looked forward for three centuries to the time when the spiritual Israel-the offspring of Abraham by faith-should plant its throne on the ruins of the majesty and power of imperial Rome?
Abraham went out on an unknown way, in search of an unknown heritage. He believed that the heritage existed, he believed that God would bring him to it, and he cast himself upon Him to show him the way. But it is his ignorance that the Scripture magnifies. Faith is belief in God amidst ignorance, it is trusting God in the dark. And how great was Abraham's ignorance we may conceive, when we remember that he was the first faithful man of the time. And how great the darkness was, on a way which none had trod in his day! All he knew was God; that was the only firm point he had. And even his knowledge of God was faith. By faith he knew God; by faith he believed God; by faith he committed himself to an unknown way towards an unknown land. This was faith. Worthy was he to be called the father of the faithful.1 [Note: A. B. Davidson, The Called of God, 73.]
“The father of the faithful”-is not that the title of one who by faith inspires another to be faithful? In the Life of Octavia Hill there may be found this note by Dr. Greville MacDonald: “Miss Octavia Hill had an extraordinary influence upon me in my boyhood, though she could have known nothing of it. She was the first person who taught me how to learn, and how to love learning. In my youth, when I began to know a little of her social power and her personal sacrifice, she had more to do, I think, than even my father, in giving me a steadfast faith; which, thanks to her heart and life, became established amidst the ruins of conflicting questions, and has ever grown in steadfastness.”2 [Note: Life of Octavia Hill, by C. E. Maurice (1913), 191.]
