My Friends

Gen. 12:1, 4a 

Now YHWH said to Abram: “Get out of your birthplace, of your family; and of your father’s house,
to a land that I will show you”… So, Abram departed as YHWH had spoken to him…

As the latter half of Gen.12:4 indicates, this conversation took place in Haran after he had left Ur, his hometown, with his father, wife, and nephew.  Gen. 11:31 

And Terah took his son Abram and his grandson Lot…and they went out with them from Ur of the Chaldeans to go to the land of Canaan, and they came to Haran and
dwelt there. 

Later we are told that YHWH had called Abram when he was still in his hometown of Ur. Gen 15:7 

Then He said to him, “I am YHWH who brought you out of Ur of the Chaldeans, to give you this land to inherit it.”

From this, we can learn that the conversation recorded in Gen. 12:1-4 is not the beginning of Abraham’s relationship with YHWH.  

This relationship is later noted in Isaiah 41:8 and 2 Chronicles 20:7. In most modern English Bibles, Abraham was called YHWH’s friend. See also James 2:23. A better translation, however, would be that Abraham loved YHWH. He was the type of friend who “sticks closer than a brother”. This proverb (Pro. 18:24b) may have inspired the saying “The blood of a covenant is thicker than the water of the womb”. It is a loyalty that supersedes blood ties. Abraham would have ended his relationship with his beloved son. Why? Because his bond with YHWH was greater than that he had with his beloved son. This can be gleaned from reading the twenty-second chapter of Genesis.

The Hebrew word—translated as “friend” in Isa. 41:8, 2 Ch. 20:7, and Pro. 18:24—is ahav the Biblical word for love.  This gives Yeshua’s statement in John 15:13-14  more meaning. He taught that He laid down His life for those who love Him. 

There is no greater love than this: for someone to lay down his life for his friends (those who love him).
You are My friends (those who love me) if you do whatever I command you.

This understanding of John 15:14 should come as no surprise to the diligent student of the Word who sees loving the Father as akin to obeying Him. Exo. 20:6/Deu. 5:10; Deu. 7:9/Neh. 1:5/Dan. 9:4; Deu. 11:1, 13, 22; 19:9; 30:16, 20; Jos. 22:5; Joh. 14:15, 21; 15:10; 1 Jo. 5:2, 3; 2 Jo. 1:6, ect.