First of all, in Isaiah 41:8, Abraham is called by God “my friend.” (See also 2 Chronicles 20:7.) How did Abraham become God’s friend? He did so the way anyone becomes friends with someone else.

In the first reading, God calls Abram to be a migrant, commanding him to leave his home and travel to an unknown land. If he fulfills this divine command, Abram is to be blessed with a great ...

God calls Abram in faith to pick up and leave “your land, your relatives, and from your father’s house to a land that I will show you” (12:1).

Chapter 12 Here come the Patriarchs. At the beginning of the chapter, God calls Abram—soon to be Abraham—and announces: “I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you. … ...