No higher compliment can be paid to a man or woman, a boy or a girl, than to say that he or she is "the friend of God" (James 2:23).

Four men in the Old Testament were named "Reuel," a word meaning, "A Friend of God." Esau named a son "Reuel" (Genesis 36:4). We hope he lived up to his name, but all we know about him is that he was the father of four boys (Genesis 36:17). All we know about two other men named "Reuel" is that one was of the tribe of Gad and one of the tribe of Benjamin (Numbers 2:14; 1 Chronicles 9:8).

The fourth Reuel was "the priest of Midian," a large country east of Egypt (Exodus 2:16). Also he was called "Jethro," a name meaning "Pre-eminence" (Exodus 3:1). Moses, escaping from Egypt, went to Midian, and there at a well he helped the seven daughters of Reuel "water their father’s flock" (Exodus 2:16). Zipporah, one of Reuel’s daughters, became Moses’ wife, and later the mother of Moses’ two sons, Eliezer, "God is my Helper," and Gershom, "A Stranger There" (Exodus 2:21; 18:3-4).

Zipporah and the two children stayed with her father when Moses made his trip back to Egypt to liberate the Israelites from slavery (Exodus 18:2). On Moses’ return, Reuel rejoiced that God had used Moses to deliver the Israelites from the bondage to Pharaoh, saying to Moses:

Then Reuel offered a burnt-offering in a sacrifice to God, and all the elders of Israel, with Moses and Aaron, enjoyed a meal with Reuel (Exodus 18:12).

The next day Moses spent as a judge over his people "from morning to evening" (Exodus 18:13). Reuel knew that Moses would "surely wear away," and advised him to handle only "the hard" cases, and that he should appoint judges from the people for the "small" matters, which Moses did (Exodus 18:13, 18, 26-27). Then Reuel went on his way (Exodus 18:27).

The last we hear of this good family concerns a son of Reuel named Hobab, Zipporah’s brother. He made such a good impression on Moses that he invited him to join with the Israelites in their journey to the promised land:

Come with us, and we will treat you well, for Yahweh has promised good things to Israel" (Numbers 10:29).

At first Hobab declined, saying, "No, I will not go; I am going back to my own land and my own people" (Numbers 10:30). But Moses pleaded:

Apparently Hobab changed his mind and journeyed on with the Israelites (Judges 1:16; 4:11; 1 Samuel 15:6).

All four of the men named "Reuel," "A Friend of God," probably were named by their fathers. But there is one man not named "Reuel," and only one in all history, whom God called "my friend," namely, Abraham (Isaiah 41:8; 2 Chronicles 20:7; James 2:23).

Why was Abraham so special to God? He is the only one in all history who was commanded to undergo a special test that God might "know" that he reverenced (yare’) him and loved him with all of his heart and with all of his soul and with all of his strength (Genesis 22:12; Deuteronomy 6:5):

No normal father, even at God’s command, would kill his son. But Abraham remembered that God had previously told him that Isaac would have "descendants" (Genesis 17:19). How could Isaac have "descendants" after dying on the altar? Abraham "thought that God could even raise the dead, from which figuratively he did receive him" (Hebrews 11:19).

Even though Abraham thought that God would bring Isaac back to life, only deep faith in God could push him to be willing to stab and kill Isaac. However, Abraham had that deep faith. The love he had for Isaac took second place to his love of God. "[H]e reached out his hand and took the knife to slay his son" (Genesis 22:10), and would have done it had not "the angel of Yahweh called to him from heaven," saying,

God was so pleased with Abraham’s deep faith he dispatched the angel of Yahweh a second time to say to Abraham:

In this way God was restating his earlier promise to Abraham: "Through you all the nations of the earth will be blessed" (Genesis 12:3), and now he was turning his earlier promise into an oath:

Should we say that God called Abraham "my friend" (Isaiah 41:8) because he had "obeyed" God (Genesis 22:18)? In parallel, Jesus said to his disciples, "If you do the things that I command, you are my friends" (John 15:14).

Jesus has not commanded any of us to kill a child, but he has commanded faith, repentance, confession, and baptism (John 8:24; Matthew 10:32; Romans 10:9-10; Acts 2:38). He has commanded that Christians should live clean lives (2 Corinthians 7:1).

Jesus has commanded Christians to be evangelistic, to be soul-winners, to be the light of the world (Matthew 5:14; 28:18-20; 1 Peter 2:9). He has commanded them to "pray without ceasing" (1 Thessalonians 5:17).

He has commanded them to remember his suffering on the cross in the Lord’s Supper (1 Corinthians 11:23-29). He has commanded them to lay by in store of their earnings to support those who preach and to relieve the poor (1 Corinthians 9:14; 16:1-2). He has commanded them to keep on the lookout for his second coming (Mark 13:32-37).

All those who do his commandments Jesus is pleased to call them his friends, saying,

As God considered Abraham as somebody special, "my friend," so now God considers all Christians as special friends, "even as he chose us in him before the founding of the world" that Christians "should be to the praise of his splendor" (Ephesians 1:4, 12). Christians

As God chose Abraham, so now all Christians

Because of God’s promises to his friend, Abraham died "waiting for the city which has foundations, whose architect and maker is God" (Hebrews 11:10). Similarly, because of the "precious and sublime promises" (2 Peter 1:4) to Christians, Jesus’ friends, many thousands have died peacefully in hope of "an imperishable and unstained and never-fading inheritance, reserved in heaven" (1 Peter 1:4).