The God-Abram bond  

Friendship. At this stage of their relationship, I'd say it's clear Abram and God are good friends. That's saying a lot, as it's not a relationship-type that had been mentioned specifically earlier in Genesis, but it is clearly there.

Yesterday, God spent about six pages telling Abram over and over and over again what an enormous nation he would make from him.

Then right off the bat today, Abram gets worried about his wife not having a kid; she gives him her servant, Hagar, to have a kid by, and that causes problems between everybody (as one might expect). Then, Hagar gets a messenger of the Lord to tell her to go back, indicating that her son Ishmail will be a great ruler as well.

This is followed by an intense, intimate scene between God and Abraham, in which he changes Abram and Sarai's names into Abraham and Sarah. This time it's a serious covenant and Abraham is officially involved through circumcision. God tells Abraham his descendants, through Sarah, will be as numerous as the stars... Abraham circumcises everyone in his household.

Abraham's adventures coninue in the story of Sodom and Gomorrah being destroyed. Abraham's intimate relationship with God is demonstrated once again with the way, although he admits to being a weak-minded human, that he negotiates down the number of righteous people present to defend it. God even cares about Abraham's opinion.

There is a short substory about Lot and his daughters, which seems to be taking a quick shot at a couple other nations.

Finally, Abraham once again lies about his wife and as a result eventually becomes eve more wealthy. A note about it, though is that Abraham is referred to as a prophet; one who speaks for God. He prays to God and God answers his prayer. (This is the first time this happens in Genesis.)

Edit: When I first typed this last night I was literally falling asleep and a lot of it was nonsense. Now it's fixed. Overall, my response to this story is a little bit of shock, even as a Christian, that this early, way back in Genesis, God was more or less best friends with a human being. Abraham makes great decisions and not-so-great decisions but he and God have a commitment to each other. And the weirdest part is, it was all initiated by God. There are lots of iinteresting stories about Abraham's adventures but the more dramatic part of his story is that after each adventure God reiterates his promise, and even strengthens its voice.

Genesis' perspective here is definately that God is working with this man and building something with him because of who God is, not even just who Abraham is. This is set against a backdrop of a God who cannot stand murder or corruption of his creation (humans). Of course, the elephant in the room is that he has already annihilated humanity and a couple cities. I'm still processing that one.