Take a moment to read the entire chapter of Genesis 23 before reading the devotional below.
Today we mourn the death of Sarah, Abraham’s wife, who lived to be 127 years old. Abraham seeks a proper burial for her and finds some allies in the people groups around him. I was struck by the mention of the Hittites, as they become enemies of the Jewish people down the road. (Check out all the Bible references to the Hittites here.)
It’s not clear from this passage whether or not God is okay with Abraham’s alliances with the Hittites or the Philistines or any of the other nation-states around him. God brought him into this land and promised it to him, but through the later books of Deuteronomy and Joshua we see that God giving Abraham land means driving the current nations out of it. God’s going to destroy those nations, so is he okay with Abraham making friends at this time in history?
Here’s your freedom for today:
God cares who your friends are.
Who are you in alliances with? What groups do you identify with, and have you asked God what he thinks about your associations? Sometimes God brings us into new places, and when he does it is not a given that he wants us to form relationships with anyone in our path. Some groups are not honoring to God, and some may directly lead us away from God. Jewish history is full of poor alliances and bad influences that lead God’s people away from him over and over. When you make friends, be sure they are ones you can keep for eternity. If not, perhaps they’re not the best idea in the first place.