Abraham's Virtues
God Blessed Abraham in All Things
Yoram Hazony makes the case that in Genesis, Abraham is painted as a paradigmatically virtuous character. The primary evidence is that while Abraham is not perfect, God has confidence that he will “command his children and his house after him, and they will keep the way of the Lord, to do justice and right.[1]" Also significant is Genesis 24:1, “And the Lord had blessed Abraham in all things.”
Reflections on Abraham
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Abraham and Melchizedek in the Loggia di Raffaello in Vatican City.[/caption]
What is a father?
Genesis presents Abraham as being the father of many nations.The whole Bible presents the Israelites as the ‘sons of Abraham’ on multiple occasions.
The New Testament, in particular, presents anybody with appropriate faith in God (whatever that means…but usually faith in Christ) as a child of Abraham.
This is significant for many reasons, not the least of which is that the father in the Bible is a figure for the accumulated wisdom of the past in a way that is indicative of a divine voice:[1]
Seek first the Kingdom of God...how?
A lot of Christian advice boils down to platitudes with neither moral nor practical content. Sadly, our tendency to speak in airy nothings to one another as a time saving mechanism as stripped many of Jesus’ central ideals of meaning and practical content. An example is, “Seek first the kingdom of God and its righteousness and all these things will be added to you.” People will rattle off this advice in a well-meaning fashion in order to overcome the difficulties of telling other Christians, “You’ve gotta get out of debt, apologize to your spouse, discipline your kids, or organize your life.” What does this command mean?