Isaiah says God is "calling from the east a bird of prey, a man of my counsel from a distant land" (Isaiah 46:11). The rabbis identified that bird of prey as Abraham. He came from the east — from Ur of the Chaldees, from beyond the river — and God called him as a counselor, not just a servant.
The word "counselor" is strange and the rabbis seized on it. Psalm 110 records God saying, "Sit at My right hand, so that you may be my counselor. You are faithful." Faithful not as a synonym for obedient — faithful in the sense of tested and proven reliable. God had tested Abraham through fire, through exile, through the near-sacrifice of his son. Each test was a credential. By the end, Abraham had demonstrated something that even angels could not claim: the willingness to give up everything and still trust.
The eagle as a metaphor for Israel runs through the tradition — "I carried you on eagles' wings" (Exodus 19:4). But here the eagle is Abraham specifically, the one called before the nation existed, soaring toward a destination he could not see. The rabbis loved this image because it captured what faith actually looks like in motion: wings spread, wind beneath, no ground visible, flying anyway. Abraham is not called a bird of prey because he is predatory. He is called one because he moves toward heaven without hesitation.