"I will make my opinions widely known" (Job 36:3). God called Abraham from the east — "calling a bird of prey from the east, a man of my counsel from a distant land" (Isaiah 46:11). Abraham was the one who would inform God about His world, the midrash says, in the same way a worker in the field informs the master about what is growing. The labor of the trials is the labor of someone who cares deeply about the outcome.
God is known in Judah (Psalm 76:2) — and the knowledge spreads from Judah outward because of Abraham. Before Abraham, the nations knew God only as a cosmic abstraction, if at all. After Abraham walked from Ur to Canaan, argued with kings, welcomed strangers, and interceded for Sodom, the name of God became attached to a specific covenant with a specific people. The nations could point to something. The abstraction had a history.
The midrash uses the image of the craftsman: a skilled worker does not need to be told what the master wants — he knows the master's taste and works accordingly. Abraham had internalized the divine will so completely that he needed no explicit instruction for most of the covenant's demands. He had extrapolated them from his relationship with God. This is why the verse says he kept God's voice, charge, commandments, statutes, and laws (Genesis 26:5) — he heard the harmony beneath the individual notes and played the whole score.
Chapter (80) 81: Writings [1] For the choir director, with stringed instruments, a Psalm of Asaph. God is known in Judah;(Psalm 76:1-2) and scriptures say: I will make my opinions widely known (Job 36:3), The Lord said, "I will bring Abraham from a faraway place, calling a bird of prey from the east [a man of my counsel from a distant land]" (Isaiah 46:11), he who informs me about my world, "To those who perform righteousness, I will give recompense" (Job 34:11). To those who become my workers, just as the worker toils in his labor, so did Abraham labor in the trials that God tested him with, and at what point did he believe in God? (Genesis 15:6). [2] Another explanation: "I will make my opinions widely known." This is Jacob, when he went down to Egypt, he declared the power of the Almighty, as it is written "And he blessed Joseph and said, 'The God before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac walked, the God who has been my shepherd all my life to this day'" (Genesis 48:15). He said to them, "May it be the will [of God] that you go in the ways of Abraham and Isaac." They gathered and listened (Genesis 49:1). And why did he call them? Rather he said, "Abraham, my grandfather, had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael was wicked, Isaac was righteous. Similarly, Isaac had two sons, Esau and I. Esau despised the ways of God, and I loved His ways. And God gave me twelve sons. You may say that half of them are righteous and half are wicked." They said to him, "We know what is in your heart." He immediately prostrated himself, as it is written "And Israel bowed in worship" (Genesis 47:31), and began saying "Blessed be the Name of His glorious kingdom forever and ever." Rabbi Chanina said, "Why did he prostrate himself? So that no impure matter should leave his body. At that moment, it was fulfilled 'God has made Himself known in Judah, His name is great in Israel;'" (Psalm 76:2).
