It is remarkable that Abraham was chosen, foreknown and predestined to be the 'root of the plant of righteousness' when you would expect that Noah had already been that. It seems possible but still problematic that it required a particular course of life which Noah had not taken but Abraham took. There was something about Abraham that was not true of Noah, but I know not what. Mysterious. Abraham was born to a more pagan father perhaps than Noah had been - Terah maybe had a more idolatrous past from which Abraham would make a clean break by the power of pure faith alone. Lamech had not walked in the righteous ways of Enoch like his father Methuselah had done but he is not recorded in history as a pagan idolater. Maybe this clean break from parental pagan tradition is what made Abraham special in God's plan. Establishing the example of righteousness started by faith alone.
