“For I have chosen him in order that he may command his children and his household after him
to keep the way of the Lord, to do righteousness and justice,
in order that the Lord may bring to Abraham what he has promised to him.”
In this jam-packed scripture, God cohesively ties in his choice of Abraham, his command that the community act ethically, and his covenant to Abraham in a way that Christopher Wright describes as “a missional declaration” connecting our election and participation in God’s mission with how we live ethically as a redeemed people. The Lord affirms Abraham and his descendants as the people through whom the nations will be blessed and for the first time, states the fuller purpose of Abraham’s election as a task to live ethically and be a light and blessing to the world.
The metaphor, “walking in the way of the Lord,” describes a common aspect of Israel’s ethic and elicits a specific behavior and lifestyle that remains our command as believers today. The verse affirms that the way of the Lord is kept by doing righteousness and justice, thereby fulfilling the promise that the chosen will carry out their mission of blessing. The word we translate as righteousness, צדקה, carries with it a fuller meaning of “matching up to a standard,” or something that is “the way it should be”. Justice, משׁפּט, refers to the action that needs to be taken in order for restoration with righteousness. The two words together function as a call to arms urging the people of God to act on behalf of the oppressed. It is in the enacting of justice and the making of a situation right(eous) that the people of God succeed in walking in the way of the Lord and are able to be a blessing to a world in need of good news. This is the responsibility of Abraham to pass on to his children and his household, and it is the mission of which we are apart through the cross of Christ.