ספר בראשית

Going back once more to Genesis 15,8 when Avraham himself ‎had asked a question not i.e. revealing that He had not quite ‎understood G’d, as a result of which he was granted better ‎understanding, just as Avimelech here had concluded with ‎understanding and acknowledging the dimension of G’d as ‎אנכי‎, ‎the Talmud B’rachot 7 states that when Avraham posed the ‎question of ‎במה אדע‎, he had become the first person ever to ‎address G’d as ‎א-דני‎, “My Lord;” He had implied by this that G’d in ‎His capacity of ‎א-דני‎ was able to annul decrees. Noach had not ‎been aware that G’d could do this, and this is why he had not ‎bothered to appeal to G’d to annul the decree to annihilate ‎mankind. His predecessor Sheth, third son of Adam, himself a ‎‎tzaddik had also not known about this and therefore he had ‎remained silent when a third of the inhabited area of the globe ‎had been flooded in his day. The power of addressing this ‎dimension of G’d was given to Avraham as a reward for having ‎recognized G’d as possessing this dimension. It was Avraham’s ‎genius to recognize this quality of G’d although he addressed Him ‎as “My Lord.”‎