On the first day, Hashem created the raw material from which He later constructed everything in the world. Thus, from the first day on, the sun, the moon, trees, Gan Eden, and Gehenom all existed as pure matter without form. On the following days Creation, Hashem formed and shaped the matter which was to comprise each entity until it became the object as we know it.
Noach spent 120 years in the construction of the ark. He was told by Hashem the secret of how to grow wood to obtain the exact length needed for the beams of the ark. He learned which tree had to be planted 120 years in advance in order to grow later to the exact correct size needed.
Avram and Sarai dedicated their lives to Hashem's service. Avram influenced the men to serve Hashem, and Sarai taught the woman. At this point Avram was seventy-five years old, and Hashem had never yet prepared him.
Avraham was now a hundred and thirty seven years old. These trials were imperative, not in order to reveal Avraham’s righteousness to Hashem, who knows the innermost breaks of a man’s heart, but rather to elevate Avraham himself, and further to demonstrate his greatness to the world.
Hashem had promised that Avraham would live to a ripe old age. Had Avraham lived until the age of a hundred and eighty, as Hashem had preordained for him, he would have seen his grandson Esav become an adulterer and a murderer.
It was Hashem’s plan that Yitzchak should not recognize Yaacov. Yitzchak gave Yaacov ‘ten’ blessings, corresponding to the ‘Ten Pronouncements’ with which the world was created, indicating that in the merit of this son the world would continue to exist.
