Genesis17_7-9

Genesis 17:7–9

“And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee.

And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.

And God said unto Abraham, Thou shalt keep my covenant therefore, thou, and thy seed after thee in their generations.”

It is an everlasting covenant between God and Abraham. Before God mentioned the content of the covenant, He gave more promises to Abraham and his descendants. Meanwhile, God also promised that the land of Canaan would be an everlasting possession for Abraham and his descendants. Regarding this covenant, which God mentioned several times, it mainly conveyed that God would give Abraham and his descendants more and more possessions and promises. In this covenant, God preferred to give more rather than gain more from Abraham.

The covenant is a limitation upon God in the sense that He must keep all His words true. Therefore, all human beings gain redemption through the everlasting covenant. Since there is a covenant established by God Elohim, Jesus Christ could come into humanity and overcome Satan and sin as a sacrificial offering to God for forgiveness. If you read the covenant that God mentioned again and again, you will find that the covenant is a foreshadowing of Jesus Christ. All the features of this covenant express the tendency that God would become a man. Both the land and the descendants of Abraham were prepared for someone. Otherwise, there would be no need to mention Abraham’s descendants and the land so repeatedly. As for man, his lifespan is short, and the distant future has little meaning to him unless the future carries the hope of redemption, just as God promised Adam and Eve in Eden after the Fall.

God commanded Abraham that He would be God to him and his descendants if they kept His covenant. Without God, a man’s life is empty and meaningless. It is a blessing for a nation to have the one true God as their God.