Everlasting Covenant
“I have made an everlasting covenant with you, my faithful love promised to David.” Isaiah 55:3 (NLT)
In Genesis 17 God makes the promise that his covenant with Abraham’s descendants will be an eternal one. Earlier, in Genesis 9:16 God had made an everlasting covenant to Noah that he would not destroy the earth with water. Later, he said in Isaiah that his covenant of “peace” (shalom) with Israel never be removed (54:1). Finally. he would report that his covenant with them was everlasting like his covenant with David (Isa 55:3). All this looks as though God is saying that nothing bad would ever again happen to Israel. So what happened? Obviously a lot of bad things have happened to them, What does that mean? Did God’s promises fail?
No, the promises did not fail. If they had there would be no Jewish people. They would not exist today. Instead, against all of the world’s attempts to exterminate them, of which the Holocaust is only the most recent one, the people of God continue to exist. Yes, if the Jewish people had accepted their Messiah and kept the terms of the covenant they would have experienced all its benefits. But the fact that they have not so far does not erase God’s covenant promises; he continues to hold them close to his heart. If the people of God violate the terms of the covenant, then they will experience the negative consequences, yet God will not abrogate the covenant.
It is the same with the Church. Are God’s promises to the Church eternal? Yes. Will the Church persevere and triumph? Yes! Does that mean the Church will experience only blessing? Well, it would if the Church were consistently obedient. But if the Church is disobedient, it will suffer. So that has implications for us. God will keep his covenant, but that is no promise that those of us who disobey will escape punishment and loss.
Called To Be Transformed 