Incline your ear, and come to me, hear, that your soul may live, and I will make with you an everlasting covenant, my steadfast sure love for David. Isaiah 55:3 ESV
“Everlasting covenant” appears about half a dozen times in the Old Testament, but I want to focus on three of those occurrences here. Looked at together they form a trajectory that can propel us into the new year with joy and confidence.
The first is with Noah. God swears that he will never again wipe the human race from the earth with a global flood (Gen 9:16). But perhaps he will do it some other way? No, if you look at the earlier context (8:21-22), the promise is a general one. The earth will continue its seasons year by year, not because it always has, or because Druids perform rituals at Stonehenge, but because the Creator has bound himself forever.
The second eternal covenant is with Abraham and his descendants. Because Abraham accepted the covenant and bound himself to God with the sign of circumcision, Yahweh took Abraham and his descendants to himself with an everlasting covenant (Gen 17:13). And those whose hearts are circumcised – you and me – are participants in that covenant.
The third covenant is the covenant with David. God promised that David would have a son on the throne forever (2 Sam 7:13). But it was some 300 years later, as Isaiah contemplated a time 150 years beyond his own time, when there would be no Israel, no king, and no temple, that God declared through Isaiah that God will make an everlasting covenant with the exiles: “my steadfast, sure love for David” (Isa 55:3). Now look at that a moment: the covenant is with his people, but it is an expression of his love for David. What does that mean? It means the covenant is available to the people because of what God did, is doing, and will do through David: Jesus, of course. And because of that, the redeemed Judeans will call “a nation you do not acknowledge,” i. e., us Gentiles (Isa 55:5).
So as you step into the new year, do it in the sure confidence that you are the benefactor of a three-fold “everlasting covenant” with the living God: Noah, Abraham, and David. You are his!
Called To Be Transformed 