How long is forever?

‘I will keep my promise to you and to your descendants in future generations as an everlasting covenant. I will be your God and the God of your descendants. I will give to you and to your descendants this land in which you are now a foreigner. The whole land of Canaan will belong to your descendants for ever, and I will be their God.’   (verses 7,8)

Read Genesis 17:1-14

Once again God makes promises about what he will do for Abram and his descendants; once again God is the one who swears to keep his promises. Another dimension is added here. This covenant is an everlasting covenant.

Another feature of this agreement is the name change. Abram becomes Abraham, which sounds like the Hebrew for ‘father of many nations’. In his new name Abraham would always carry with him a reminder of God’s promise – and his own promise to be faithful.

In baptism God makes a similar covenant with you and me. It used to be expressed in the giving of a Christian name     to coincide with the baptism. We are baptised into the name of God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit – and God gives us his grace and promise; that he will never take it from us. This too is an everlasting covenant.

And so we live in the total security of being able to trust God’s promises. It is the security of knowing that ‘there is
nothing in all creation that will ever be able to separate us from the love of God which is ours through Christ Jesus our Lord’ (Romans 8:39). For us there is no looking back. God is with us; the past is forgiven; the future is an open book that God has already read.

Thank you for making me your child, Father, and giving me your peace. Amen.

by Bob Turnbull, in ‘God’s Promises for each Day’ (LCA, Openbook, 1999)

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