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[Announcer] (0:00 - 0:35) Think about the Bible like you never have before. You're listening to Christian Questions. Experience more episodes, videos, and Bible study resources at ChristianQuestions.com.

Our topic is: "Do the Covenants of God All Last Forever?" Promises, promises. People make them and people break them.

We get so used to this that we begin to forget how to trust. But wait a minute, God's promises are sure. They're dependable.

Some of them are even promised for all eternity. But how do we know which promises will never end? Here's Rick, Jonathan, and Julie.

[Rick] (0:37 - 0:47) Welcome everyone, I'm Rick, I'm joined by Jonathan, my co-host for over 25 years, and Julie, a longtime contributor, is also with us. Jonathan, what's our theme scripture for this episode?

[Jonathan] (0:48 - 1:03) Genesis 17:7: "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you."

[Rick] (1:04 - 2:02) As Christians, we take great comfort in knowing that God is a God of unfathomable wisdom and integrity. We may be faced with things in life that we never saw coming, but God is never caught off guard. With His foresight and eternal wisdom, He is not only prepared for anything, but He is pre-planned for everything. God is also always as good as His word. He does not make a promise and then haphazardly decide not to keep it. In the Bible, covenants are really solemn promises.

Throughout Scripture, God has made many of these promises that also have the description of being eternal. One such covenant was the Law given to Moses. It seems that this Law was described as everlasting, and yet the New Testament tells us that it loses its validity. So did God change his mind?

[Julie] (2:03 - 2:18) Great question, but the short answer to this important question is "absolutely not!" So now what we have to do is understand the "why" and the "how" of these two seemingly contradictory statements. To do this, let's build a foundation of scriptural reasoning.

[Jonathan] (2:19 - 2:57) Let's reread our theme text and then define "covenant" and "everlasting." Genesis 17:7: "I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you." The Hebrew word for "covenant" means: an alliance or pledge, a formal agreement between two parties. It comes from a primary word with a sense of cutting, because it was made by passing between pieces of flesh. We'll talk about that a little later.

[Julie] (2:58 - 3:31) The Hebrew word for "everlasting," also translated as "forever" and "perpetual," means: concealed. That is, the vanishing point. Generally, time out of mind, past or future, eternity.

It can mean an ancient time, long duration of past or future, continuous existence. A vanishing point is a point at which something disappears from view, like when you look at a horizon and it looks like the earth ends because of its curvature, but it really doesn't. So a vanishing point can also mean something that actually ceases to exist.

[Rick] (3:31 - 4:13) That's an important distinction, and we're going to come back around to that as we go through this discussion on these covenants of God and do they all last forever. What we want to do is review several of the "big" covenants that God made, and we want to continually ask as to whether or not each of these promises was an "always and forever" kind of promise. So our first example of a promise of God was stated by God without it being framed as a covenant.

It was just a statement, and we have to pause and consider this. Here is God's very first proclamation regarding His human creation. Let's go back to the beginning, Genesis 1:26-28:

[Jonathan] (4:52 - 5:01) "Then God said, Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness; and let them rule (or have dominion) over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over the cattle and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth. God created man in His own image, in the image of God He created him; male and female He created them. God blessed them; and God said to them, Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue it; and rule over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the sky and over every living thing that moves on the earth."

[Rick] (5:02 - 5:40) So you have this proclamation from God, and really, the core of this is to be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. That's a proclamation, that's a statement from God to His newly-created earthly family. God's proclamation gave them His blessing to multiply and fill the earth and to have dominion over it.

Now in spite of the corruption of sin and death, those two blessings have continued, and we will see that unfold as we go further. So, we've got this very subtle covenant, and again, it's not stated as a covenant, but we're going to see how it comes into play. As we go clarifying the covenants, the first thing we want to ask after each time we pause is, what was promised? Julie?

[Julie] (5:41 - 5:46) The ability to fully populate the earth over which humanity would maintain dominion.

[Jonathan] (5:47 - 5:56) Because this blessing was the foundation of God's human creation, we will watch to see how God's other covenants are built upon this one.

[Julie] (5:56 - 6:02) And Rick, as you said, this blessing of populating and dominion didn't use the words "covenant" or "everlasting."

[Rick] (6:04 - 6:53) This is important, because we're saying, well, here's a promise, a covenant from God. It's like, well wait, what gives you the authority to say that? First of all, the authority to say that comes when God says something - He means it! That's one of the pieces we have to look at in all of this. The question is, is it everlasting or not? God says a lot of things - He always means exactly what He says. We need to expand this. As we look at our second example of a promise of God, that was the first, we're going to see significant connections to God's very first blessing. What we just talked about in Genesis 1. Next, we see God speaking to Noah when they're coming off of the ark and going back to life on earth with their feet literally on the ground again.

Let's go to Genesis 9:1-2:

[Jonathan] (6:53 - 7:24) "And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. The fear of you and the terror of you will be on every beast of the earth and on every bird of the sky; with everything that creeps on the ground and all the fish of the sea, into your hand they are given." It's interesting that God repeats to Noah what He told Adam at the very beginning, but this time it is spoken in the context of sinful humanity.

[Rick] (7:24 - 8:13) The important point is, God did repeat what He said to Adam. It gives us a sense that this is what I've given you to be and to do upon this planet Earth, human beings. We're seeing that this is a verifiable promise of God because He repeats it at this essential "new beginning." Populating the earth and having dominion are the basis for God's next major covenant. We've gone through this coming off of the ark, and God restates things that were stated at the very beginning. Now we want to move forward to His next major covenant.

God is profoundly specific with this next covenant. A few verses down in Genesis 9:11-16:

[Jonathan] (8:14 - 9:10) "I will establish my covenant with you; and all flesh shall never again be cut off by the water of the flood, neither shall there again be a flood to destroy the earth. God said, This is the sign of the covenant which I am making between Me and you and every living creature that is with you, for all successive generations. I set my bow in the cloud, and it shall be for a sign of a covenant between me and the earth. It shall come about, when I bring a cloud over the earth, that the bow will be seen in the cloud, and I will remember my covenant, which is between Me and you and every living creature of all flesh; and never again shall the water become a flood to destroy all flesh. When the bow is in the cloud, then I will look upon it, to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth."

[Julie] (9:11 - 9:46) This is generally called the "Noahic Covenant," N-O-A-H-I-C, because it was made with Noah, but it's a lot easier to say "Rainbow Covenant" because God instituted the rainbow as a sign of this promise. This covenant is unconditional. It was made with Noah and every living creature including the animals for all successive generations, and it includes the earth itself. Now, technically though, if you read it closely, God's only promising not to destroy using water. What about nuclear war? And aren't there scriptures that allude to destruction by fire?

[Rick] (9:47 - 11:06) Yes, yes, and yes. You've got all of those things. The key is God makes this promise to say, never again will I do this by water.

He's very specific, and this is an everlasting covenant, and it's not just with mankind, it's with all of the creation that's on the earth. You can see that this is a big, big, big promise. As far as other ways to destroy the earth, yes, God did not promise not to do those here.

However, we know that the earth abides forever, and we know that at the end times, which we are getting closer to each day, have massive destruction but not annihilation. And those are the things we see in the other scriptures that talk about destruction by fire and so forth and so on. God's promise here is very clear. He says the word "covenant" a half a dozen times in these verses, and He calls it an "everlasting covenant." This is God speaking from His perspective to say this won't happen ever again. Here is a sign.

As we look at this first covenant in the scriptures that is talked about as an everlasting covenant, let's clarify God's covenants. What exactly was promised?

[Julie] (11:07 - 11:18) Well, God promised the protection of the earth and all life from the devastation of any future universal flood. This promise carries the outward sign of a rainbow with its assurance of its soundness.

[Jonathan] (11:19 - 11:27) And this IS an everlasting covenant. It is all about the ability for humanity's dominion to continue on the earth.

[Rick] (11:28 - 12:18) And that is the primary thing. Jonathan, you read Genesis 9:1-2 when they came off the ark. The first thing God says is be fruitful and multiply and have dominion over the earth. He's repeating exactly what the promise was to Adam and Eve at the very beginning. God, with this promise, this powerful eternal promise, is verifying what He put man on earth for. It's a big step to understand how God's covenants work. This is a baseline that we're going to keep coming back to. Why? Because the scriptures keep bringing us back to it.

So, covenants are big things and everlasting covenants, well, they're even bigger. Bigger yet is the fact that God, the creator of all, makes such promises.

[Jonathan] (12:19 - 12:28) The fact that God makes such powerful promises is more than encouraging. What is God's reason for making such big promises?

[Rick] (12:29 - 13:27) As we are just beginning to see, each of God's big and everlasting promises builds upon those covenants that went before. The point is that God's promises are all put in place as steps toward His ultimate goal. So, what's that goal?

That goal is the blessing of all the families of the earth. That's the goal because that's what He said at the beginning. It's no secret that the next big covenant we're going to talk about, because it's the next one in the Bible, is the covenant made with Abraham.

Now, God's covenant with Abraham was not initially framed as a covenant. God didn't come out and say, I'm making this big promise to you, Abraham. What happens is, this promise had many specifics that would need to be revealed over time, and the revealing of these specifics over time, helped this promise to have its full impact.

[Jonathan] (13:29 - 14:15) Genesis 12:1-3: (His name was originally Abram and then later changed to Abraham.) "Now the Lord said to Abram, Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father's house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth will be blessed." This is a huge promise for a 75-year-old man with no children, and he wasn't given a lot of detail. He was to leave his hometown and go to some place he would be shown.

[Julie] (14:16 - 14:18) That's a lot of faith!

[Rick] (14:19 - 14:57) So, he's going to this unnamed place, and he's told, you will be a great nation and in you all others will be blessed. There's a lot of "bigness" here that's completely vague. Okay, how's this going to happen? I'm 75, I'm already old. Where am I going? Don't I get an address?

You've got all of these things. God is working with Abraham through Abraham's obedience and He's unfolding His promise to him. That's the first statement of it.

It grows as the Scriptures go on. So let's go to Genesis 13:14-16:

[Jonathan] (14:58 - 15:25) "The Lord said to Abraham, after his nephew Lot had separated from him, Now lift up your eyes and look from the place where you are, northward and southward and eastward and westward; for all the land which you see, I will give it to you and to your descendants forever. I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered."

[Julie] (15:26 - 15:46) The promise was go to an unnamed land. I'm going to bless you and make a great nation, and in all others you'll be blessed. Now this promise gets bigger. Here's the land, this unnamed land, is identified and it's promised forever to Abraham and his descendants, who would be compared to a vast nation like the dust of the earth.

[Rick] (15:47 - 16:11) All right, this sounds great - sounds pretty exciting, but Abraham is still old and still has no kids. We have to put this in the perspective of him learning to accept and understand and embrace the promise God is building for him. We want to see it as the pieces are just one-by-one being put in place.

[Julie] (16:11 - 16:37) That was Genesis 13. Genesis 14 records what's sometimes called the "War of the Kings." It's a war between five western kings, four eastern kings. Abram helped defeat the four enemy armies of the east who had taken captive inhabitants of Sodom. That was important because it included his nephew Lot. When Abram returns the captives to the king of Sodom, he's met by Melchizedek, the king and priest of Salem.

[Jonathan] (16:37 - 16:54) And after that, we read in Genesis 15:1: "After these things (meaning after that war) the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision saying, Do not fear, Abram. I am a shield to you; your reward shall be very great."

[Julie] (16:55 - 17:16) God speaks to Abram in this vision. He reinforces his previous promise that he's going to have a son. God then tells him in verse 5 - He takes him outside and tells him to count the stars in the sky. That's what his descendants would be like. So we've got dust, we've got stars, both too innumerable to count.

[Rick] (17:16 - 17:49) And we've got this land, and we've got all of these things that are beginning to develop. So God verifies Abram's inheritance of the land. Now here's the thing, Abram is growing into this, and he's saying, Okay, God, how am I going to know that you're actually giving me this land, and I'm not just going to live on it and one day somebody will come and kick me off? How am I going to know it belongs to me as You have said? What God does is He sets up a literal covenant ceremony as proof, and we're in Genesis 15.

[Jonathan] (17:50 - 18:50) Remember how I said the definition of "covenant" comes from a primary word with the sense of cutting, because it was made by passing between pieces of flesh? Well, in Genesis 15:9-10, God tells Abram to kill a heifer, a goat, a ram, a dove, and a pigeon. Abram was told to cut them in half, except the birds, and lay the pieces in two rows, leaving a path through the center.

A little later in Genesis, we find Abram in a deep sleep, and he has a vision. Genesis 15:17-18: "And it came about that when the sun had set, that it was very dark, and behold, there appeared a smoking oven and a flaming torch which passed between these pieces. On that day, the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, To your descendants, I have given this land, from the river of Egypt as far as the great river, the river Euphrates."

[Julie] (18:51 - 19:27) What a strange vision to see. GotQuestions.org said this: "In ancient Near Eastern royal land grant treaties, this type of ritual was done to seal the promises made. Through this blood covenant, God was confirming primarily three promises he had made to Abraham.

The promise of heirs, of land, and of blessings." We notice how only God walked through the animals, in a symbolic representation of Himself. This "Abrahamic Covenant" is another unconditional promise, because of God's grace, and Abram was its first recipient.

[Rick] (19:27 - 20:52) You have this covenant, and literally a ceremony to seal it. Now think about this, Abram was given the promise vaguely at the beginning in Genesis 12. In Genesis 13, it starts to take on some form, and it's repeated, and you're gaining a little confidence.

In Genesis 15, Abram is thinking, well how am I going to know? Because this is huge, he's not expecting this to happen to him. What are you going to be when you grow up? Well, God's going to give me the greatest promises that will be world-changing. I mean, nobody thinks that way. So here he is, learning, and wanting to understand, and to grab hold.

So God arranges in this vision for these pieces, the flaming torch and the smoking oven, to pass through the pieces of the animals. Because that's what he, Abram, would recognize as signed, sealed, and delivered. So God gave him the encouragement that he needed.

Now there's more growth in this promise, and interestingly here, in Genesis 15, is the first time it's called a covenant. But now it's going to grow even further. The next covenant development brings a name change, and specific fulfillment verifications.

We're going to jump to Genesis 17, we're going to read parts of 2-8:

[Jonathan] (20:53 - 21:26) Abram is now 99-years old. This is 24 years after God's original promise of a family and land. God says to Abram, "I will establish my covenant between me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly. Behold, my covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations."

[Julie] (21:26 - 21:35) We have a name change here, the name Abram means "exalted father," but the name Abraham means "father of a multitude."

[Jonathan] (21:36 - 22:08) Continuing: "I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make nations of you, and kings will come forth from you. I will establish my covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you. I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all of the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God."

[Rick] (22:09 - 22:58) Okay, here you have the words: This covenant will be an everlasting covenant. I will be God to you and to your descendants.

God is pouring out His promises to Abraham. At this point his name has been changed to Abraham. (You know, you can get so confused with Abram and Abraham, you just don't know which one to use.) Here is Abraham, he's 99 and he still doesn't have a child. But God is saying to him, this is my everlasting covenant. The fact that God arranged for Abraham to be able to see that ritual, when now it says it's everlasting, can you imagine the depth that he is now beginning to grasp and to understand? There's something very big here unfolding.

[Julie] (22:59 - 23:07) We've got this promise: Called by a new name, Abraham is going to be this father of many nations, and he's the recipient of this everlasting covenant.

[Jonathan] (23:08 - 24:02) God further develops the covenant with more details, Genesis 17:18-22: "And Abraham said to God, Oh, that Ishmael might live before you! But God said, No, but Sarah your wife will bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac; and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant for his descendants after him. As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I will bless him, and I will make him fruitful and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall become the father of twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation. But My covenant I will establish with Isaac, whom Sarah will bear to you at this season next year. When He finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham."

[Rick] (24:02 - 25:10) Again, you have these huge developments here. He's talking, and Abraham, because he's 99, it's been 24 years, he's got no child of his own except for Ishmael, and he says, this must be it. And God emphatically says, no! My covenant will be an everlasting covenant with your son, with Sarah, whose name will be Isaac. Now let's back up for a second. You don't get more specific than that. You know the mom, you know the son's name, and then He says, and that son will be born at this season next year. So you've got names, locations, you've got proof. He's making it clear, and He says, this everlasting covenant will be passed on to that son. You can see the power when God makes an everlasting covenant, it is not stated haphazardly or halfway. There's no question. If it's everlasting, you know it, and Abraham is learning how to absorb the depth and the power of God's promise here.

[Julie] (25:11 - 25:29) So the promise is, Isaac will be the promised seed, he's going to be born a year from then, and he will be the next inheritor of God's everlasting covenant that was originally made to Abraham. So God established the lineage by which this everlasting covenant would be handed down.

[Rick] (25:29 - 26:05) It's amazing how dynamic and how the perspective of God is so abundantly clear. Let's fast forward. Several years later, Abraham shows a willingness to sacrifice his son Isaac.

Isaac has been born, he's probably a young teenager, and he is willing to sacrifice, we all know the account. For his obedience, for Abraham's obedience, God reiterates the precious covenant that He made with Abraham so long ago. Genesis 22:15-18:

[Jonathan] (26:05 - 26:37) "Then the angel of the Lord called to Abraham a second time from heaven, and said, By myself I have sworn, declares the Lord, because you have done this thing and have not withheld your son, your only son, indeed I will greatly bless you, and I will greatly multiply your seed as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore; and your seed shall possess the gate of their enemies. In your seed all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because you have obeyed My voice."

[Rick] (26:37 - 27:23) Let's hearken back for a moment to Genesis. God blessed them and said be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it. What's God saying to Abraham here?

I will bless you, I will multiply your seed as the stars of heaven, he now adds as the sand of the seashore, your seed shall possess the gates of his enemies, and in your seed all the nations of the earth will be blessed. So the implication is, through your seed the dominion will continue, and there's this multiplying, and He says I will bless you just like He blessed Adam and Eve. You see that promise coming through again and again and again. There is a solid thread that we need to understand to really appreciate what God's promises are.

[Julie] (27:24 - 27:46) Like you said, he added this sand on the seashore and he also added, this was interesting, shall possess the gate of your enemies. That means Abraham's descendants would subdue or have control over their enemies. What impresses me is this Abrahamic covenant is giving piece by layered piece, and it keeps expanding as time goes on throughout the entire end of his life.

[Rick] (27:46 - 28:09) It's amazing! It's a beautiful, beautiful picture of how God works. He is intentional in the way He expands the promises, and folks, as we see the promises of God, we see the Abrahamic promise is one of the very biggest promises, and we will unfold that as we go. So, clarifying God's covenants, let's ask again, what here specifically was promised?

[Julie] (28:09 - 28:24) We have the depth and power of God's covenant with Abraham. It's all about everlasting blessing of the entire human race, and that blessing is going to come through a specific lineage - "and in you all the families of the earth will be blessed."

[Jonathan] (28:24 - 28:41) Grasping the magnitude of this everlasting promise helps to reveal how God was ever and always planning for eternity. There was no "Plan B," Rick. There was a definitive plan from the very beginning that simply kept unfolding.

[Rick] (28:42 - 28:48) Yes, we need plan B, C, D, E, F and G and then sometimes we need to go further.

[Julie] (28:48 - 28:49) None of those work.

[Rick] (28:50 - 29:12) God has "Plan A," and He works it because He is from everlasting to everlasting and His promises, when you see an everlasting promise, boy, that's something we can truly hold on to. Sometimes God's everlasting promises - they're hard to track. As Abraham, we can think how could this possibly happen?

[Jonathan] (29:13 - 29:23) With the magnitude of the Abrahamic Covenant in place, we now need to get to the "how" of the matter. How does God make this work?

[Rick] (29:23 - 29:53) As we have already noted, God's plans are beyond magnificent. He always has everything in order and is always willing to let free will play its part. Our next covenant is a little different than what we've already observed.

The Law given to Israel through Moses has several complexities and details, as well as a different approach.

[Julie] (29:54 - 30:11) We've moved out of the book of Genesis, and we're now into Exodus. The Hebrews are in captivity in Egypt. They're working as slaves.

Moses is born, raised in the palace, gets married, but life is hard for the now millions of slaves, and they cry out to God for help.

[Rick] (30:12 - 30:28) They're crying out and what we're going to see is God's deliverance of Israel which we all know was going to happen. We're going to see it was squarely built upon His everlasting promise already given to Abraham so many generations before. Let's look at Exodus 2:24-25:

[Jonathan] (30:29 - 30:39) "So God heard their groaning and God remembered his covenant with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. God saw the sons of Israel, and God took notice of them."

[Rick] (30:39 - 31:18) It's not like He was like, Oh, look! Who would have thought this? There was not this, Huh! Whatever happened? It was time for God to take notice.

It was time for God to move His plan forward to the next step and that's what we're seeing. And His moving that plan forward to the next step was based on, it was based on His covenant that was already given to Abraham. So, God delivered them, and the first aspect of their new Law was introduced as the Passover. Go ahead, Julie.

[Julie] (31:19 - 31:44) We remember the ten plagues and how the last plague was the death of the firstborn, and in order to save their own children and the animals, the Hebrews were to take the blood from the Passover lamb and sprinkle it on the doorposts as a sign. Any household with this blood was passed over and their firstborn lived, and because of that last plague, that was the last straw. Pharaoh finally let the people go. So that's this Passover that's part of this new Law that was introduced.

[Rick] (31:45 - 31:48) So let's go to Exodus 12:14 and just drop in on that:

[Jonathan] (31:49 - 32:23) "Now this day will be a memorial to you, and you shall celebrate it as a feast to the Lord; throughout your generations you are to celebrate it as a permanent ordinance." Now the Hebrew word for "permanent" here is that same word translated elsewhere as "everlasting and forever." Does permanent actually mean never-ending here? Does it mean the Israelites, and perhaps all mankind, will commemorate for the eons of eternity the freedom from the Old Testament Egyptian bondage?

[Rick] (32:23 - 33:17) That's a really good question, and the short answer to that is actually, no. Why? There's a lot that we need to develop with that question, so we're going to unfold that as we go over the next several minutes, but this is important. Let's remember that phrase, "as a permanent ordinance." Let's move forward and figure out how all this fits together. After Israel was delivered and before the rest of the Law was given, Moses received more instruction from God. Now this instruction would prepare the people to receive the Law, which was a covenant that would be their guideline through which they could truly be God's chosen people in this sinful world just as God had promised Abraham, your children will be my people. That's what He had promised. This is how it begins to unfold in a big way in Exodus 19:3-6:

[Jonathan] (33:18 - 33:42) "Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountains, saying, Thus you shall say to the house of Jacob and tell the sons of Israel; you yourselves have seen what I did to the Egyptians, and how I bore you on eagles' wings and brought you to myself." I have to pause here. Whenever eagles are mentioned, I love eagles. We've got to talk about it.

[Rick] (33:42 - 33:42) Okay.

[Jonathan] (33:42 - 34:26) I love what it said in here that "I will bear you up." I bear you on eagles wings means lift you up, or I took you away. or I exalted you high, or I swept you away. I just love that picture. When I think of eagles' wings, I think of great power and grace in flight. All right, back to verse 5. "Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine; and you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation. These are the words that you shall speak to the sons of Israel."

[Julie] (34:26 - 34:39) Did you catch this? IF you keep my covenant, THEN you shall be my special people and a holy nation. So this next covenant is conditional upon the people remaining obedient.

[Rick] (34:39 - 35:01) But it is a covenant from God. It is a powerful promise from God. So let's go a little bit further.

After delivering God's message to the people and the people becoming ritually clean, Moses goes back up to the mountain and receives the Ten Commandments. And a lot of times we think, wow, he gets the Ten Commandments. Oh, but he gets so much more.

[Jonathan] (35:02 - 35:15) That's right, and people often think of the "Law Covenant" as being just the Ten Commandments, but there are actually hundreds of parts to the Law. God was teaching the people how to live in covenant relationship with Him.

[Julie] (35:15 - 35:36) And one more point, the Jewish Law Covenant is often referred to as the "Levitical Law" because the Levite priests administered it. It's also called the "Mosaic Law" because it was first revealed to Moses who was from the tribe of Levi. And it's also called the "Old Testament Law" and the "Old Covenant" to contrast it with the "New Covenant" discussed later. And these are all interchangeable terms.

[Rick] (35:36 - 35:56) So obviously the Law is a very central piece. It's got all of these different ways to be recognized and to be understood and to be appreciated. Let's go to God beginning to explain things to Moses in Exodus 20:1-3:

[Jonathan] (35:56 - 36:07) "Then God spoke all these words, saying, I am the Lord your God, who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery. You shall have no other gods before Me."

[Rick] (36:07 - 36:48) That's the beginning of the Ten Commandments. And God finishes the Ten Commandments, and then He goes on for the rest of Chapter 20 and Chapter 21 with all of these other things that have to be part of this Law. He's explaining to Moses all of these details. Moses does come down from the mountain, and after presenting all of God's words to the people, and after their enthusiastic willingness to obey, Moses built an altar and called for peace offerings to be made to God. Now these next verses are very significant, so listen carefully to what unfolds here. Exodus 24:6-8:

[Jonathan] (36:48 - 37:22) "Moses took half of the blood (from slain animal sacrifices) and put it in basins, and the other half of the blood he sprinkled on the altar. Then he took the book of the covenant (in other words, the Law) and read it in the hearing of the people; and they said, All that the Lord has spoken we will do and we will be obedient! So Moses took the blood and sprinkled it on the people, and said, Behold the blood of the covenant, which the Lord has made with you in accordance with all these words."

[Rick] (37:23 - 38:29) "Behold the blood of the covenant." We have seen throughout the Bible the consistency of blood sacrifices bringing humanity toward God, and this is a very solemn situation in which Moses is saying, this is the blood of this incredible promise that God has made. The solemnity of this event cannot be overstated. With all that we've observed regarding the institution of the Law and and how solemn it is and how many different names it has, and so forth, the one thing we haven't seen is the Law being labeled as everlasting. We have not seen the phrase "everlasting covenant." We've seen "covenant" many times but "everlasting covenant" is absent. Wait, why is that? Consider this: let's look at one important detail of the Law that is labeled that way, and that will create more questions as we go through this, but let's look at Exodus 31:15-17 for that one aspect of the Law:

[Jonathan] (38:30 - 39:03) "For six days work may be done, but on the seventh day there is a sabbath of complete rest, holy to the Lord; whoever does any work on the sabbath day shall surely be put to death. So the sons of Israel shall observe the sabbath, to celebrate the sabbath throughout their generations as a perpetual covenant. It is a sign between Me and the sons of Israel forever; for in six days the Lord made heaven and earth, but on the seventh day He ceased from labor, and was refreshed."

[Julie] (39:04 - 39:46) Okay, wait. We've got to go back to Exodus 12:14 when Jonathan read that the Passover, which was part of the Law, that started it, would be a "permanent ordinance." Is there a difference between the "permanent ordinance" of the Passover and the "perpetual covenant" of the sabbath? I will put a little commercial in here: We do recommend our listeners click on the CQ Rewind Show Notes that are free on our website or our app, because we include the Hebrew words from the Strong's Exhaustive Concordance when we type out all the scriptures that we quote, so it's easier to listen when you're seeing the words. Let me re-ask that. We've got permanent and perpetual, exact same Hebrew word, a permanent ordinance, perpetual covenant, and ordinance and covenant are different Hebrew words.

[Rick] (39:46 - 39:49) So, are they the same or are they different?

[Julie] (39:49 - 39:54) Yes, who goes on forever? Passover? Sabbath?

None? Both? I don't know.

[Rick] (39:54 - 40:34) This is an important question and there is a difference between the permanent "everlasting ordinance" and the "permanent perpetual everlasting covenant." An "ordinance," we're going to see, is part of something else whereas a "covenant" is a standalone feature. Let's look at that. How do you get to that conclusion? Well, let's take a look at a couple of scriptures in Psalms. Psalms 119:111-112 Now these scriptures give us a sense of a layered approach to the concept of everlasting. So we're going to read these scriptures and just pause for a few minutes here.

[Jonathan] (40:35 - 40:47) "I have inherited Your testimonies forever, for they are the joy of my heart. I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever, even to the end."

[Rick] (40:47 - 41:59) There's a subtlety in this scripture that really got my attention as we were doing the preparation here. "I've inherited Your testimonies forever." That's just like a blanket statement.

That's the word for everlasting. And so you get the sense of, I and my generations to follow me have inherited Your testimonies for perpetually, perpetually, perpetually. And then he says, "I have inclined my heart to perform Your statutes forever." And then he says, "even to the end." So you'll think about that and say, wait a minute, you've got forever even to the end. And Julie, when you gave us the definition of everlasting at the beginning, there was to the vanishing point, to the point where you don't know what happens. To the point where it's so far beyond, you can't see beyond the horizon, you don't know if it keeps going or not. And I think that this verse helps us to understand there is a subtle, but very marked, difference between the forever of the celebration of the sabbath and the perpetual celebration of statutes or the following of statutes. We're going to expand that. Jonathan, let's go into a little bit of definition here.

[Jonathan] (42:00 - 42:20) Sure. "Statutes" is the same Hebrew word as "ordinances." It means: an enactment; hence, an appointment of time, space, quantity, labor, or usage. The Brown-Driver-Briggs Lexicon adds: a prescribed task or portion, a specific decree, statutes, conditions.

[Julie] (42:21 - 42:56) In modern law, a statute is a law that's passed by a legislative body like a state or federal government. An ordinance is a law passed by local government like a city or county. Now in the Old Testament, these are used somewhat interchangeably, but sometimes the word statutes is used regarding practical guidelines for living, like tithes, war, eating kosher food, and so on.

And ordinances sometimes refers to religious rituals or observances. So still back to my Passover question and my sabbath question, which lasts really forever and which doesn't?

[Rick] (42:56 - 43:20) Alright, and it's a good question, and understanding that these ordinances and statutes are parts of the Law. Let's look at the priesthood that was given to Aaron and his descendants. It's called the "Aaronic Priesthood." It was established perpetually under the Law as well as a statute. Let's just touch on that, Exodus 29:7-9, and then we'll see if we can wrap this up.

[Jonathan] (43:20 - 43:39) "Then you shall take the anointing oil and pour it on his head and anoint him. You shall bring his sons and put tunics on them. You shall gird them with sashes, Aaron and his sons, and bind caps on them, And they shall have the priesthood by a perpetual statute. So you shall ordain Aaron and his sons."

[Rick] (43:39 - 43:54) That perpetual statute, perpetual, that's the word for everlasting and perpetual and forever and all of that, same word. Statute is the same word that we talked about previously in Psalm 119, just a different form of that word.

[Julie] (43:55 - 44:06) So is this priesthood of Aaron, this "Aaronic Priesthood," forever? Because that would contradict Hebrews 7 that says Jesus is the permanent priesthood according to the order of Melchizedek.

[Rick] (44:07 - 46:33) Okay, you have what seems to be a conflict, and really there isn't. There is no conflict. As we mentioned before, the Law Covenant is nowhere in Scripture labeled as an everlasting covenant.

However, within the Law Covenant, you have these everlasting statutes and ordinances. How do you harmonize that? Well, let's look at this.

The Law Covenant itself not being labeled as an everlasting covenant helps us to understand it hasn't been stamped that way. The fact that several statutes within the Law use the word for perpetual or everlasting, it really does make us look more deeply. What is the message here? What are the Scriptures actually telling us? A statute is part of a law. It's part of THE Law, I should say. Its context is not eternity. The context of a statute or an ordinance is not eternity, it's not the Word of God, it's the Law which it supports. That's its context.

So statutes can be perpetual until such a time as the Law which it supports ceases or changes or something develops otherwise. What we want to understand is that the statutes and ordinances are perpetual within the boundaries of the Law. The Law is not labeled as eternal. So summing up, the sabbath and the Passover, are they the same? Are they different? The Passover was an ordinance or a statute; the sabbath was an everlasting covenant. One does last forever, the sabbath does, but the ordinance or statute of the Passover does not. Why the difference? Because one's labeled an everlasting covenant, the other is an everlasting statute as part of the Law. Think about this, the sabbath was established by God at creation. It was at the very beginning before there was a Law, and He said then it would be forever. This is what we have to go by, and you know that the Law is not everlasting because the sabbath is specifically mentioned as being everlasting in the context of things that are not, as a covenant, an everlasting covenant from God. That's a start. Julie?

[Julie] (46:34 - 46:52) Does one side breaking a covenant mean this covenant is null and void? Because it would seem like the answer is yes for a conditional covenant, like the Law covenant, it was conditional upon obedience. And yet we believe the Jewish people today are still under this covenant, like it hasn't disappeared yet.

[Rick] (46:52 - 47:50) Okay, good question. They did break the covenant, and God many times in Scripture said, you broke My covenant with you, you broke that Law. And that didn't end it.

So what does? Timing. God's timing ends the Law Covenant. He put it in place as a factor, a proclamation, so that everybody, the Jewish nation and then everybody around them could look at that and say, this is how you get to God. He brings it to an end when it's appropriate for it to end, because it will have done its work. So it's not a matter of the people breaking it, because you're right, the Jewish nation is still bound to that.

Absolutely. But there comes a time when it comes to an end, unequivocally. So hopefully that helps to put it into order.

The Law Covenant is very different. So let's clarify God's covenants. What's promised here?

[Julie] (47:51 - 48:02) The Law Covenant promised a way for God's chosen people at that time to live in harmony with Him. They could be fruitful, they could multiply, they could have dominion IF they followed God's law.

[Jonathan] (48:04 - 48:12) God knew they could not, and therefore designed this Law Covenant as an age-lasting but not an everlasting covenant.

[Rick] (48:12 - 48:45) God knows they can't fulfill it. He designed it with a life expectancy, on purpose, because the next pieces of His plan would come afterwards. This is how we need to put this all in order, and in the next segment we're going to really begin to develop this in a really, really big way.

Understanding the Law this way, really helps us to see how God has always had His plan focused on bringing humanity to eternity.

[Jonathan] (48:46 - 48:54) Were there any other covenants from God that were everlasting? Were they built upon the Law, or were they built on another foundation?

[Rick] (48:54 - 49:30) There were other everlasting covenants that God made, and as we shall see, they were solidly built, not upon the Law, but upon the broad and strong foundation of the Abrahamic promise. The next major covenant we're going to look at is next in chronological order. It is the promise to David to have God-honoring royalty come through his lineage. So that's where we're going to go now. David is under the Law, but let's look at the next everlasting covenant God proclaims.

[Julie] (49:30 - 49:40) King David was truly a man after God's own heart, and he did make many mistakes, but he always came back to God's will and way, and he was given a powerful promise for that faithfulness.

[Jonathan] (49:41 - 50:39) In 2 Samuel 7:10, God gave David a message through the prophet Nathan, reiterating the promise of the land first given to Abraham. In verses 12-13, God promises that David's son Solomon would be king and build the temple. In verse 16, he says, "Your house and your kingdom shall endure before Me forever. Your throne shall be established forever." Now, David refers back to that promise right before he died in 2 Samuel 23:1-5. I'll just read 4-5: "Is as the light of the morning when the sun rises, a morning without clouds, when the tender grass springs out of the earth, through sunshine after rain. Truly is not my house so with God? For He has made an everlasting covenant with me, ordered in all things, and secured; For all my salvation and all my desire, will He not indeed make it grow?"

[Julie] (50:40 - 51:00) How beautiful. This unconditional, everlasting covenant is often called the "Davidic Covenant," and it's also referred to in Psalm 89 and other places. So here God promised to David that Messiah would come through his lineage and would remain forever on the throne.

[Rick] (51:00 - 51:27) That's a pretty big, heavy-duty promise that has everlasting implications. So this is another plainly stated everlasting covenant from God, this "Davidic Covenant." It's verified by the prophets.

Nathan the prophet told it to David. David repeats it. But other prophets verify its power and its existence.

Let's look at just two. Jeremiah 23:5-8:

[Jonathan] (51:28 - 51:49) "Behold, the days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will raise up for David a righteous branch; and he will reign as a king and act wisely and do justice and righteousness in the land. In his days Judah will be saved, and Israel will dwell securely; And this is his name by which he will be called, the Lord our righteousness."

[Julie] (51:50 - 52:04) You read, "raise up for David a righteous branch." That's a reference to Jesus as the Messiah, and we talked a lot about this, what I like to call "spiritual horticulture prophecies" of Jesus in Episode 1313: "How Do We know Jesus is the Promised Messiah?"

[Rick] (52:05 - 52:19) We've got Jeremiah talking about Jesus being called the lord our righteousness, reigning as king and acting wisely. Ezekiel expands this even further. Ezekiel 37:24-25:

[Jonathan] (52:20 - 52:47) "My servant David will be king over them, and they will all have one shepherd; and they will walk in My ordinances" (This is a different word for ordinances, meaning judgments.) "and keep My statutes and observe them. They will live on the land that I gave to Jacob my servant, in which your fathers lived; and they will live on it, they, and their sons and their sons' sons, forever; and David My servant will be their prince forever."

[Rick] (52:47 - 53:08) There you have a very plain, straightforward, clear prophetic utterance that completely supports what David said when he was dying. God made an everlasting covenant with me, an everlasting promise that the lineage of Messiah would come through me and last forever.

[Jonathan] (53:09 - 53:27) It's easy to see how Jesus is the fulfillment for this everlasting covenant. Days before his crucifixion, he was hailed as this king. Remember in John 12:12-16, Jesus rode into Jerusalem and the people shouted, Hosanna, calling him the king of Israel.

[Rick] (53:27 - 54:02) You've got this Davidic Covenant given to David, saying it's going to go on and be everlasting, and it's a sure promise from God, just as sure as the Abrahamic promise, just as sure as the rainbow promise. It is sure, it is solid, it is undeniable. How does all this happen, though? How does it come to be? Let's go one verse further in Ezekiel 37. You see, you really got to always make sure you get the whole context.

We read Ezekiel 37:24-25. Now let's read verse 26 and unfold this in a really big way:

[Jonathan] (54:03 - 54:15) "I will make a covenant of peace with them; it will be an everlasting covenant with them. And I will place them and multiply them, and will set My sanctuary in their midst forever."

[Julie] (54:16 - 54:22) Oh, I like the sound of that! We have another everlasting covenant called the "Covenant of Peace." What's that?

[Rick] (54:23 - 54:59) What is the Covenant of Peace? It's called the "New Covenant," and just before we get to the next scripture to explain a little bit about the "New Covenant," because we're just going to take a glimpse today, next week we're going to really unfold it, but think about this... I will make a Covenant of Peace. It will be an everlasting covenant. Through the Davidic reign, the everlasting reign of David's line, will come this everlasting Covenant of Peace. That's a beautiful connection. So what is it? What is this New Covenant? Just a glimpse. Let's look at Jeremiah 31:31-32:

[Jonathan] (55:00 - 55:20) "Behold, days are coming, declares the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah, not like the covenant which I made with their fathers in the day I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, although I was a husband to them, declares the Lord."

[Rick] (55:22 - 56:48) God is saying that I'm going to make a "new" covenant, and it's going to be different than the covenant which they broke. It's going to be everlasting, and He refers to His bringing them out of Egypt and saying, I made a covenant with them, and they didn't keep it. They broke it, and in fact they broke it several, several times.

This New Covenant is in direct contrast to the Law Covenant. The prophet is revealing that the Old covenant, the Law Covenant, was broken by the people and not by God. That's important.

God doesn't break His promises, but the people did. God knew this result far ahead of time and allowed it to be an eternal teaching tool for Israel and for the rest of the world. Now their breaking of this covenant happened - you know, it would be interesting to count how many times in Scripture they ended up breaking the covenant - when you go from the time in Exodus when they were given it, all the way up into Jesus' times. It would be just a countless number of times. God knew.

God uses this as a tool, and it's also pointing to something bigger, something better, and something permanent. Let's go back to Jeremiah 31:33-34. As we expand a little bit more, and today it's just a little bit more on the New Covenant:

[Jonathan] (56:48 - 57:19) "But this is the covenant which I will make with the house of Israel after those days, declares the Lord, I will put my law within them and on their heart I will write it; and I will be their God, and they shall be My people. They will not teach again, each man his neighbor and each man his brother, saying, Know the Lord, for they will all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them, declares the Lord, For I will forgive their iniquity and their sin, I will remember no more."

[Rick] (57:19 - 58:37) Do you see the massive difference here? He says, I will write this covenant on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. Think back to when Israel was given the Law Covenant. "Yes, we'll do everything. Yes, we will!" And I don't know how many days or weeks later they're building a golden calf. I mean, what happened? Here you see something that's going to work from the inside out. I will write the covenant on their hearts instead of it having to be given to them in the book of the Law. It's a different approach. Why is it different then?

Because it's time for it to be different, and you've got Jesus in the picture. This covenant is absolutely everlasting and is mediated by none other than Jesus. Again, folks, you've got to be with us next week, because we're going to look at this New Covenant, and the incredible glory, and the details, and the function that it plays in relation to the rest of these covenants, and what you're going to find is —spoiler alert— all of these things are connected, because God's plan is eternal, and He never varies from it. So let's look at this everlasting covenant mediated by Jesus. Again, just a glimpse from Hebrews 8:6-8:

[Jonathan] (58:37 - 59:19) "But now he (Jesus) has obtained a more excellent ministry, by as much as he is also the mediator of a better covenant, which has been enacted on better promises. For if that first covenant had been faultless, there would have been no occasion sought for a second. For finding fault with them, he says, Behold, days are coming, says the Lord, when I will effect a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah." Did God make a faulty promise? No! The Law provided a standard of righteousness that was needed, but it could not give life.

[Julie] (59:20 - 59:34) Israel's priesthood foreshadowed a greater priesthood to come that would be the mediator, Jesus, of a better covenant. Paul says it's better because it's established on better promises. I can't wait for next week so we can really dive into all that!

[Rick] (59:34 - 59:50) It is a huge development, and what it shows us is the process by which God is bringing humanity back to Him. So let's clarify God's covenants. When we look at the New Covenant here and the Davidic Covenant, what was promised?

[Julie] (59:51 - 1:00:01) God promised a royal lineage through King David, and this lineage was also promised to be an everlasting rulership, and -- spoiler alert -- it's going to be through this New Covenant.

[Jonathan] (1:00:02 - 1:00:21) This New Covenant would work on a different basis than the Old Law Covenant, as it would have the advantage of Adamic sin being removed and, therefore, be able to be written on the hearts of the people. As always, it is all about blessing humanity on earth.

[Julie] (1:00:21 - 1:00:32) So to answer the question: "Do the Covenants of God All Last Forever?" Out of those that we've covered so far, what about the promise to Adam that gave mankind dominion over the earth?

[Jonathan] (1:00:33 - 1:00:34) Yes, forever.

[Julie] (1:00:34 - 1:00:39) Okay, what about the "Rainbow Covenant" with Noah to never destroy the earth by water?

[Jonathan] (1:00:40 - 1:00:41) Yes, again, forever.

[Julie] (1:00:42 - 1:00:46) What about the "Mosaic Law Covenant" given to the Israelites in the Old Testament?

[Jonathan] (1:00:46 - 1:00:49) No, not forever.

[Julie] (1:00:50 - 1:00:55) Okay! The "Davidic Covenant" promising the Messiah, ruling as a priest and king forever?

[Jonathan] (1:00:56 - 1:00:57) Oh yes, forever.

[Julie] (1:00:57 - 1:01:05) Okay, and we haven't quite proven it yet, the "New Covenant" will be next week, but I think I already know the answer.

[Rick] (1:01:05 - 1:02:20) Yes, it's kind of an everlasting thing because that's what it says. There's not really much we can do about it, and it's a beautiful thing. Folks, the point here is that God makes promises for reasons.

He doesn't arbitrarily promise this or that to this person or that person in this time or that time. His promises are all connected to His plan, which was in place in the mind of God before the foundation of the earth. So before it was all started, He knew the process, He knew the plan, He knew the sin, and He knew how to draw humanity back. To where? To where He says He blessed them to be fruitful, multiply, to fill the earth, and to subdue it. These covenants are all about God bringing humanity back to the place where they can do what He blessed them to do at the very beginning. Think about it. Folks, we love hearing from our listeners. We welcome your feedback and your questions on this episode and other episodes at ChristianQuestions.com.

As we mentioned, coming up in our next episode: "Is the New Covenant Different than God's Other Covenants?" We will talk to you about, that, next week.

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