What Does Genesis 17:7 Mean?

"I will establish my covenant as an everlasting covenant between me and you and your descendants after you for the generations to come, to be your God and the God of your descendants after you." The defining characteristic of the covenant in this verse is its everlastingness. Not a temporary arrangement, not a covenant that will be superseded by one of different type, but a covenant established as permanent across generations. "Everlasting" (Hebrew: olam) means lasting through the ages, into the indefinite future. The covenant God makes with Abraham is not the opening chapter of a story that will later be rewritten; it is the foundational document of a relationship whose permanence is built into its terms.

The covenant formula "to be your God and the God of your descendants after you" is the central element of every covenant relationship in the Old Testament and reaches its fullest expression in the New: "I will be their God and they will be my people." The identity of the parties is defined by their relationship to each other: God is the God of Abraham, and Abraham and his descendants are the people of this God. This mutual identification, God and people bound to each other through the covenant, is what makes the covenant everlasting: God does not cease to be the God of Abraham. Jesus said, "He is not the God of the dead but of the living," defending the resurrection on the basis of exactly this covenant language.

Paul's treatment of the "everlasting covenant" as the basis for the inclusion of Gentile believers is grounded in this verse. The everlasting covenant made here is the one that Jesus enters as the Mediator of a better covenant (Hebrews 8), which does not replace the Abrahamic covenant but fulfills and extends it. The "new covenant" of Jeremiah 31 is not a different covenant but the everlasting covenant of Genesis 17 internalized, with the law written on hearts rather than on stone. The everlasting quality of the Genesis 17 covenant is the continuous thread through every biblical covenant to the final state of Revelation 21: "I will be their God and they will be my people."