And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you. (Gen 17,7)

When concluding the second covenant with Abraham, God called it "His" covenant eight times. It was not something Abram forced upon God or had to convince Him to accept, as he tried to do in the case of Ishmael. It is a covenant of God's own, flowing from his sovereign purpose - with whom, exactly? With one man, Abraham, so that this precious man might enjoy the blessings of his family and business? Was that all it was about?

It is a characteristic of a blessing that it always involves much more than doing good to its recipient. Like everything that comes from God, God's blessing carries on and multiplies, perhaps it is fitting to say that it overflows to others around it, as a testimony of God and a help to this world. So also the blessing given to Abraham includes not only him, but other generations, even whole nations (v.4), who will be blessed because of his obedience of faith.

If God says eight times that the covenant is "his," then he also uses the word "everlasting" four times in connection with the covenant. It cannot be otherwise: what is God's own is also eternal.

The second Abrahamic covenant thus reflects God's eternal purpose with the world: to have a new nation on earth, a generation of those who are specially marked (and thus set apart for God from the world) and "walk" (i.e. live) before him. They will become a testimony to the world of who God is and what He is like. The first of these nations is Israel, but eventually, according to the promise, it will be many others (v.6).

Ultimately, the most precious thing that is in the covenant is captured by the verse in the title, "I will be a God to you and to your descendants." From the beginning, mankind has strayed and chosen other gods. The greatest privilege of all Abraham's descendants is to worship the one true God, from now until eternity. For today's man from so-called Christian countries, this is no longer the most important thing to be exulted in. For it is focused on someone else, it does not deal with the endless gratification of the self, it does not communicate what most want to hear today - what will religion bring me, how will it solve my problems? And will I be better off if I believe?

And yet, the question: who is your god? is crucial to the fate of the individual and of all humanity. As we look at God blessing Abraham and through him the world, we can realize anew why it is true - of God and of us - that "it is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35).