Farther Than You Can See
What Does “Everlasting” Really Mean?
Bob Loudermillk
There are some passages in the Bible that are difficult because they describe strange events or mysterious visions. Others become difficult only when we slow down long enough to notice what the text actually says.
Genesis 17:8 is one of those passages. God said to Abraham: “And I will give to you and to your offspring after you…the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.”
At first glance, that seems straightforward. But think about the word everlasting. If the land of Canaan was to be an everlasting possession, why was Israel later driven from it? Why did Assyria conquer the northern kingdom? Why did Babylon carry Judah into captivity? Why did Rome eventually destroy Jerusalem? And why did Abraham himself, the man who received the promise, never actually possess the land during his lifetime?
Did God fail to keep His promise? Or could it be that we need to understand what the Bible means by the word “everlasting”?
Thirteen Years of Silence
To understand Genesis 17, we first need to know the story. Genesis 16 ends with Abram at eighty-six years old. He and Sarai appear to have grown tired of waiting for the son God promised, so they attempted to accomplish God's promise through their own plan. Hagar bore Ishmael, and their shortcut produced pain, jealousy, and division.
Then Genesis 17 begins: “When Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram.”
Thirteen years have passed. Thirteen years without a recorded word from God.
Imagine Abraham during those years, watching Ishmael grow from an infant into a teenager and wondering whether this was somehow the fulfillment of God's promise. Had he misunderstood God? Had he ruined the plan? Had he simply become too old?
Then God appeared. Interestingly, God did not begin by explaining the thirteen years of silence. He began by reminding Abraham who He was: “I am God Almighty.”
El Shaddai
Before God addressed Abraham's weakness, He declared His own strength. Before He mentioned Sarah's barrenness or Abraham's age, He established one great truth: human impossibility does not limit divine ability.
God changed Abram's name to Abraham—“father of a multitude”—even though the promised son had not yet been born. He changed Sarai's name to Sarah. He established circumcision as the sign of the covenant. And when God told Abraham that ninety-year-old Sarah would give birth to a son, Abraham fell on his face and laughed. The promise seemed impossible. Yet God would keep it.
The boy would even be named Isaac—“he laughs.” Every time Abraham spoke his son's name, he would be reminded of the day he laughed at the impossibility of God's promise and then watched God do exactly what He had said.
It is in the middle of this extraordinary scene that God promises Canaan as an “everlasting possession.”
What Does “Everlasting” Mean?
The Hebrew word translated “everlasting” is ʿolam. The word can mean everlasting, perpetual, age-lasting, or of long duration. One helpful way of understanding it is to picture something stretching beyond the horizon—beyond the point at which we can presently see its ending.
That distinction is important because ʿolam does not always mean absolute, never-ending eternity. Context determines its meaning.
For example, Exodus 21 describes a servant serving his master “forever.” That obviously does not mean throughout eternity; it means for life. Hannah dedicated Samuel to the Lord “forever,” which the context explains as “as long as he lives.” Jonah described himself as imprisoned beneath the earth “forever,” yet he emerged after three days.
But when Psalm 90:2 says, “From everlasting to everlasting you are God,” the same word reaches its fullest meaning. God truly is eternal, without beginning and without end.
The word has a range of meaning. Context decides how far the horizon extends.
What About the “Everlasting” Sabbath?
One of the clearest examples occurs with the Sabbath. God told Israel in Exodus 31 that the Sabbath was to be a covenant “forever.” The Hebrew word is again ʿolam.
Yet the New Testament makes clear that Christians are not under Israel's seventh-day Sabbath covenant. Paul wrote in Colossians 2:16–17, “Let no one pass judgment on you…with regard to a festival or a new moon or a Sabbath. These are a shadow of the things to come, but the substance belongs to Christ.”
The Sabbath endured throughout the covenantal purpose for which God established it. It served as God's covenant sign with Israel and pointed toward something greater. When Christ came, the shadow gave way to the substance.
A road sign has not failed when you arrive at the destination. It has accomplished its purpose.
That gives us an important principle for reading Scripture: “everlasting” does not necessarily mean that something must continue eternally in precisely the same form. And that brings us back to Abraham.
The Land Was Real, but It Was Not the End
God truly gave Canaan to Abraham's descendants. The Old Testament repeatedly affirms that God fulfilled His promise to Israel. But Abraham himself never possessed the land.
Stephen makes this remarkable observation in Acts 7:5, “God gave him no inheritance in it, not even a foot's length.”
Hebrews 11 tells us that Abraham lived in the land of promise “as in a foreign land.” Why was he willing to live in tents in the very place God had promised him? Because, “He was looking forward to the city that has foundations, whose designer and builder is God.”
Later Hebrews says that Abraham and the patriarchs desired: “A better country, that is, a heavenly one.” The land was real, but the land pointed beyond itself.
Then the New Testament opens the promise even wider. Romans 4:13 describes Abraham not merely as heir of Canaan but as “heir of the world.”
Galatians 3 tells us that Christ is the ultimate Seed of Abraham and then declares: “If you are Christ's, then you are Abraham's offspring, heirs according to promise.”
What began with a piece of land in Canaan ultimately reaches toward something much greater: the kingdom of God and the eternal inheritance of all who belong to Christ.
Abraham could see only so far. God could see beyond the horizon.
Perhaps the Greatest Words Are the Last Ones
We can become so interested in the phrase “everlasting possession” that we overlook the final words of Genesis 17:8: “And I will be their God.” Perhaps that is the greatest promise in the entire verse. Ultimately, Abraham's greatest inheritance was not land. It was God.
Interestingly, only a few chapters later, Genesis 21:33 tells us that Abraham called upon the LORD as El Olam—the Everlasting God. The man who had received an everlasting promise had learned to trust the Everlasting Promiser.
This is where this ancient, difficult passage becomes very personal. Sometimes we find ourselves living in Abraham's thirteen years of silence. We have prayed, waited, wondered, and watched circumstances move in the opposite direction from what we hoped. We cannot see what God is doing.
Abraham couldn't either. He could see old age. God could see Isaac. Abraham could see Sarah's barrenness. God could see a nation. Abraham could see one small stretch of Canaan. God could see Israel, David, Bethlehem, the cross, the resurrection, the church spreading throughout the nations, and ultimately a better country whose builder and maker is God.
Abraham saw to the horizon. God saw beyond it. And He still does.
Join Us Thursday
This Thursday on Bible Study Worldwide, Bob Loudermilk will lead us into Genesis 17:8 as part of our study of the strange and difficult passages of the Bible.
This is more than a Hebrew word study. It is a study about waiting when God seems silent, trusting when circumstances seem impossible, and learning that God's purposes are often much larger than anything we can presently see. Because sometimes what appears to be a difficult verse becomes one of the most reassuring truths in Scripture: God can see farther than we can. And His faithfulness reaches farther than you can see, and then farther still
