Bible Study—The Everlasting Covenant

Updated August 12, 2025

Has God Broken the Covenant With Abraham and Isaac?

• Genesis 17:7 I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you [Abraham] throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you.”
• Genesis 17:8 All the land of Canaan, where you now live as strangers, I will give to you and to your descendants for an everlasting possession, and I will be their God.
• Genesis 17:13 He who is born in your house and he who is bought with your money must be circumcised. My covenant shall be in your [Abraham’s] flesh as an everlasting covenant.
• Genesis 17:19 Then God said, “No, but your wife Sarah will bear you a son, and you will call his name Isaac. I will establish My covenant with him [Isaac] as an everlasting covenant and with his descendants after him.
• 1 Chronicles 16:15-18 Remember His covenant forever, the word He commanded for a thousand generations, that He made with Abraham, even His oath to Isaac. He confirmed it to Jacob as a statute, to Israel for an everlasting covenant, saying, “To you I will give the land of Canaan as the portion of your inheritance.”

What Is An Everlasting Covenant?

Words have meanings. The word covenant means “an agreement, usually formal, between two or more persons to do or not do something specified.”

Covenant is a legal term¹. “The individual making the promise or agreement is known as the covenantor, and the individual to whom  such promise is made is called the covenantee.“

Jews and engrafted Christians are covenantees.²

One party to a covenant can violate the covenant, but all parties must agree to dissolve a covenant. Jews and Christians have violated the everlasting covenant. As in all contractual agreements, there are penalties for violating a covenant. Penalties are consequential to a violation of the covenant.

Exploring the Meaning of the Parable

Our English word parable translates to the Spanish word parábola. The English word parabola refers to a geometric term. It means “a conic section formed by the intersection of a cone by a plane parallel to its side.”

While an engineer with an aerospace DOD contractor, airborne radar was my specialty.

Have you seen a large satellite TV antenna on the roof of a home? Is it on a pole in the yard of a home? Protruding from the center of the antenna dish is a feedhorn located at the focal point of the parabolic dish. The dish can be tiny, something someone can hold in their hand. The largest ever built was the Arecibo Radio Dish located near Arecibo, Puerto Rico. It is 305 meters (1,000.7 feet) in diameter. The focal point of that antenna is approximately 168 meters (550 feet) above the parabolic dish.

Scientists labored for 20 years, hoping to find intelligent life elsewhere in the universe. ET³ never called.⁴

From Jesus’ Mouth To Our Ears: The Parables

The ‘dish’ of Jesus’ parables (parábolas) brought divine truths to the attention of the hearers.

Jesus’ Parable of the Vineyard and the Vinedressers

The focal point of the parable of the vineyard and the Vinedressers is the people’s disobedience. These people were part of God’s everlasting covenant with the descendants of Abraham through the lineage of his son, Isaac. Those Jewish people who rejected Jesus broke the covenant; God did not break his side of the bargain.

A cornerstone is the starting place in the construction of a building. Jesus is the cornerstone of the ἐκκλησία. This is pronounced ekklésia. It means the called-out assembly of believers in Jesus Christ, the church.⁵

Who were the first called-out believers?

The twelve apostles were Jews. Jesus was a Jew. The Day of Pentecost is conflated with the Jewish holiday of Shavuot, but these are not the same. Shavuot commemorates the spring harvest and the giving of the Torah on Mount Sinai. “Pentecost” comes from the Greek meaning “fifty.” It commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit on the Apostles. It also marks the birth of the early church.⁶

Acts chapter 2, verses 1 through 13, tells the story of the coming of the Holy Spirit. At the time, devout Jews and Jewish Proselytes were “dwelling in Jerusalem” from every nation under heaven. They were ALL filled with the Holy Spirit. Onlookers accused those who received the Holy Spirit as drunk with wine.⁷

By no means were the proselytes descendants of Isaac. The Arabs mentioned at the end of the list in verse 11 were descendants of Ishmael.

John the Baptist was a Jew and a blood relative of Jesus Christ. The Ten Commandments and the Old Testament came to us through the Jews. The authors of the New Testament were Jews, except Luke. Jewish authors of the New Testament include Matthew, Mark, John, Paul, James, Peter, and Jude. The author of Hebrews is uncertain.

To those who by patiently doing good seek for glory and honor and immortality will be eternal life. But to those who are contentious and do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, indignation, and wrath, will be tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man who does evil, to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile. But glory, honor, and peace will be to every man who does good work—to the Jew first, and then to the Gentile, for there is no partiality with God.⁸

The 12 apostles were commissioned to take the Good News to the Jews. The Apostle Paul took the Good News to the Gentiles.

Contrary to the modern idea that proselytizing was a Christian invention, it was generally common to many ethnic peoples. The Jews were proselytizing around 1906 BC, as recorded in Genesis 34. Evidence of Jewish proselytes appears in the list in Acts chapter 2, the people groups there on the Day of Pentecost.

The End Times Jews

Jewish Christians are called Messianic Jews. There is a cornucopia of Messianic ministries in Israel.⁹ One, the King of Kings Ministries, is an international partner of my church, Lakepointe Church.

Here in the United States is a plethora of Messianic Jewish ministries. The Messianic Jewish Congregations Directory lists churches and Kehillah (Communities), 142 in the United States and Canada.

How can we know when Jesus will return? How can we know when the final war against Israel will happen? You can’t. Period. When you hear someone predicting the rapture, turn it off. If a TV preacher or evangelist predicts the second coming of Jesus, turn it off. Why? Jesus explains:

“But concerning that day and hour no one knows, not even the angels of heaven, nor the Son,^[a] but the Father only. For as were the days of Noah, so will be the coming of the Son of Man. For as in those days before the flood they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day when Noah entered the ark, and they were unaware until the flood came and swept them all away, so will be the coming of the Son of Man…for the Son of Man is coming at an hour you do not expect.“¹⁰

The Restoration of Israel

The nation of Israel was spiritually imperfect. It was their wickedness that caused their downfall. The Bible foretold the reemergence of Israel, in spite of the sins of the people. Circa 585 BC¹¹, the Lord declared:

Therefore say to the house of Israel, Thus says the Lord God: I do not do this for your sake, O house of Israel, but for My holy name’s sake which you have profaned among the nations where you went. I will vindicate the sanctity of My great name which was profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in their midst. Then the nations shall know that I am the Lord, says the Lord God, when I shall be sanctified among you before their eyes.

Excerpt from the Modern English Bible, Ezekiel 36:16-38

Conclusion

Jesus commissioned Messianic Jews to go to the Jews first around 30 AD. In the year 2025, Messianic Jews continue to go to the Jews first. God never recanted His everlasting covenant. The Bible and history unmistakably point to this fact: the Gospel came to the world through the Jews.¹² Jesus was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel, the Jews.¹³ The Messianic Jews were assigned the responsibility to communicate the Gospel to the entire world.¹⁴

God has never forsaken the Jewish people.¹⁵ Replacement theology has displaced the clear relationship between the Church and the Jews. The Bible warns believers in Jesus Christ against assuming superiority over the unbelieving Jews.¹⁶

The New Testament was chiefly written by Jews and has a Jewish context.

Another aspect of the Gospel to understand is reconciliation. The apostle Paul introduces reconciliation in the book of Romans.¹⁷ A time will come when both Jews and Christians are reconciled to God the Father. This reconciliation is made possible through the death of His Son, Jesus. The prophet Isaiah foretold a last-day reconciliation of the Jews to God.¹⁸ Paul’s letter to the Romans affirms this reconciliation.¹⁹

Why would God reconcile the Jews to Himself? Isn’t the answer obvious?

Your comments are welcome.²⁰

John White
Rockwall, Texas

Footnotes

1. The Legal Dictionary: covenant ↩︎
2. Modern English Bible, Romans 11:17-24 ↩︎
3. Wikipedia-E.T. (character) ↩︎
4. Electronic Design magazine, May 7, 2025: SETI Celebrates 30 Years of Searching for Extraterrestrial Signals ↩︎
5. Bible Hub, Strong’s G1577 ↩︎
6. MyJewishLearning.com: Shavout 101 ↩︎
7. The Modern English Bible, Acts 2:1-13 ↩︎
8. The Modern English Bible, Romans 2:7-11 ↩︎
9. Kehila News, Directory of Messianic Organizations in Israel ↩︎
10. The Modern English Bible, Matthew 24:36-44 ↩︎
11. Bible Timeline, Old Testament, Ezekiel 36 ↩︎
12. The Modern English Bible, Isaiah 53:1-12 ↩︎
13. The Modern English Bible, Matthew 15:21-28 ↩︎
14. The Modern English Bible, Matthew 28:15-20 ↩︎
15. The Modern English Bible, Romans 11:1-3 ↩︎
16. The Modern English Bible, Romans 1:17-24 ↩︎
17. The Modern English Bible, Romans 5:10 ↩︎
18. The Modern English Bible, Isaiah 59:20 ↩︎
19. The Modern English Bible, Romans 11:26 ↩︎
20. Bible History Daily, Uncovering the Jewish Context of the New Testament ↩︎