“…the Lord made a covenant with Abram and said, ‘to your descendants I will give this land, from the Wadi of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates…’” (Genesis 15:18 NIV). Israel is the only nation in history to whom God has given land. This covenant includes modern-day Israel as well as parts of Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Iraq. God ratified this covenant with a ceremonial sacrifice of animals, and his covenant is untethered to performance.

Has God fulfilled this soil covenant? Not entirely. But will God keep this promise? Charles Swindoll said, “It’s as simple as this: If we cannot trust God to keep his promises to Israel, how can we trust him to keep his promises to us? Never doubt it. God will do what he says he will do.”

Amen!

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God said to Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation…and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).

My passport bears multiple stamps from the nation of Israel. Pharaoh, Haman, and Hitler attempted to eradicate the Jews and failed. Modern-day neighboring nations have sworn to erase Israel from the map. They will fail as well. There are Jews all over the world. God preserves their unique identity because he plans to use them in the end.

God has blessed the world through the seed of Abraham. We have the prophets. We have King David’s psalms. But greatest by far we have a Savior – we have Jesus Christ. We have his Word, his church, and the blessed hope of his return. God kept the seed promise that he made to Abraham.

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God made a promise to Abraham and Abraham’s heirs. Two words serve as subheads for this covenant: seed and soil. First, God promised to bless the seed of Abraham and bless the world through Abraham’s seed. The Lord had said to Abraham, “I will make you into a great nation, and I will bless you; I will make your name great, and you will be a blessing. I will bless those who bless you, and whoever curses you I will curse; and all peoples on earth will be blessed through you” (Genesis 12:2-3).

Why would God make such a covenant with Israel? Not because of anything Israel had to offer. God chose Israel for the same reason he chose you and me: grace. Sheer, sovereign grace. He simply chose them as his billboards of grace.

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God declared a shared dominion. God bequeathed upon his first couple an assignment. They would oversee, superintend, and exercise authority over the earth. Our first parents were placed in charge of real animals and real fish on real land and the real sea. The Hebrew term for rule is “have dominion” or “dominate.”

Adam and Eve fulfilled this promise—until they did not. Their allegiance faltered, but did God’s? Did he change his mind? Abandon his plan? No scripture indicates a shift in divine strategy. God’s covenant was not written with easy-erase markers. God’s Edenic covenant is leading us to a time in which God’s perfected children will reign over a perfect earth.

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Our God is a covenant-making and covenant-keeping God. He does not lie. He cannot lie. He can no more break a promise than you and I can swim the Pacific Ocean. The Scripture says, “God is not a human being, and he will not lie. He is not a human, and he does not change his mind. What he says he will do, he does. What he promises, he makes come true” (Numbers 23:19 NCV).

God is not like us. We remake our decisions and reconsider our opinions. We are prone to make a promise only to break it due to unforeseen circumstances. Not God. He sees the end of history. His decrees are not his desire for the future, they are his description of the future. We are on a divine trajectory governed by his promises. What God has set out to do, he will do.

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You aren’t on a dead-end street. Your journey doesn’t end with your final heartbeat. You are not here for possessions, power, or prestige. The story of Eden is not just the story about the first person but a picture of God’s plan for each person. What God did for Adam he did for you. He formed you. He breathed life into you. And he destined you to serve him in a perfect place. Can you hear him? “I see something great in you. Would you accept my destiny for your life?”

If you’ve never said yes to Jesus, take a moment and do so. It’s not complicated. Just say something to him like this: “Jesus, I am not perfect, for I have sinned. But I believe in you. Save me, change me, forgive me. I give you my life. In Jesus’ name I pray. Amen.”

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God’s storyline concludes with you, me, all his children living, ruling, dining, and serving with him in a perfect world. In the Bible’s final book, these words are said to Jesus: “You were slain, and with your blood you purchased for God persons from every tribe and language and people and nation. You have made them to be a kingdom and priests to serve our God, and they will reign on the earth” (Revelation 5:9-10 NIV).

That’s you, my friend. The final stop in your heavenly itinerary involves not just Eden, but a position of authority in God’s garden. Pause and let that promise sink in: you will reign with Christ. God’s purpose and plan for you may begin in this life, but it won’t be fully realized until the life to come.

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“When they heard the sound of God strolling in the garden in the evening breeze, the Man and his Wife hid in the trees of the garden, hid from God” (Genesis 3:8 MSG). They hid from God! We’ve been hiding ever since. We cover ourselves in work or status. God sought them out. “God called to the Man: ‘Where are you?’” (v. 9). This was not a question of geography. This was a question of the heart.

And God began sending message after message, miracle after miracle, mercy after mercy. In heaven’s finest act of love, God became human. When Jesus died on the cross, he died our death, he paid our price, he took our place. He, the sinless, became a sinner so that we, the sinners, could be regarded as sinless. As a result, God will walk with his children in the garden again.

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After Adam and Eve rebelled, God set in motion a plan of redemption that includes promises, prophets, and miracles. He made a covenant with Abraham. He raised up Joseph in Egypt. He gave courage to David and strength to Esther. But still the people sinned. It would take a perfect man and a perfect sacrifice to overcome it.

Enter Jesus Christ.

Like Adam, Jesus had no earthly father. Like Adam, Jesus was given authority over creation. Like Adam, Jesus was tempted. But unlike Adam, Jesus never sinned. We can thank the apostle Paul for this concise summary found in Romans 5:18 (MSG): “Just as one person did it wrong and got us in all this trouble with sin and death, another person did it right and got us out of it. But more than just getting us out of trouble, he got us into life!”

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Hebrews 2:8 (MSG) reads, “When God put [Adam and Eve] in charge of everything, nothing was excluded. We…don’t see everything under human jurisdiction.” Instead of ruling the world, we feel ruled by the world. We see creation in a state of corruption, eruption, and pollution. What’s more, we don’t see male and female behaving as partners, but often as rivals.

What happened? Sin happened. Rebellion happened. Satan happened. A villain entered the garden. He convinced the couple that the garden was inadequate. They wanted to be like God. And God, who knows what is best for creation, said, “No.” He temporarily suspended the Garden of Eden plan, but he did not cancel it. And he did not abandon it. And he certainly did not abandon us.

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