The Everlasting God, Genesis 21:33

Tonight we are going to focus on a single verse, Gen 21:33, where Abraham is said to plant a tree near the well he had dug at Beer-sheba, and to call upon the name of the Lord, the everlasting God. The KJV says he planted a grove, but the word is really singular, meaning a tamarisk tree, and that is how it is translated elsewhere in the KJV and everywhere by all other translations except the Geneva Bible. Recall that groves of trees were used by some idol worshipers to accommodate their places of worship. That may be why the Geneva Bible used the word grove, but I don’t think that’s what Abraham was doing here.

Abraham, we need to remember, was not hampered by the later restriction on the children of Israel that their sacrifices were to be offered at the tabernacle or temple, for the simple reason that there was no tabernacle or temple. So, we often read of Abraham building an altar. This location at Beer-sheba became a semi-permanent place for Abraham to live. In v. 34 it says, “And Abraham sojourned in the Philistines’ land many days.” In the next chapter, at Genesis 22:19, we read, “So Abraham returned unto his young men, and they rose up and went together to Beer-sheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beer-sheba.”

For a long time, Abraham settled into a roaming back and forth between Hebron and Beer-sheba, which were about 30 miles apart. Hebron was where Abraham was at the time of the destruction of Sodom. The episode with Sarah being taken into Abimelech’s harem happened near Beer-sheba. We just read that Abraham lived in Beer-sheba for some time, and Sarah eventually died near Hebron, almost 40 years after Isaac was born.

We learn later that Jacob, on his way to Egypt, offered sacrifices in Beer-sheba (Gen 46:1), so it is probable that Abraham had built an altar to the Lord there, and that is what is meant by the mention in our verse of Abraham calling on the name of the Lord.

What was the tree for?

Let’s think for a minute about what this tree may have been for. It’s interesting that the planting of this tree is mentioned among the things that Abraham does. We know very little about Abraham’s day-to-day life, but everything written about him seems to be of some spiritual importance.

Abraham has just completed a transaction, a covenant, with Abimelech, trying to establish his claim and right to the well at Beer-sheba. Wherever he turns, his possession of the property that God promised him is being challenged in some way or other. It would be the same way with Isaac. We read later in chapter 26, v. 18, “And Isaac digged again the wells of water, which they had digged in the days of Abraham his father; for the Philistines had stopped them after the death of Abraham.”

Abraham has but a single son now to perpetuate the descendants that are supposed to become as numerous as the grains of sand on the seashore, and as many as the stars in the heavens. Part of the church, the family and household of Lot, have essentially disappeared, and, indeed, the seeds of future enemies have been planted in Lot’s sons, Moab and Ammon. As far as appearances are concerned, it’s a tenuous grasp that Abraham maintains on his inheritance.

Imagine yourself on the American frontier 150 years ago. If you were going to lay claim to a piece of land, you might build a house, or fence in a stretch of pasture land. You might have the land surveyed and staked out with markers. I think this tree under which Abraham would eventually set his tent was something like this. It didn’t really mean much in the grand scheme of things, but it was about the most permanent thing that Abraham could set in place in the world he lived in. From a certain point of view, it was a rather sad and poignant emblem of the kind of fragile permanence that Abraham was experiencing.

To be honest, this tree is much like the way we feel in our attempt at starting a church through our Bible study. We have a few people coming, but many of those that show up regularly are not the people we expect to stay with us as the church begins. Some of our original adherents are moving away, others are an uncertain quantity at this point. The churches to which we have applied are not moving very fast in considering our situation as people scatter from us. The Bible study and our prayer meetings are our foothold on the beginnings of a church, but they seem to be pretty insubstantial, objectively speaking.

The Everlasting God

In contrast to the tree that Abraham planted, a tree that would eventually die, in this verse we have something quite different in the new name by which Abraham calls on God. “And he called there on the name of the Lord, the everlasting God.” First, we state the obvious, namely that this God is not a new god, but the Lord himself, the covenant-making and covenant-keeping God, Yahweh, who is now revealing himself to Abraham by a new name. He is called here אֵ֥ל עוֹלָֽם  (El-olam), the everlasting God.

We sometimes make a distinction between eternality and the quality of being everlasting. Eternity, we consider, extends back into the endless past and forward into the endless future, whereas everlastingness emphasizes the future. In that sense, the men and angels are everlasting, whereas God is eternal. But this word olam includes both eternities, and technically, it would be just as well translated to say “the eternal God” (which is how the NIV and NLT translate it). For example, the word is used in Psalm 77:5, “I have considered the days of old, The years of ancient times (olamim).” And in Psalm 93:2, “Thy throne is established of old: Thou art from everlasting (olam).”

However, exegetically, it’s clear that it is God’s everlasting future nature that is in view here in this verse. The point is that God is not going away, his promises are not going to fail, he is not going to abandon his frail servant Abraham, despite appearances to the contrary. God, unlike our fallen world, is permanent and steadfast.

While this is the first time in Genesis that God has been called by this name, his everlasting nature could have been discerned earlier from his covenant promises. In Genesis 17 God had said, “I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee. And I will give unto thee, and to thy seed after thee, the land wherein thou art a stranger, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” In fact, this aspect of God’s being is so fundamental to who he is that we cannot even imagine a God that is limited in time and only temporary. But at this stage in Abraham’s life, God thought it good to emphasize the everlasting aspect of his nature.

This natural, integral connection between eternity and God’s being may account for the scarcity of times the Bible uses this word “everlasting” as a name for God. We just know it inherently and assume it. But when the Bible does use this name, it happens when the people of God desperately need to hear it, and it is perhaps the most comforting reassurance that we can receive at such a time.

Listen to the prophet Isaiah: “Hast thou not known? hast thou not heard, that the everlasting God, the Lord, the Creator of the ends of the earth, fainteth not, neither is weary? There is no searching of his understanding,” (Is 40:28). Who is Isaiah speaking to? He is speaking to a people who need comfort. The chapter begins by saying, “Comfort ye, comfort ye my people, saith your God,” (Is 40:1). It is a people who say, “My way is hid from the Lord, and my judgment is passed over from my God,” (Is 40:27). It is a fainting people, it is a weary people. It is a confused people. But the everlasting God neither faints nor is weary, nor lacks understanding. He is a God we can lean on in days of apprehension and fear. When we are strangers in the land of our inheritance, the everlasting God is the guarantee that we will one day receive it, and we may therefore lift up our heads in that confidence, despite the way the world around us appears to the eye of mortal man.