THE EVERLASTING HILLS

Scripture citations are to the King James (Authorised) Version, unless noted otherwise.

‘The blessings of thy father have prevailed . . . unto the utmost bound

of the everlasting hills.’

Genesis 49: 26

BUT OF COURSE, those hills are not really everlasting. The hills and mountains which the Old Testament patriarchs gazed on thousands of years ago have weathered, just like all other eminences around the planet, from Mt. Sinai to Mt. Everest. Nothing composed of rock or soil remains the same in an environment of wind and rain, and the mighty geologic forces which have shaped our earth. And given enough time, they will all wear away.

Man’s natural and social environment is relatively unstable and constantly changes around him. It also changes him, as it is often a cause of grief and dislocation. Shorelines retreat and houses drop into the sea and fields are flooded by salt water. He is at the mercy of typhoons and tornadoes, and all the vagaries of climate, cold and hot. Pollutants abroad in the air contaminate his body and lodge there. Even in our social and psychological environment, the proliferation of notions and ideas modify and shape our opinions, and even alter our vocabulary, consciously or subconsciously. Each one of us is the product of forces operating from without and within.

These effects are not necessarily all bad, nor all the result of man’s fall into sin. True, after Adam’s ejection from the Garden of Eden, God told him that from then on the soil would yield ‘thorns and thistles’, making the basic business of raising food difficult and life-threatening.

But even in the congenial environment of Eden, it was necessary that Adam maintain the ground (Genesis 2: 15, NIV-UK): ‘The LORD God took the man and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it.

It is reasonable to suppose there was in Eden a natural, dynamic cycle of growth and benign decay. Dying vegetation would nourish the soil, for example. Adam’s own metabolism would have produced waste; he would have tired and been obliged to sleep to replenish cells, and so forth. Alteration and growth of body and mind are permanent features of the human condition, just as it is in the nature of hills to suffer erosion.

Here Today, Here Tomorrow

In our heading text (Genesis 49: 26), the Hebrew word for ‘everlasting’ is owlam. It signifies, not infinity, but an indeterminate point in the future not the terminus, but a destination that once reached, reveals another, just as far away.

It is not what we can see or measure which is eternal, but the Almighty Maker who stands behind all, out of sight and beyond our reach. He is the unchanging one, who inhabits eternity (Isaiah 57: 15). He is truly from everlasting to everlasting from owlam to owlam, unaltered across a series of endings and beginnings, from horizon to horizon. And His assurance to us is that no matter how things change or decay around us, He can never change. This is a promise of especial comfort to us during our sojourn in the valley of the shadow of death.

God thus dissects eternity into chunks, bringing it down to human scale. It’s like looking towards the horizon the farthest you can see. Abraham was told that the number of his offspring would be ‘as the stars of the heaven’ (Genesis 22: 17). Of course, there were many more stars beyond those visible to Abraham. But he could see owlam far enough to understand the promise.

Like eternity, human history is made up of periods of change or dispensations, with reasonably-defined beginnings and endings, frequently styled ‘the divine plan of the ages’ by Bible students. And as each age approaches its appointed horizon it becomes difficult or impossible for each contemporary generation to see the details of the next one. This explains why predictions usually fail.

The Countervailing Force

The prophets of the Old Testament could not operate in defiance of this rule; they could not discern what was not revealed to them. See 2 Kings 4: 27 (of Elijah): ‘the Lord hath hid it from me, and hath not told me’; Ephesians 3: 8, 9: ‘which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God . . .’ (and compare v. 5). Only by heavenly intervention were they accorded insights into the future. This principle will apply broadly to the rehabilitation of mankind to the perfection lost in Eden. When the Kingdom of God is established in the earth, under Christ, the restoration of ‘all things’ will begin (Acts 3: 19-25).

But it will not be enough for the process of death to be halted, like stopping a watch. That simply produces a static state. It must be reversed that is, living must become the dominant, default condition. This will require an intervention beyond our ken a miracle of miracles. The eternal life promised to mankind is not only a matter of not dying, but will be a condition in which dying is never possible and in which the vitality of life pervades everyone. In such a perfect state, Man will be free to enlarge his mind and scope of action in ways inconceivable now, secure in an unfailing future (1 Corinthians 2: 9):

‘Eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love him.’

Conclusion

In all this we see a clear distinction between animal and human existence. Made in the image of God, Man is unique, made for eternity.

He may share some biological and anatomical attributes with some lower creatures, but unlike them, he will never die, once the process of resurrection and restitution is completed.

Only to Man, with his capacity for faith, repentance and obedience to the will of God, is eternal life on offer.

It is not the semi-durable, eroding quality of this present world which underpins our hopes for the future, for everything now is in a state of flux. No, it is the unchangeableness of God that is the guarantee of permanence. And the Scriptures say that even the Saviour is ‘the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever [the ages, to perpetuity]’ (Hebrews 13: 8; comments added).

As age rolls upon age, restored mankind will rejoice in fellowship with the everlasting God and an everlasting Saviour, and the Divine grace and goodness which he will never outlive (Ephesians 3: 21): ‘Unto [God] be glory in the church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end.’

Change and decay in all around I see:

O thou who changest not, abide with me.

– H.F. Lyte

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