The Everlasting Covenant

To be fulfilled after the Resurrection

This enables us to understand why Stephen, when he was upon his trial for preaching Jesus, began his talk with a reference to these very words. Speaking of Abraham’s coming into the land of Canaan, he said that God “gave him none inheritance in it, no, not so much as to set his foot on; yet He promised that He would give it to him for a possession, and to his seed after him, when as yet he had no child.” ¹ In thus referring to this promise, which was well known to all the Jews, Stephen showed them most plainly that it could be fulfilled only by the resurrection of the dead through Jesus. EVCO 72.1