Read 2 Samuel 7:16-29

“For You have made Your people Israel Your very own people forever; and You, LORD, have become their God.” (2 Samuel 7:24)

Oh, the faithfulness of God! He has made the nation of Israel His own special people, and has promised them a wonderful future with Jesus Christ as their lasting King. Away with those who believe that the church has replaced Israel because of their unfaithfulness! What a destructive theology! — to teach a view of God who abandons His chosen due to their failings. This is a notion foreign to Scriptures.

Since when has man’s disloyalty thwarted the faithfulness of God? And how could we, the church, ever find comfort knowing that God cast off Israel for the church? Has not history shown that the church, too, though grace with Christ’s salvation, has wallowed in unfaithfulness as much as Israel? It is this very reason why the Muslims have a replacement theology of their own. As the church replaced Israel, so they believe Islam has replaced the Church because of the its dark history. Christians laugh at the thought, and yet those Christians who believe they replaced Israel do the same.

I wonder — what would King David think of all this replacement theology? I say, he would, without hesitation, arm his sling with a smooth stone of truth to strike down this new Goliath which profanes the faithfulness of God.

Now, let's lean in and look closer at the context of David’s words in our selected verse. The prophet Nathan has declared God’s unilateral covenant to build up David’s house, and now David sits before the LORD, praying and praising Him for His faithfulness. It is in this setting that David says: “For You have made Your people Israel Your very own people forever; and You, LORD, have become their God.”

Forever? Yes, forever! But some might say: How should we interpret the word “forever”? If the plain definition of the word is not enough, perhaps a quick survey of God's own usage in the Old Testament will establish its meaning. I give you two clean examples.

Unsurprisingly, the first time we see this Hebrew word in the Scriptures, it is used by God in the very beginning after Adam’s dreadful sin in the garden.

“Then the LORD God said, “Behold, the man has become like one of Us, to know good and evil. And now, lest he put out his hand and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live forever”—” (Genesis 3:22)

Notice — God is not speaking to man here, but with Himself in the Trinity. Would God use the word forever with Himself in a way that is not true? What benefit would it be for God to exaggerate with Himself? Forever must mean forever. It's the only explanation for such severity in banishing Adam and Eve from the tree.

Just a few chapters later, in Genesis 9, God uses this word again with Noah.

“The rainbow shall be in the cloud, and I will look on it to remember the everlasting covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is on the earth.”(Genesis 9:16)

Here, it is translated everlasting. To ensure that we would never take the rainbow as a conditional promise, God tells Noah and all humanity that His covenant is, indeed, everlasting! He will never again destroy the earth with a flood.

Now, shall we expect any less in God’s usage of the word when speaking to King David — the man after God’s own heart? Certainly not! And neither did the Apostle Paul who clearly said in Romans:

“I say then, has God cast away His people [Israel]? Certainly not! … God has not cast away His people whom He foreknew…” (Romans 11:1–2)

God’s plans are established in the heavens! God will always have His special eye on the nation of Israel — even in their unfaithfulness — and He is using them as a channel of blessing to the world (see Genesis 12:3) for His glory (Isaiah 43:7), and His witness to the nations (see Isaiah 43:10). This relationship is irrevocable!

Thus, we shall praise God and rejoice, just as David did, for we as the church of Christ have been grafted in (see Romans 11:16-18), have become partakers of the commonwealth of Israel (see Ephesians 2:12), and have become a special people unto the Lord (see 1 Peter 2:9; Titus 2:14).

Truly Beloved, it is the unyielding faithfulness of God to Israel that we find an anchor for our trust in His loyalty to us, His church! God’s steadfastness is unshakable!

“But you, O Lord, are a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness." (Psalm 86:15)