Covenant Lines Among the Wicked Kings of Judah

After referring to four notoriously wicked kings in the line of David, a reader asks,

1) Assuming they were all regenerated, how can such a powerful seed (as that of regeneration) lie dormant and not bear fruit in a given generation?

2) By what curious and mysterious method does the covenant transmit from generation to generation? I’m sure it is not helpful to think horticulturally, biologically or by genetics. Is there some useful way of thinking or understanding this transmission?

3) Does the covenant transcend sinful procreation (Gen. 38; Matt. 1:3)?

4) Can the covenant promises run out a generation or more in NT families?

These are interesting and thoughtful questions of no little importance.

You will understand that the underlying assumption of all the questions is the truth that God establishes His covenant with His elect people in the line of generations (Gen. 17:7; Acts 2:39). This is true not only in the old dispensation, but also in the new. Baptists typically deny this truth. Baptists generally disagree that God establishes His covenant with His elect people in both old and new dispensations. In the old dispensation, God did not establish His covenant with His elect people but with the entire nation of Israel, that is, with every one that was a Jew, and the covenant was national and pertained to earthly promises; in the new dispensation, so Baptists continue, God makes His covenant only with believers. Hence, while in the old dispensation circumcision was a sign of the covenant and had to be performed upon every Jewish male, in the new dispensation baptism did not take the place of circumcision, but is a new sign for a new covenant established only with believers; hence Baptists hold to believers’ only baptism.

It is clear that this view is basically dispensationalism and an impossible division between the church of the old dispensation and the church of the new dispensation—whether Baptists agree or not. I have developed this argument more extensively in my book, We and Our Children: The Reformed Doctrine of Infant Baptism, available from the CPRC Bookstore for £9.90 (inc. P&P within the UK) and from the Reformed Free Publishing Association for those in N. America (www.rfpa.org).

First, the questioner is certainly correct that the seed of regeneration does not and cannot lie dormant in the hearts of those regenerated. The seed of regeneration is indeed too powerful to lie dormant. It is the implanting of the life of Christ. Hence, we must conclude that those wicked kings of Judah were not regenerated at all.

Dr. Abraham Kuyper taught the false view that baptism is to be administered on the grounds of presupposed regeneration, arguing that it was possible that the seed of regeneration lay dormant for a long time. He used the figure of very old grain seeds, found in the pyramids of Egypt, which sprouted when they were planted and watered.

Second, the questioner is also correct that God’s saving His people in the line of generations cannot be understood in terms of natural causes, whether horticultural, biological or genetic. The fulfilment of the covenant promise in the line of generations is a wonder performed by sovereign grace according to God’s unconditional election.

Third, it seems true indeed that generations were skipped in the OT, as is especially evident in the line of the kings who ruled in Judah. They were all of the seed of David; they all stood in the line of Christ; yet some were undoubtedly reprobate.

This brings us to the heart of the question. Were generations skipped in the fulfilment of the promises of God’s covenant established in the line of generations? And if so, as seems apparent, does this happen in the new dispensation as well?

A couple of things have to be remembered. For one thing, sometimes, though rarely, a brother of the old king (not his son) succeeded him on the throne. I do not know whether it ever took place that a regenerated brother took the place of an unregenerated brother. There does not seem to be any instance of this but it is a possibility

It is possible also that while a good king such as Hezekiah followed a monster of wickedness, Ahaz, God used the piety of a mother to preserve the line of the covenant. In other words, the covenant was continued from one generation to the next through a godly mother. (I Corinthians 7:14 proves that this happens in the new dispensation. History also tells us of instances of this, as in the case of Augustine, born of a wicked father and a godly mother.) In such instances, salvation did not skip a generation.

Nevertheless, there is something else about this question which must be said in this connection: the line of Judah’s kings was the line of Christ! That line had to be preserved, for through it God had promised to send the Messiah. It may very well be, therefore, that, in spite of wicked men in David’s line, God did skip generations to preserve the line of Christ. That does not seem to me to be impossible.

Also it seems to be true from the viewpoint that Israel as a whole was the people of God and the elect were always found in the nation. It may be that in the church of the old dispensation it was possible for generations to be skipped in the establishment of His covenant because the general principle was maintained that God saves in the line of generations, especially when salvation is limited to one nation.

The same may happen in the new dispensation as well. I have been surprised in my own work to see that God still brings out of the apostate and false Roman Catholic Church some elect people. To say that these elect people came from covenant lines, that is, from lines in which always one or the other parent was a genuine believer, is simply not true. These people, rescued from idolatrous Romanism, may be like brands plucked out of the burning but we all know it does happen.

If God is pleased in His infinite mercy to save a few here or there born in lines where the covenant has long disappeared, the general rule remains that, in the church of Christ and the historical line of the covenant, He saves believers and their seed. And, according to the purpose of God, lines that are cut off from the covenant because of unbelief are not restored again to that covenant. Not only is election in the line of generations but reprobation also is in the line of generations (Ex. 20:5). Branches cut off from the olive tree are not re-ingrafted, although here and there a twig might be saved from the pile that is to be burned.

When God works in these unusual ways, it is to show us that all who are saved, in the lines of generations or outside these lines, are saved by sovereign grace according to God’s eternal decision. He alone is sovereign and must be praised!