Without a doubt, the most serious way in which we are not protecting our descendants is with regard to financial irresponsibility. Our national debt is approaching 35 trillion dollars, representing a personal debt of $105,000 for every individual (adult, teen, child, toddler, and newborn) living in America. We are all in serious debt, and we don’t care. We will just pass it on to our descendants. Apparently, we are living in agreement with King Hezekiah. The news is good, because it won’t blow up in my lifetime. It will not be my problem in my days.

We spend our middle adult years protecting our children. Indeed, parenting represents the most expensive and difficult responsibility of our lives. We baby-proof our houses. We warn them about the dangers of living in the 21st century. We educate them to be productive members of society. We seek to protect them from the dangers of drug abuse. We invest our retirement dollars so that we do not become burdens on them.

It is an overwhelming challenge, and perhaps we all have at least a few regrets about certain decisions we made and priorities we chose. Then we run out of energy and are delighted to move beyond the parenting stage to the grandparenting years. Instead of continually putting out substantial dollars for the benefit of our children, we eagerly move into the next role. According to the 1978 Nobel Literature prize winner Isaac Bashevis Singer, “Children come with labor pains, but grandchildren are pure profit” (In My Father’s Court). We are finished with our parenting sort of responsibilities—or maybe not. What are our responsibilities to the future and more distant generations?

King Hezekiah of Judah is described by the writer of 2 Chronicles as a good king, in the tradition of King David (29:2). Yet, like King David, he had his human frailties, such as that described in Isaiah 39, when he succumbed to pride and showmanship by displaying his kingly wealth to the envoys from the King of Babylon. The prophet Isaiah confronts the king with the prophecy that Judah’s wealth would be looted and carried away to Babylon in the days of his descendants.

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