Day 6 of 7
Intergenerational Justice
What we owe the children we will never meet
Scripture Readings
Today's Reading
Read Psalm 78:1-8: "Give ear, O my people, to my teaching... We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord... that the next generation might know them, the children yet unborn."
Then read Deuteronomy 6:1-9: "And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart. You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way."
Reflection
The Bible is relentlessly intergenerational. It does not think in terms of quarterly earnings or election cycles. It thinks in terms of "your children, and your children's children" (Deuteronomy 4:9). Faithfulness is not measured by what we achieve in our lifetimes but by what we pass on to those who come after us.
Psalm 78 frames the entire purpose of Israel's history as a gift to future generations. The psalmist recounts God's mighty deeds — the exodus, the wilderness, the conquest — not for nostalgia but for transmission. "We will not hide them from their children, but tell to the coming generation the glorious deeds of the Lord." The purpose of remembering is passing on. Every generation is a bridge between the past and the future.
Deuteronomy 6 extends this to daily life. God's commands are to be woven into the fabric of family existence — discussed while walking, eating, lying down, rising up. Faith is not inherited automatically. It is transmitted through intentional, daily, embodied practice. Each generation is responsible for ensuring that the next one receives what it needs to flourish.
This intergenerational framework has profound implications for environmental stewardship. If we are responsible for what we pass on to our children, then degrading the climate, depleting the soil, poisoning the water, and driving species to extinction are not merely environmental problems — they are failures of intergenerational justice. We are taking from people who have no voice, no vote, and no ability to hold us accountable.
C.S. Lewis saw this clearly in The Abolition of Man, where he warned about the power each generation holds over its successors: "Each generation exercises power over its successors: and each, in so far as it modifies the environment bequeathed to it and rebels against tradition, resists and limits the power of its predecessors." Lewis was writing about education and technology, but the principle applies directly to the environment. The generation that depletes the earth's resources exercises power over every generation that follows — power that the future generations never consented to and cannot resist.
Tim Keller connected stewardship to faith: "What we do with the world now — how we shape it, care for it, or exploit it — is a statement about what we believe about God and what we owe to the next generation." Environmental carelessness is not just bad policy. It is a theological statement: it says that the present matters more than the future, that our comfort matters more than our children's survival, and that the earth is ours to consume rather than God's to steward.
Going Deeper
The biblical vision of faithfulness is profoundly long-term. Abraham planted trees he would never sit under. Moses led a people to a land he would never enter. Jesus founded a church that would outlast every empire. What are you planting that you will never see mature? What are you protecting so that your grandchildren will have it? Faithfulness is measured not by what we consume but by what we conserve.
Key Quotes
“Each generation exercises power over its successors: and each, in so far as it modifies the environment bequeathed to it and rebels against tradition, resists and limits the power of its predecessors. This modifies the picture which is sometimes painted of a progressive emancipation from tradition and a progressive control of natural processes resulting in a continual increase of human power. In reality, of course, if any one age really attains, by eugenics and scientific education, the power to make its descendants what it pleases, all men who live after it are the patients of that power.”
“What we do with the world now — how we shape it, care for it, or exploit it — is a statement about what we believe about God and what we owe to the next generation.”
Prayer Focus
Pray for your children, grandchildren, and the generations yet to come — that you would leave them not only faith but a world they can flourish in.
Meditation
Psalm 78 speaks of telling the next generation about God's mighty deeds. What are you passing on — and is the world you are handing forward better or worse than the one you received?
Question for Discussion
C.S. Lewis warned that each generation holds power over those that follow — power that can be used to liberate or to diminish. If we are degrading the climate, soil, water, and biodiversity that future generations will depend on, is that a form of injustice against people who have no voice and no vote? How should Christians weigh present economic needs against future environmental consequences?