It is perhaps inevitable that each generation should leave certain tasks unfinished for the generation that follows. While every generation has the enormous opportunity to do much good during their brief sojourn on the world stage, societies inevitably fail to achieve all that was within their potential. Every generation has enormous possibilities, but few fully rise to the occasion.
Nowhere is this more evident than in terms of justice. The founders of the American nation produced a magnificent constitution guaranteeing liberty and freedom for all. But many of those who signed the declaration owned slaves. These people knew that there were still wrongs that had to be righted, but for another day.
David knew that during his reign, his associate Joab had committed grievous sins. Yet David never confronted his evil colleague. David would go to his grave without dealing with the sin in his camp. But he asked his son to! David may have felt that he had compromised himself too much for him to act righteously toward Joab. Perhaps David felt like Joab had too much “dirt” on him. Maybe David cringed from this type of confrontation. Whatever the reason, David would pass on important tasks for his son Solomon to undertake.
What is it in our generation that we must confront because our parents did not? What might we be inadvertently passing on to our children rather than dealing with it ourselves?