Job 15:28

28 And he dwelleth [shakan] in desolate [kachad] cities [`iyr], and in houses [bayith] which no man inhabiteth [yashab], which are ready [`athad] to become heaps [gal]. KJV-Interlinear

28 'And he has lived in desolate cities, In houses no one would inhabit, Which are destined to become ruins. NASB

A city is a community of people. It is where people live, interact with one another, work and play. They have a common daily bond, and they enjoy a common protection from others outside the city. Back in Jobs day, cities had walls for protection and security.

Today, we do not have the walls, but we do have the community functions of work, and home life, of shopping and entertainment. Most of us live the bulk of our lives within our hometowns or metropolitan areas. On occasion, we will travel away from home, but for the most part, our lives are centered in our hometowns.

And so the city is the broad picture of social interaction. The home or house, is where our privacy resides. That is where we go to relax, to get away, to sleep and regroup ourselves from a busy day. Inside and behind our locked door, we have some semblance of safety and relief from the day to day stresses we face in life. At home we can kick off our shoes and clothes and feel a little more free and uninhibited from within our privacy.

Home is the place of our hobbies, our sleep, our meals, our family interactions. It is where we can ponder infinity, this weekends plans, or crash in front of the television and not think at all.

But the homes and the cities of this world are temporary. They are not our real homes, nor our real cities.

Where we think, our soul, is the location of our real home. And where we function, our interact within our thoughts, is our real city.

Isaiah has described mans righteousnesses as filthy menstrual rags. Job has describes mans nature as being one of rotting disgust. Both of these indicate that where men lives when God is excluded from the life, is a place where no normal human being would want to visit, let alone live.

And yet, people go about their business from day to day, building cities that do not last, living in homes that sooner or later need repairs and/or are abandoned.

Archaeology has discovered many homes, cities, even civilizations, which have not survived the test of time. And yet people continue to build, repair, and rebuild that which nature often times destroys. People live in a temporal world and too often conform to its character.

The temporal world is a symbol of the spiritual side of life. The spiritual side of life is your real side of life. It is your real home. And just as God often times teaches us to not return to the old ways, to the ways of the sin nature, not to rebuild that which has been cursed as Jericho was cursed, to avoid that which is defiled, and so forth, so we should learn to apply that principle of life to our spiritual side.

Your real life is your spiritual life. You are commanded to live in fellowship, which is the environment of the sin free life. God defines that completely for us within 1st, 2nd, and 3^rd John. Its principles were demonstrated in the Levitical offerings. Job applied these principles of life to his life, as we noted in the first couple of chapters of this book.

But just as humanity has historically built homes and cities in dangerous places, places which suffer disaster after disaster. So too, humanity has ignored his real home within his soul, and he has chosen to build his soul up with the propaganda of this world, rather than with Bible doctrine.

The knowledge of this world is nothing more than wood, hay, and stubble. Things which deteriorate and become worthless. The doctrine, which the Bible teaches, builds an eternal structure of gold, silver, and precious stones. Things of intrinsic value. Things which will last forever and will never lose their value.

The negative person invests in nothing, and gets paid back nothing for his investment.

The spiritually positive person invests in things of infinite value and will receive profits beyond his wildest dreams.

The negative person dwells in homes and cities which become desolate, because he expels everything of value within his home or city. And what is more, they even take pleasure and pride in their destructive accomplishments.

Every ruthless tyrant, destroyed his own kingdom, because of his selfish and arrogant rule. The Soviet Union pursued a program which destroyed their country. Mao nearly destroyed China. Hitler sent Germany down the tubes. Sadaam turned a prosperous nation into one of poverty during his thirty year rule.

History is full of examples in the world, of what you do within your soul, when you exclude truth. God is truth. And Gods Word is not what you invent as truth for yourself.

When you reject the Bible, when you reject Christ, when you reject the principles mandated within the scriptures, when you are indifferent, or antagonistic, or just think you have something better, then you are investing in and building up structures that are going to one day disapprear.

Just as Archaeology has discovered, some, ancient things, we can reasonably guess that there are numerous more that have never and will never be discovered. Those discovered, give evidence and examples of the truth of these words. Those many, which will never be discovered, give evidence of the futility of living outside of the Word of God.

Once we studied the seriousness of ones attitude, or lack thereof, toward God, Christ, and doctrine. Eliphaz is beginning a list of examples of just how serious life without God, really is.

But then, who will believe it?

Now is the time to post a prayer.