10 Thy holy [qodesh] cities [`iyr] are a wilderness [midbar], Zion [Tsiyown] is a wilderness [midbar], Jerusalem [Yaruwshalaim] a desolation [shamamah].      KJV-Interlinear

10 Thy holy cities have become a wilderness, Zion has become a wilderness, Jerusalem a desolation.  NASB

And now, the holy cities have become a wasteland.  What is a wasteland?  What is a city for that matter? 

Well, a city is a collection of people in some local area.  That seems simple enough.  But when you have a group of people in a local area, who have virtually no doctrine in their souls, then you have a pattern of a spiritually empty society.

Add to that the multiplicity of cities, and you then have a region or a country, which is deficient of any kind of spiritual life.

With a country void of doctrine, then that means that the country is void of legitimate thinking.  Truth is lacking, therefore the lies of society’s various beliefs becomes the status quo.  When that is true, trouble is on the horizon.

Zion is a wilderness, or a wasteland.   What is Zion?  Zion is the mountain of Jerusalem.  What is Jerusalem?  Jerusalem is the city of peace. What is peace?  Peace is the attainment of spiritual maturity. 

When one is mature, then one is satisfied, one is at rest within himself, one is contented, one is prosperous and so forth.

You cannot attain spiritual maturity without doctrine.  Zion is the vast mountain of Gods Word.  When it is not being utilized, then its production becomes void.  Thus, the people are not interested in doctrine, and therefore they must be using the only thing, which is left to be used.  And that, is the body of lies which governs the jungle, or the common thought of the world.

When truth is ignored, when legitimate production as a result, is reduced to nothing, then the only thing left for any given onlooker, is astonishment.   That is the meaning of the word ‘shamamah.’  It is a beautiful place, which is void of inhabitants, and therefore astonishment is the reaction of anyone viewing the scene.

With so much being offered by God, and with so many potential recipients of Gods gifts, and with so many ignoring sure success, astonishment is really the only reaction.

Suppose you had a legitimate gold mine. You had pictures of it, samples of the ore, even took people to actually see it.  You offered it and several more like it to anyone who wanted them.  All they had to do was believe your gift was legitimate.  But, the response from virtually everyone was indifference.  Wouldn’t that amaze you?

Furthermore, suppose that everyone had an alternate gift, which they could have instead.  Suppose that, that gift was gooey mud, human dung, and other dead rotting things all mixed up together, complete with the worst possible odor imaginable.  And, they preferred that to your gold mine.  Now would you be astonished?

That is the general state of human history.  But despite all of man’s failures, God is still patient and gracious.

This verse indicates the state of human spirituality.  When people are indifferent toward God, toward Christ, toward doctrine, then the only thing that remains is a wasteland.  An absolutely wasted and worthless life for all who reject God, or their spiritual lives.

Now here is an extensive example to demonstrate this point.

Evolution.  It is the idea that everything grew up by means of an accidental start and by the forces of natural selection.  With no designer, with no plan, everything just happened.

Well it seems that lots of folks have difficulty, with evolution verses intelligent design concepts.  You should ask them, if they were walking in the country and came upon a television set just sitting on a rock, then did that tv get their by means of evolution, did it evolve from a lily pad perhaps, or did someone design it and leave it there?

Most folks believe the latter of course, because it is so obvious.  A lily pad turning into a beautiful television, high definition of course, with surround sound, digital and all of the bells and whistles just seems absurd.   Perhaps the next time you drive down the road, and you see an old chair that someone has dumped along the road, then you will of course wonder, ‘From what slim did that chair arise?’

But, when it comes to the universe, then all of the evidences of design, such as in biochemistry, astronomy, mathematics, the various information sciences, physics and so forth, that there is indeed some detectable design, seems to go out the window.

Could an un-caused universe with mutation and natural selection explain our complicated universe?  With all of the complexities of animal life such as birds, mammals, fish, or with viruses and proteins or bacteria.  With night and day.  With the formation of star systems, that guide us through our seasons of the year.  With all of this and much, much more.

Could it all really have occurred by accident?

Most evolutionists say that the billions of years of time give evolution more than ample time to start and perpetuate life.  But again, there were times in history when life was snuffed out.

Not only is evolution a statistical impossibility to have occurred once with the odds against DNA assembling by chance, at one chance in 10 to the 40,000 power, but the odds of life starting over again and again several times in history zoom way off the chart.

There were mass extinctions at the end of the Paleozoic Era, at the end of the Jurassic period, at the end of the Cretaceous period, at the end of the Quaternary Period, and finally at the end of the Holocene period (the ice age).  That is five heavy hits against life and its getting kick started again and again.

Even recent shows on the History Channel claim that all of these hits point to life having to come from some other source, like a crashing asteroid, which just happened to be carrying life, in order for the natural processes theory, to exist.

When it is all said and done, people will either believe truth or they won’t.  We have already studied why people pursue the absurd.  And that is because they reject truth, even the most obvious truth.  That is our current verse.

As an additional example you can use to explain the absurd is something which again, is obvious, such as the natural mating of male with female, and yet there are those who pursue homosexuality, the most absurd and unnatural idea ever.  Will you ever convince them that they are wrong?  Well, some you can convince and some you will never convince.

Do we try to convince others of the error of their ways?  No. 

Surprised that I say that?  Well, if you place someone on the defensive, they will never listen to you,  but if you are more diplomatic and just live your life from within the framework of the Bible, then your thoughts and ideas will manifest themselves in conversation and in your everyday life, and perhaps one day your listeners will begin to question their own thoughts and come around to doctrine.

Remember, God the Holy Spirit makes truth known and apparent to everyone.  Some people will respond easily to truth and some will need a little hammering from God before they come around.  Unfortunately, some will never listen.

Does God reject us all because of humanities stupidity?  No.  God is reliable. God has a policy. God is unchangeable.  God is righteousness and justice, and God is grace.

No matter how bad we screw up our lives, no matter how stupid we get in our thinking, God will wait us out and give us tremendous grace when we finally wake up.

Of course, if you don’t wake up very quickly, then you will probably receive a hammering from time to time, just to let you know that you are wrong.

End Of Lesson

Study to show thyself approved (mature) unto God, a workman that needs not to be ashamed, rightly dividing (studying/discerning), the Word of truth.