Job 15:28
They dwell in devastated cities,
In houses others would not live in,
Readied to become heaps of rubble.
The habit book I am reading addresses how to pick habits that you will be successful at. It seems to be trying to tell you to pick the type of person you want to be by being the person you can be comfortable being. The problem with that is if you are bent towards things you should not be doing, like being rude or isolated. Part of our struggle is to die to ourselves and live for Christ. I am sure the author is great at what he does, but I must remember his goals may not be mine.
‘Dwell’ was also ‘live’ and ‘inhabit’. Dwell has more of the intentionality I think is implied. ‘Devastated’ was also ‘desolate’, ‘ruined’, and ‘doomed’. Devastated carried the yet to come aspect I inferred.
‘Would not’ was ‘should not’, ‘do not’, and the like. My intent was to say regular people would not choose to live in these places.
‘Readied’ was ‘destined to be’, ‘crumbling’, ‘ready’, and ‘already’. I wanted to include the aspect that the wicked are treating the houses in a manner that ends in their ruin. “Rubble’ was also ‘ruin’.
I have been collecting cards since 1978, and just last night, realized I had long ago acquired one as the rookie card of an Astro only to find it depicted him as on another team. He debuted with the Astros, so I collected his rookie card. Only his rookie card was from two years before he debuted when he was in the minors for another team. It reminds me that however hard I might try, my organization will always fall short. Reminds me this is a journey we live and not a destination.
My learning from this verse is that we live in the surroundings we chose. Yes, we are impacted by who our parents were, the choices they made, and the previous choices we made, but in most places in the world you can make different choices about where to live, what to live in, and how to care for it. I spent many hours working with rose bushes at my old house, but I have never had one at this house. And the most basic point is that if you choose to have something, you should take care of it.
The one thing that really stands out for me is that this verse could simply be talking about how we care for our bodies. Another verse tells us to treat our bodies as the temple of God, especially since God lives in us through the Holy Spirit after our salvation. I have never quite been successful at treating my body as a temple. My mom taught me to clean my plate, but she did not teach me why to put the things on it that I should. All we have is to be maintained as if we were doing so on behalf of God and not up to our individual standards or the ones of the homeowner’s association or even the government’s. All this is possible if we focus not on our own wishes.
Written 2/10/25, Posted 6/18/25, Job 368