Sunday Sermonette

Modern Science in an Ancient Book
August 28, 2011

"Who knoweth not in all these that the hand of the LORD hath wrought this?" (Job 12:9)

The book of Job is one of the oldest books in the world, yet it contains numerous references to natural systems and phenomena, some involving facts of science not discovered by scientists until recent centuries, yet recorded in Job almost 4,000 years ago.

A good example is in 26:7. "He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing." While ancient mythologies may imagine the earth to be carried on the shoulders of Atlas or on the back of a giant turtle, Job correctly noted that it is suspended in space. The force of "gravity" is still not understood, and it is quite reasonable to believe that God Himself holds it in the assigned place in His creation.

There is a reference to the rotation of the earth in 38:14. "It is turned as clay to the seal." This speaks of the smooth turning of the globe to receive the sun's daily illumination.

"The springs of the sea" are mentioned in 38:16, even though it has only been discovered in recent decades that there are springs of water emerging from certain parts of the deep ocean floor. The fact that mountains have "roots," consisting of rocks of the same nature and density as the mountains themselves, is noted in 28:9.

The infinite extent of the stellar heavens, contradicting the ancient pagan notion of a vaulted sky with stars affixed to a sort of hemispherical dome, is suggested in 22:12. "Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!" (see also Isaiah 55:9, etc.).

There are many other scientific insights in this remarkable book and no scientific errors. The logical conclusion, as our text says, is that "the hand of the LORD hath wrought this." HMM

h/t: HENRY M MORRIS, INSTITUTE FOR CREATION RESEARCH