It was stated at the beginning of this book that we would see if scientific findings were substantiated by the Bible. In other words, does the scripture make reference to things that the scientific world has discovered? If the Bible does make reference to them, then the question must be asked: Who knew about it first; God or man? Since the tools of research available to mankind were not as elaborate as those we have today, nor even in existence in most instances, then this knowledge has to have been forthcoming from God rather than man. But let’s see if the Bible does tell us of the things discovered by science.
Isaiah 40:22, “He sitteth above the circle of the earth.” It was discovered that the earth was round in 1492, when Columbus discovered the New World, or perhaps in 1520-21, when Ferdinand Magellan sailed around the world, thus connecting the Atlantic with the Pacific Ocean. Isaiah was written approximately 640 – 587 B.C.
Job: 26:7, “He stretcheth out the north over empty space, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.” Not until our space-age explorations did the entire world witness this phenomenon in actuality. The earth is literally suspended or hanging on nothing. The empty space stretching to the north is visible through a telescope. There is a vault of empty space stretching to the north.
The phrase ‘stretching to the north over empty space’ has also been applied to the empty tundra of the Canadian Northwest, and the empty expanse of Siberia stretching across the north of Russia. However, it is clearly intended in Job to refer to the heavens since it is mentioned in conjunction with the earth being suspended or hanging upon nothing.
Job 9:9, “That maketh the Bear, Orion, and the Pleiades.” These were mythical characters that were thrown into the skies (according to men), yet God knew what the constellations would be called, and it is He who made the star formations. (Psm. 147:4) “He hath counted the number of stars, He calls them by their name. He makes grass grow on the mountain, he feeds the beasts of the plain.”
Psalms 8:8, “Out of the chamber of the south cometh the storm, and cold out of the north.” With the study of weather, science has proven true and correct what God said thousands of years ago before weather was ever charted.
Deuteronomy 22:11, “Thou shalt not wear a mingled stuff, wool and linen together.” It has recently been discovered that wearing clothing mixed with the two fibers, linen and wool, depletes the body of strength. God knew this and instructed his people not to mix the two fabric fibers.
Deuteronomy 22:9, “Thou shalt not sow thy vineyard with two kinds of seed lest the whole fruit be forfeited, the seed which thou hast sown, and the increase of the vineyard.” This is obviously something that will completely devastate the entire vineyard. To this day, the wine regions of the world will not plant two seeds together because this has been proven time and again to destroy the harvest as well as the seed. And God instructed his people not to do it more than a thousand years before agriculture was ever studied as a science.
Job 36:22 ff, “Behold, God is great, and we know him not; the number of his years is unsearchable. For he draweth up the drops of water, which distill in rain from his vapor, which the skies pour down and drop upon man abundantly.” What an intriguing word to describe the evaporation process, and that he explains the process. How long did it take man to figure out evaporation and that water would form as distilled water from vapor?
Job 37:3-4, “And his lightning unto the ends of the earth. After it a voice roareth.” Thunder is created by the sudden expansion of air heated by a lightning discharge. God says this lightning occurs and that it makes a noise after it occurs. Science has had the challenge of proving the why and how.
The following excerpts are taken from Job 39. They contain a wealth of information that science has spent hundreds of thousands of dollars and man-hours researching and documenting over the years. Listen to the wisdom and knowledge of hundreds of years before the birth of Christ. Is this accidental, or the voice of God speaking through man of His knowledge of the things He created?
1, “The wings of the ostrich wave proudly; but are they the pinions of love? For she leaves her eggs on the earth, and warms them in the dust, and forgets that the foot may crush them, or that the wild beast may trample them. She deals hardly with her young ones, as if they were not hers: Though her labor be in vain, she is without fear; because God has deprived her of wisdom … What time she lifts up herself on high, she scorns the horse and his rider.”
2, “Have you given the horse his might? Have you clothed his neck with the quivering mane? Have you made him to leap as the locust? The glory of his snorting is terrible, he paws in the valley, and rejoices in his strength: He goes out to meet the armed men. He mocks fear, and is not dismayed: Neither turns his back from the sword. The quiver rattles against him, the flashing spear and the javelin. He swallows the ground with fierceness and rage; neither believes he that it is the voice of the trumpet. As oft as the trumpet sounds he says, Aha! And he smells the battle afar off, the thunder of the captains and the shouting.
3, “Is it by wisdom that the hawk soars, and stretches her wings toward the south? Is it at thy command that the eagle mounts up, and makes her home upon the point of the cliff, and the stronghold? From thence she spies out the prey; her eyes behold it afar off. Her young ones also suck blood: and where the slain are, there is she.”
How did the writer know the habits of the ostrich, or that the horse can smell the battle, or that the eagle could see from afar off unless he were guided to write by the Creator of those animals? Man has gone out with camera and pen and paper to document each of these animals and their movements in the wild. As a result, they have found and presented for our viewing and reading pleasure and knowledge, exactly what God has told us in the behavior of these animals.
(The writing of the book of Job is dated 400 – 600 B.C.)
