- Series:Astronomy, Transcript English
Job 26:7
“He stretcheth out the north over the empty place, and hangeth the earth upon nothing.”
The Earth floats in space, attached to nothing, surrounded by a thin layer of air. What science has only just learned, the Bible has taught for thousands of years! Yes, while other ancients pictured the world as flat or resting upon giant turtles or some other animal, God told the Jews in Job 26:7 that He “hangs the earth on nothing.”
In Genesis 1:6 we read that God created a firmament. In recent times, some have said that this word proves the Bible is based on ancient myths. New discoveries, however, are challenging these doubts about the Bible.
The word translated “firmament”, from the Hebrew raqia in these verses, comes from a Hebrew root word that refers to the process of making a statue. In making a statue, the ancient artisan would take a soft metal – like gold – and begin to carefully pound thin sheets of it onto a wooden form of the statue until the wood was completely covered by a thin, form fitted layer of gold.
The use of this word puzzled many people until the Earth was first viewed from space. Then we saw it – the Earth suspended on nothing in space, surround by a thin, form fitted layer – our atmosphere! So the Bible tells the truth in all the subjects it mentions. But no matter how long science studies, it cannot learn about God’s love to us in Jesus Christ. This is revealed to us only by the Bible!
Prayer: Father, there is no place that man can go that You have not already been there; there is no knowledge man can have that You don’t already know. Grant Your Holy Spirit and wisdom to those of us who are called by Your Son’s Name, so that we may not be misled in these confusingly challenging times. For Jesus’ sake. Amen.
Author: Paul A. Bartz
Photo: Earth’s atmospheric gases scatter blue light more than other wavelengths, giving the Earth a bluish layer when seen from space. Courtesy of NASA.
