Job and the Stars

Job 22:12

“Is not God in the height of heaven? and behold the height of the stars, how high they are!”

One of the arguments against the acceptance of the creation account in Genesis is the notion that the Bible was written by ancient men who would not have had sufficient knowledge to understand scientific issues. For example, theistic evolutionist commentators have suggested that the author of Genesis – and they usually refuse to acknowledge that this was Moses – must have believed that the sky was a solid dome, and the sun, moon, and stars just objects of light embedded into this dome. I would obviously disagree with that artificial interpretation of the text, which such evolutionists believe must have been written later – perhaps at the time of the Exile to Babylon.

The Book of Job comes from a similar time as the Book of Genesis – and I would suggest that this was at the time that Moses was alive. In Job 11:7-8, Job’s “friend” Zophar states that the wisdom of God is as high as the heaven. Thus, the infinitude of God is compared to the vastness of the universe. This comment is not isolated. In Job 22:12, Eliphaz states: “Is not God in the height of heaven?” and “Behold the height of the stars, how high they are!” These comments are not major doctrinal statements. Instead, they show that the opinions of people as ancient as the book of Genesis did not believe the sky to be a literal solid dome. Instead, these verses suggest a scientific accuracy, unexplainable by evolutionary models of history.

Prayer: Your Word, Lord, is the truth for all time. You are the One who created the universe, and we stand in awe as we praise Your Great and Holy Name. Amen.

Author: Paul F. Taylor

Ref: Morris, H.M. (2000), The Remarkable Record of Job (Green Forest, AR: Master Books), p. 43. Image: Hebrew for Job 1:1, Public Domain.

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