In the Book of Job, God inquires of Job, “Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?”
I have not. Neither have you. Neither has anyone. The pressure of the waters in the ocean becomes quite considerable in only a few hundred feet of it’s depth. At many thousands of feet of depth, the pressure is approximately 64,000 psi - great enough that a military submarine would implode like an empty soda can in the hand of a man. Only since the advent of modern equipment have we been able to search the ocean floors and see what is actually down there.
Those opposed to the Word of God or his truth have angst against the Bible. Because of their emotional opposition to God, they ridicule the Bible, making the absurd claim that the Bible is merely the mythological writings of ancient sheep or goat herders. The childishness of this absurdity is seen in the fact that none of the penmen of the scriptures were herders. However, the Bible puts all nay-sayers in their place. Amongst the many other proofs it possesses that it is the inspired Word of God, it also possesses knowledge of things which man did not know at the time of the writing, but more important, these things could not have known because there was no means for their discovery until the 20th century.
One example of this foreknowledge is the existance of the mid-oceanic trenches and ridges on the ocean floors and the hydrothermal vents which run along side them. These features run around the earth like the seam of a baseball. Below is an illustration of the ridge between North America and Africa. These ridges are cracks in the ocean floors from which the waters which the waters of the Noachian Flood (Noah’s Flood) came forth.
These cracks were not discovered until the 20th century because the technology did not exist until then to paruse the ocean floors. Yet the Bible mentions these, and it mentions also the hydrothermal vents which run along side them from which exceedingly hot water is coming forth.
Scripture tells us in the Book of Genesis (written ~1,400 B.C) that God broke up the ocean floors to allow this internal water to burst forth and flood the earth:
Genesis7[11] In the six hundredth year of Noah's life, in the second month, the seventeenth day of the month, the same day were all the fountains of the great deep broken up, and the windows of heaven were opened.
Scripture also tells us about them in the Book of Psalms, which is a collection of writings from between 1,410-450 B.C:
Proverbs3[20] By his knowledge the depths are broken up, and the clouds drop down the dew.
The hydrothermal vents which line these ridges were not discovered until 1977. The Book of Job (~1,400 B.C.) mentions them in a lesson of humility that we could all learn from. God humiliates Job by asking him questions to which he knows Job does not have the answer. God knew that Job could not have traversed the ocean floors to see these springs (bursting forths) of water on the ocean floors.Job 38
[16] Hast thou entered into the springs of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth?
[17] Have the gates of death been opened unto thee? or hast thou seen the doors of the shadow of death?
[18] Hast thou perceived the breadth of the earth? declare if thou knowest it all.
Examining this passage in the original language is revealing. The passage is God asking Job if he had walked the ocean floors searching them for knowledge of what God has done.
Job 38[16] Hast thou entered into the springs (nay-bek) of the sea? or hast thou walked in the search of the depth (teh-home)?
nay-bek: to burst forth; a fountain: - spring.
teh-home: an abyss (as a surging mass of water), especially the deep (the main sea or the subterranean water supply): - deep (place), depth.
The passage makes it clear that these springs are not in shallow waters where man could have gone. It uses the word teh-home, which means abyss. This refers to the very depths of the sea, a place exceedingly deep, dark, ultimately deep places of the sea, the very bottom.
In fact, the Book of Job possesess a number of passages which discuss geological features of the earth, atmospheric processes, the expansion of the universe, particle physics, and other things. None of them could have been known or understood in 1,400 B.C. The means to know of the existance of most of these did not exist until the 20th century. It would take a number of pages of writing to provide all of them and their explaination.
So the next time someone tells you the Bible is just a collection of mythological writings of ancient Hebrew sheep or goat herders, you can have yourself a chuckle, a whimsical grin, and take pleasure in knowing that God cares enough about us to show us even with his imspired Word that he truly is the master and creator of all things.
