The book of Job records the suffering of a righteous man and informs humanity that, yes, even the faithful suffer on this earth for reasons beyond their comprehension. Near the end of the book, God verified that Job spoke what was true about God as he suffered (see Job 42:7). And among the things Job said of God, he said this in Job 26:7, “He stretches out the north over empty space and hangs the earth on nothing.”
Job described how the Earth appears when viewed from space: it hangs there but is not nailed down or hung on anything. At that time, nobody had ever been to space, and no camera had captured even a single image of our planet from beyond the sky. As late as 1500 AD, certain Hindu writings still suggested that the world rested on the back of a giant turtle. So how did Job, who lived during the patriarchal age, speak so accurately about things that had been seen by no man?
2 Peter 1:20-21 provides the answer. It says, “But know this first of all, that no prophecy of Scripture is a matter of one’s own interpretation, for no prophecy was ever made by an act of human will, but men moved by the Holy Spirit spoke from God.” Job spoke the truth about God by inspiration, and now his words are recorded for our benefit. While many poke fun at Bible believers, statements like this one force all to ask, “If this wasn’t inspired by God, how did Job know these things?”
The truth is that, without God’s guidance, Job could not have known that the earth hangs on nothing in space. The most reasonable explanation is also the simplest one: God spoke through Job as He spoke through the rest of the biblical writers.
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