The Bible is not a science textbook. But, when it speaks about science, it is 100% accurate. Evidence for this claim can be found in the stars.
Did you know that before telescopes were invented, people counted the stars with just their eyes? They didn’t have TV, so they watched the stars and counted them. On a clear night, a person could see easily see a couple of thousand (with the naked eye).
Jeremiah 33:22 says, “As the host of heaven cannot be numbered and the sands of the sea cannot be measured, so I will multiply the offspring of David my servant, and the Levitical priests who minister to me.” The book of Jeremiah was written around 600 B.C.
Galileo Galilei was the first person to use a telescope for astronomical purposes (in 1610 A.D.). That means if you were a Bible-believing Christian before that time, people would have scoffed at you if you’d said the Bible says the stars were too many to count. “Shows what you know! Smart people have counted the stars and there are a couple of thousand we can see at night.”
True, they counted the stars they could see. But, when Galileo swung his telescope up at the night sky, it was only a 10-power magnification. So, he could only see about 30,000 stars. A big number, but still pretty countable. Telescopes kept getting better and better, however. Now, the total number of stars in the observable universe is estimated to be 10^25 power (1 followed by 25 zeros).
Can you count to that number? No person could live long enough to do it.
So, how in the world did Jeremiah know the stars were uncountable in 600 B.C.? “Everybody knows there are only a couple of thousand stars up there!” Wait, scratch that. The stars are too many to count.
How could Jeremiah have known that? He couldn’t have. Unless God had told him.
Josh
Learn more on this topic in the series called, The Bible on Trial.
Posted in A Word from the Pastor