The climactic height of God’s creative work was His extraordinary creation of man. “The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7). The supreme Creator of all the heavens and the earth did two things in creating man. First, He formed him from the very dust of the ground and secondly, He did something to distinguish man from His other creatures—He breathed His own breath into the nostrils of Adam.
We learn three significant facts from this one succinct passage in Genesis. First is that God and God alone created man. Man did not evolve from other creatures. Impersonal forces did not form man. All the cells, DNA, atoms, molecules, hydrogen, protons, neutrons, or electrons did not create man. These are only the substances that make up man’s physical body. The Lord God formed man. The Lord God created the substances and then He used them to create man. Man was created and formed by God and by God alone.
The word “formed” comes from the Hebrew yatsar which means to mold, shape, form. It pictures a potter who envisions within his mind what he wants to create. This potter has not only the intelligence, but also the power to form his creation. God, then, is the Master Potter who had the image of man within His mind, as well as the power and the intelligence to create man. God had both the omniscience (all knowledge) and the omnipotence (all power) to do exactly what He wanted.
Secondly, God breathed His own breath of life into man. Man is more than dust or physical substance. Man is spirit. We can picture it this way. Man had just been formed by God from the dust of the earth, just a human body lying upon the ground—never having breathed. Then God leaned over and breathed His own breath into the man’s nostrils; God breathed into man His own Spirit. This means that God has connected Himself to man in the most intimate way possible. Man is related to God and has the same breath as God, the breath of life.
Thirdly, Genesis 2:7 tells us that man became a living soul (KJV). The word “soul” in Hebrew is nephesh meaning an “animated, breathing, conscious, and living being.” It does not mean the spirit of man. It does mean that he was a living soul just like all the other creatures of earth. However, there was one distinctive difference between the animals and man: man was given the very breath of God Himself, the very Spirit and life of God. Man did not become a living soul until God breathed His Spirit and life into man. As both an animate and spiritual being, man is the only living spirit upon the earth, which makes him unique among all living things.
So what is the breath of God? It is the Spirit of God, given to man to animate him both physically and spiritually. The Hebrew word for spirit is ruach which means wind, breath, air, spirit. Further, the breath of God is the life of God. And the life of God is life that lives on and on, the power to live eternally. God’s breath is not temporal; the breath of God lives forever. As such, we, the recipients of the breath of life, will live eternally. The only question is where will we live?
Indeed, God has breathed His Spirit into each one of us. Doesn’t it make sense then, that our spirit should breathe after God (Psalm 42:1), that we should long for Him with every breath? For as Jesus, our Lord and our Savior, has promised to all those who believe and call upon His name (Jeremiah 29:11-13): “Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness, for they will be filled” (Matthew 5:6).
Comments
Post a Comment