#2 Genesis: God Formed Man

 "Then the Lord God formed a 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 NIV

Now, this verse really stumped me for a while and I ended up asking my small group leader about it. His explanation of it was really mind-blowing and I wanted to share it!

My initial question to my leader, let's call him T for privacy purposes, was, "Why did God form us from dust?". From this question T asked me what each of the first six days in Genesis chapter 1 started with. The first six days start with "God said". Everything else, the earth, the sun, the creatures in the sea and in the sky, all of them were spoken into existence. Everything but one thing was spoken into existence. How crazy is that!? Now, the sixth day does start with "God said" and this was the day that mankind was created however Genesis 2:7 goes back into the the details of how man was created.

"26Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.”

27So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them." -Genesis 1:26-27 NIV

So let's break down Genesis chapter 2 verse 7 a little bit. The first part says, "Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground". Now T said to imagine God reaching down, picking up the dust, molding it and forming it into the shape of  a man. We are the only creation that God formed with His hands, everything else He spoke into existence. So we are the only creatures with God's actual fingerprints. 

The second part says "...and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.". Now, the breath of life that God breathed was a spirit. This also makes us more special than all the other creatures because we were given both a soul and a spirit. Our soul being our human nature and our spirit being our link with God to have a relationship with Him. 

So, God loved us so much, even from the beginning, that we are: The only creatures created in His image according to Genesis 1:27. We were formed by the hands of God and we are the only the only creatures to have the breath of life breathed into us according to Genesis 2:7. 

I personally thought that this explanation was truly so beautiful and wanted to impart it to anyone who wants it!

Have a blessed day!! 🤍

~ Darina