The Great Potter forms His Clay

Then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed unto his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature. Gen. 2:7

In this passage we will find it useful to look at the original language so that we can get a more accurate picture of what is being given to us by God here. The word that is translated ,"dust" is a Hebrew word which does mean dust, but it also can mean "clay, earth, or mud." This gives us a better picture of what the word "formed" means, because it is strongly suggested that God is acting as a potter shaping His clay into the form He desires. Thus, man is not created as solidified sand, as a hardened form that is unchangeable. He is molded as clay that God, and God alone, can remold into a person of new life, as the New Testament speaks of. God is sovereign over the form of every person, physically as well as mentally and spiritually. In fact, the spiritual "molding" of the Great Potter is far more significant in our lives than anything else. That is what God does when we are re-created by His grace through faith in Jesus Christ.

It says here also that God "breathed" into man "the breath of life, and the man became a living creature." God's breath is the breath of the Spirit. In the NT, when we come to Jesus by faith that He died to pay the penalty for our sin, rose again from the dead and is coming again, we become a "new creation" (2 Corinthians 5:17). God makes us into a new "living creature," which will live forever in soul, and eventually will have a newly formed and perfected body after Christ's return (1 Corinthians 15:35 ff.).

At this point, the man is first created just as God wants, and the man is in a sinless state. He is directly from God's hand, and there is no blot in him. Now we must understand that the man is not perfect and complete, as we shall see later. It simply means that the man is clean and pure of body and heart and soul. We need to understand this, because this is also what happens to the new believer in Christ. He or she is not made perfect, but that one is made pure and clean of heart and soul. And just like the first man, the ability to choose to sin is intact in the new believer as well. God understands this and provides, just as we will see He provided for the first human beings as well. For now, we see that the Potter has formed man from His clay, and molded him and made him alive. Each of us has our starting point with God's "molding" and making us alive with His "breath".

Your Joyfully Loquacious Believer,
LEE