Home > Teaching Moments

Man Of The Dirt

 Gen 1:26-27 tells us “Then God said, “Let us make mankind in our image, in our likeness, so that they may rule over the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, over the livestock and all the wild animals, and over all the creatures that move along the ground.  So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God He created them; male and female He created them.”

Gen 2:7 also tells us that God made man out of the soil of the ground.   “The Lord God formed the man from the soil of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.”

So why out of the soil? Why did God not speak, and man was created? 

Let’s take a closer look at this to see if we can find the answer.

Genesis 1:25 tells us that God made the animals also from the earth, “God made the animals of the earth according to their kind, and the livestock according to their kind, and everything that crawls on the ground according to its kind; and God saw that it was good.”

So when it came to the sixth day did God get tired of speaking things into existence and He just wanted to play in the dirt? I don’t think so. When you analyze the soil of the earth you find every kind of mineral. These minerals are important for  life to man and beast. Each mineral brings life to every part of man, and when we lack these minerals it affects us in many ways.  In John 9:7 we see an interesting story of how Yeshua took the soil of the earth to heal a blind man. “Having said this, He spit on the ground, made some mud with the saliva, put the mud on the man’s eyes, and said to him, “Go, wash off in the Pool of Siloam!” So he went and washed and came away seeing.”

It was a great reminder that God made man out of the clay, and then used clay to heal the man’s eyes. Of course the human body and how it works is very complex, and the body has more to it than minerals. There are a slew of chemical elements or atoms to it, like oxygen and nitrogen  and carbon, and we could go on and on. But even though we have learned so much over the decades, we still can not understand everything about the human body. But as we have seen recently because of the advancements of NASA it seems that every planet has these same elements . So the question is still why?  We know that when God made man in His own image that it certainly did not mean that God consists of dirt, but that God made man to be able to reason and to know everything unto life as 2 Peter 1:2-3 tells us, “Grace and peace be multiplied to you in the knowledge of God and of  Yeshua our Lord,  for His divine power has granted to us everything pertaining to life and godliness, through the true knowledge of Him who called us by His own glory and excellence.”

God is a spirit, and we too, have an eternal spirit. God is the source of life, and when He breathed into man, He was not only breathing into Him life, but His life, life eternal, and to have life eternal  means that when we die our spirit lives on. 1 Thessalonians 5:23 says,  “Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely; and may your spirit and soul and body be kept complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Messiah Yeshua.

2 Corinthians 5:1 tells us, “For we know that if our earthly tent which is our house is torn down, we have a building from God, a house not made by hands, eternal in the heavens.”

We see several times in the Scriptures where God refers to Himself as the potter and we are the clay, the dirt of the earth, and that He has the right as the potter to do as He sees fit.

 Romans 9:20-21 says, “On the contrary, who are you, you foolish person, who answers back to God? The thing molded will not say to the molder, “Why did you make me like this,” will it?  Or does the potter not have a right over the clay, to make from the same lump one object for honorable use, and another for common use?”

Jeremiah 18:3-4,  “So I went down to the potter’s house, and there he was, making something on the wheel.  But the vessel that he was making of clay was spoiled in the hand of the potter; so he remade it into another vessel, as it pleased the potter to make.”

Isaiah 64:8, “But now, Lord, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter,and all of us are the work of Your hand.”

So we see that God made man out of the earth and that He as a potter, took us, the clay, and molded us as  human beings, and then breathed into us His own life, which made us His own. So it seems that man is not only part of the world, but the whole universe, as we share the same elements, and  maybe God wanted His creation to be as one, and that one, is a part of Himself. The only difference is that we humans have the breath of God within us. We then are truly a witness to God’s creations.

2 Corinthians 4:6-7 tells us,  “For God, who said, “Light shall shine out of darkness,” is the One who has shone in our hearts to give the Light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Messiah.  But we have this treasure in earthen containers, so that the extraordinary greatness of the power will be of God and not from ourselves.”

We did not just happen because of a big bang, nor did we develop from some other organism, we are unique above all creation, because we are not only made in God’s image, but we have the breath of God in us. 

Genesis 3:9 says, “By the sweat of your face You shall eat bread, until you return to the ground, because from it you were taken; for you are dust, and to dust you shall return.”

God did not just want to speak us into existence as He could have, but we were special to Him. He truly is the Potter who personally took the time to mold us and fashion us into uniqueness, and gave each of us our individuality, and freedom to become a true child of the living God, our Father.