The creation process of Adam involved, first, forming a shape with the dust of the earth and then was giving of life by breathing into it the breath of life. Since God is the source of all life, the life force, in the form of breath also had to be from God only. With this the spirit and soul from God could enable him to live in the heavenly authority, to suitably perform the assigned role. God blessed him with knowledge and wisdom to be above all other created beings on earth. However, mankind has generally been unable to use their God-given potential to the full.
Why was the dust and not something special used by God to create man? God created Lucifer (Satan) perfect and filled him with great gifts and talents to be the worship leader in heaven (Ezekiel 28:14-15). Seeing his beauty and unique singing ability, he rebelled against God, his Creator and was forced out of heaven with other angels, who followed him. Satan in his pride in his beauty and own capabilities tried to exalt himself to be like the Most-High God. Everything in heaven and earth and in all universe has been created by the Son of God. Probably Satan took Him to be like the Archangels, though a better and a mightier One. As such he tried to be above Him also and attempted the same during His temptation in the wilderness.
The making of man is mentioned and ‘the LORD God formed man of the dust of the ground’, just the common ground and nothing special (Genesis 2:7). Man was created to live on the earth, to rule over all the created beings and be God’s representative before them. Since he had no prior ancestral knowledge about this task, God visited him daily to teach Him and guide him. God used the dust of the earth to create man for various reasons. First, God desires man to remain humble in all his ways and dust is under every one’s foot, even the animals tread over it. Our value does not come from our bodies or our own selves, however beautiful one may be. Our worth is because of Who created us and gave us life. God breathed into the dust formed body, ‘into his nostrils the breath of life; and he became a living being’ (Genesis 2:7). Unlike animals that are called into being by command, man received life only, once God breathed into him.
Second, God breathed into man to give him intellect and spirit so that he could know Him and live as per His plan and ways. We know that ‘the breath of the Almighty gives him understanding’ (Job 32:8). This separates mankind from all the other created beings.
Third, mankind is created in God’s ‘image and likeness’ and this was transferred into him by God’s breath. Man is supposed to reflect God’s image of a holy, righteous and a just being. This character of man was supposed to bring all other created beings to submit to his God-given authority.
Fourth, The Hebrew word used for man at creation is ‘adam’, thus connecting him to ‘adamah’, the earth. We live on and receive all that we need to live, from the same earth, the one we are supposed to ‘care for’. Despite all that God has given us, we are formed from, return to, live on and are provided for by this earth.
Fifth, we are controlled by the plan of God for us and like the dust we also must act as per God ordained laws of nature and earth’s orbit is also from above only. God has ensured different seasons to provide various types of produce and man must be productive in every situation. God’s power made that pile of dust ‘a living being’ and this miracle of life ceases the moment, He withdraws that breath.
Sixth, we are totally dependent on God for the very life itself and to continue to live, using His provision from the same earth. After creating man, God blessed them and said, ‘See, I have given you every herb that yields seed which is on the face of all the earth, and every tree whose fruit yields seed; to you it shall be for food’ (Genesis 1:29).
Seventh, to remind us daily about there being nothing special in us. Ecclesiastes 12:7 After mentioning various aspects of life itself, King Solomon finally said, ‘Then the dust will return to the earth as it was, and the spirit will return to God who gave it’ (Genesis 1:29). God used the dust because there was nothing special about it. Our value is not defined by our raw material or all that we have received from that, but from God’s breath in us.
Prophet Isaiah submitted to the LORD God and so must we, for the Scripture shows us our reality. ‘But now, O LORD, You are our Father; we are the clay, and You our potter; and all we are, the work of Your hand’ (Isaiah 64:8). We must stop trying to shine in our own light but submit to the capable and loving hands of God to be shaped by Him. Mankind, in their attempt to escape God’s judgement through the flood, made bricks and baked them in the fire (Genesis 11:3-9). Since their aim was to ‘make a name for ourselves’, God stepped in, confused their language so that they could not understand one another’s speech. They were scattered ‘abroad over the face of all the earth’. This resulted in various classes emerging in mankind according to colour, wealth, region they belonged to and a hierarchy of castes, one serving the other. One class would not even permit the other to enter certain areas of their worship places to join in worship.
God used dust of the earth for creating Adam but man in his jealousy and pride used that same dust to create divisions among each other. Yet God did not abandon them and continues to reveal himself and placing this treasure in these same earthen vessels that He had created.
Reconciling the unbelievers – In Japan, Kintsugi is an ancient art form that uses broken vessels, mending them with gold in the cracks. The pot that had lost its value is made into a beautiful piece of art. The Saviour Lord chooses such broken vessels of clay, cleanses and sanctifies them with His blood and makes each one precious in His sight. The pot is filled from an outside source, which then becomes its part, making it shine, despite the repaired cracks, which add value to it. Lord Jesus declared to all believers, ‘You did not choose Me, but I have chosen you and appointed you that you should go and bear fruit’ (John 15:16). God chose us in our sinful and broken nature and hides nothing but fills us with His presence, the greatest treasure, to be His witness before others.
Apostle Paul has warned, ‘we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us’ (2 Corinthians 4:7). We are chosen to bear fruit and that too at the place and timing of God’s choice, for the benefit of those that He sends us to. Our fruit is the message about what God’s Word teaches and witness of how we have been affected by it. The result of our efforts is not dependent on us but in God’s power. God is fully aware of our limitations and strengths and we are not to be afraid of those to whom we go with His message. God’s promise is twofold, ‘I am with you to deliver you’ and ‘Behold, I have put My words in your mouth’ (Ezekiel 1:7-9). Certain amount of hesitation will be there but we actively obey and move. The indwelling Teacher, not only teaches us all things, but also helps us in speaking at the right time, the right words that He puts in our mouth.
Lord Jesus went into the Gentile region of the Gadarenes and healed a man by freeing him from the control of a legion of demons, from three to six thousand evil spirits (Luke 8:22-39). The Jewish people, especially a Rabbi, a teacher, would never mix with non-Jews but the grace of our Lord is for all of mankind and not a specific class only. We must never deny the Gospel message to anyone because of his caste or colour, nor give priority to one over the other. In the eyes of God, all are equal. God did not send His Son to condemn anyone for his sins but that, ‘Whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life’ (John 3:15-17). When God does not separate one from the other, but blesses all equally, who are we that we should do this?
In Caesarea, Cornelius, a Centurion of the Italian Regiment, feared the LORD God and saw in a vision, an angel of God (Acts 10:34-48). As told by the angel, he called for Apostle Simon Peter, who was in Joppa and he came and preached the Word and redemption through faith in Lord Jesus. While he and his whole family were still listening to the sermon, the Holy Spirit ‘fell upon all those who heard the Word’. Apostle Peter then baptised all of them, bringing them into the ‘Family of God’. The message of salvation was initially preached by the disciples to the Jews only, for the disciples were themselves Jews. But later when the Gentiles also joined, they were asked by some Jewish believers to first become Jews. They were told, ‘Unless you are circumcised according to the custom of Moses, you cannot be saved’ (Acts 15:1). To resolve this, a meeting of the Jerusalem Council was convened to decide the matter. Since God had already blessed Non-Jews with the Holy Spirit, it was decided to drop such a requirement from them to be Jews first. It will be foolish to ask someone seeking the knowledge of the Word of God to change his external appearance, so that the Word could start working in His soul, inside him. Our past or our present physical appearance and state does not disqualify us in any way from receiving the Lord as Saviour, nor from telling others about Him.
The Ark of Covenant placed in the Tabernacle and then in the Temple was made of wood and overlaid with gold both inside and outside. The tablets with the Ten Commandments, a pot of Manna and the budded rod of Aaron were placed in it. We in our broken state receive the Word and it enters our soul to cover it and preserve it from within. The Holy Spirit fills and covers our whole being and we put on Lord Jesus, as our shield and protection and become God’s Ark to reach others. The broken vessels are thus preserved and given value both from within and from outside. God does not need golden vessels but earthen broken and mis-shaped vessels that are empty and can be filled by Him. The more of His grace and mercy that we share with others, the more He fills us with.
Surrounded by darkness yet be light for others – After leaving Egypt’s slavery, the Israelites found it difficult to live in faith under God’s provision and care. They kept on remembering the good food, while forgetting the pain of slavery and ill-treatment by the Egyptians. Traveling forward to occupy the Promised Land, ‘the people spoke against God and against Moses’ (Numbers 21:5-9). ‘The LORD sent fiery serpents among the people’ and many people died, leading to repentance by them. In answer to Moses’ earnest intercession for them, God provided a strange and different solution. As commanded Moses ‘made a bronze serpent, and put it on a pole’ and when anyone bitten by a snake ‘looked at the bronze serpent, he lived’, like we look to the cross and are saved. Their inner attitude and conduct, in faith, could neutralize the snake poison. This healing was through submitting their internal destructive and sinful nature, that brought the poison to the Heavenly Father and the same poison was thus turned into a source of healing. This looking up also helped them to repent and be renewed of their serpent-like behaviour.
The snake-like evil and demonic forces of the world join in and are fed by the similar internal behaviour of mankind. Lord Jesus has given us authority to ‘trample on serpents and scorpions and over all the power of the enemy’ (Luke 10:19). However, in our sinful nature these same forces work in us. Our looking up helps us to master, neutralize and transform our inner force to prevail. Then, neither the inner nor the outer serpent can afflict us. We cannot do this in our own strength but in the power of the Holy Spirit in us. This inner poison creates two attitudes; one, makes us sensitive to others’ views and approval. The other makes us numb to everything and a non-caring attitude for growth or success. Neither of these is about a healthy life-style and by our looking up towards heaven, we draw strength from a higher power and authority of God. Only then do we find the way to be healed from the inner brokenness and the poison is changed to gold. God shines His light in our broken state, so that it does not get trapped inside but becomes light to others through the cracks of our past.
To a self-absorbed person, kindness of God proves his own importance and value. But to a spiritually mature person, who is guided by the Holy Spirit everything is about His Divine love, to draw him closer to God. Our closeness reveals our own broken state in His light but the same light of His glory fills us. Our brokenness did not come from God but as a result of our own sin. It is about being in the presence of God and His abundance or being away and reaping a harvest of thorns and thistles and that too in hard labour. At the LORD’s command, Prophet Jeremiah went to the potter’s house (Jeremiah 18:3-4). He saw that ‘the vessel that he (the potter) made of clay was marred in the hand of the potter; so he made it again into another vessel, as it seemed good to the potter to make’. We did not suffer in the hands of our Master Potter, the Creator, but due to our own ways, rather He adds value by recreating us.
Our state of this brokenness and being of no use, is turned by Him into vessels of great value and the least we can do is not to hide but tell others about His blessings. What we speak is also heard by our own ears and like the name change from Abram to Abraham, we also start living in this newness and keep growing. Lord Jesus saw Simon called Peter and his brother Andrew and said to them, ‘Follow Me’ (Matthew 4:18-19). They could have stayed back with a promise to do whatever He taught, but they left everything and followed Him. We also cannot remain idle but in faith, like Moses, move forward to bring others out from their slavery into the Promised Land.
God has completed His work in us by transforming our brokenness by filling us with the gold of His Word and His love. We can add to that blessed state through our good deeds of helping others and our testimony of God’s work in us. Or we, like the coward servant, who hid his master’s silver coin for fear of losing it, can remain hidden. But on the final Day of Judgement what will be our answer must be decided now!
