What did God make the man out of?

There was a twofold act of God in the creation of man. First, his body was formed of the dust of the ground; then life was imparted to the clay by the inbreathing of Jehovah Elohim (Gen. 2:7). The life of man is thus a thing altogether distinct from the body. Let us note this carefully, for the lessons suggested by it are of the most momentous character.

While we are told of God's creating man on the sixth day, now we are told the means of His doing this (v. 7). Nothing like this is said of the fish, animals or birds. But “the Lord formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.” It is man's body that is formed of dust. This is certainly intended to keep us from being proud of ourselves! But on the other hand, man is given a dignity far above the animal creation. God's breath in his nostrils separates him completely from the rest of earthly creation. This should make us both thankful and serious in realizing that such a dignity brings the responsibility of representing the God who has breathed into us.

In the seventh verse we are told, "And the Lord God (Jehovah-Elohim) formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." There is an immense scope of truth in these words, but time fails me to go much into detail. You see, however at once, that man's body was formed from the dust of the earth. The apostle Paul, in the fifteenth of 1st Corinthians — though in your Bibles it is not translated exactly as it might be — speaks of man "as earthy." That is scarcely it. "The first man out of the earth was made of dust" is the correct rendering. This was the truth revealed in Genesis 2; and hence the language used by the Spirit of God in 1 Corinthians 15:47, "The first man is out of the earth, made of dust." Observe that is exactly what God does here. He took up the dust and formed man's body; and what came next? He "breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul." Here you have the truth as to the origin of man. It is wonderful, just because it is divine. He is the handiwork of God, and his life comes from God. He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and he became a living soul. I think that is far better than merely being the developed descendant of an ape. If you give up the record of God in the second chapter of Genesis as to the origin of man, you will have to give up Christ also. Mark what the Holy Ghost says concerning Him — as a man. In Luke's Gospel (Luke 3.) His genealogy is traced back to Seth, "who was the son of Adam, who was the son of God." Man sprang from God, and got his life from God. He is the direct offspring of God, as the apostle Paul says, in addressing the Athenians, "For in him we live, and move, and have our being; as certain also of your own poets have said, For we are also his offspring" (Acts 17:28).

But when we come to man, we read something different. As to all the other animals, God had but spoken and had called them into being. At the fiat of their Creator they had come forth; but He now consults as to the creature that is to have dominion. This is man. Neither the earth, nor the air, nor the sea is called upon to produce him. He is to be made, and made also in the very image and after the likeness of God. "Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." "And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life (n'shahmah ghahy*); and man became a living soul (ghahy nephesh)" - the same expression as we find used of the lower animals in Gen. 1:21. But what an important and twofold difference! First, man was, as to his body, God's own formation out of the dust of the ground - not, as they were, called into being by a word; second, he was, as and when he was thus formed, the receiver (from God still) of this "n'shahmah" of life into his nostrils. Thus the formation of his body and his inspiration, by which it is said he became a living soul (ghahy nephesh), are by no secondary means. Both are immediately from God; two things which we do not read of any of the lower creatures.

We may see an illustration of it in the formation of Adam. God formed the body of the first man out of the ground, and there was a shapely form not of some hairy uncouth savage, as many persons think nowadays — but of a handsome man, a man that God had designed to occupy a place of sovereignty in His world below. But there it was, a dead, inert mass, beautiful to look at, but a thing without life; no motion, no sound, just simply a part of this lower world — dust, a grand and beautiful body of dust, but dust only. Now God communicated from Himself to that inanimate mass; "He breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." Thus were the soul and spirit communicated by the direct inspiration of the Almighty, and thus man was placed at a tremendous distance from the rest of the world. The beasts that perish have their soul and spirit; they return to the dust from which they sprung. Man received his originally from on highs This constitutes the difference between man and the lower creation.

In Genesis 2:7, man's creation, is again mentioned, but with another purpose in view. Here we are let into the secret of his spiritual constitution as distinguished from his bodily frame. The latter was constructed from the dust of the ground, but the former he inherited direct from God Himself by his in-breathing. Man is a living soul just as other forms of animate creation are said to be, but man is such by Divine in-breathing of life, which the beasts are not, and herein lies his distinctive glory.

The above passage agrees with the account we have in Genesis of the creation of man. There we read "Jehovah Elohim formed man, dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul" (Gen. 2:7. N. Tr.). Does this not teach that as to the material part of man — the body — he was formed from the dust of the ground: then, the body having been formed, God communicated life by breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. This surely is the spiritual, or immaterial, part of man which he received direct from God.

61 The beasts were formed out of the earth, and the man is formed into shape first, and then God says, "I am going to connect this with myself," and breathes into his nostrils the breath of life. By "connect" I do not mean that the man might not fall away from God in will, for he could; but the breath of life which made him a living soul was directly from God; He was capable of dying, but still he had the breath of life from God immediately, which was a thing distinct from every other animal.

But this was not all. He was not to spring out of matter by the mere will of God, as the beasts, by that power which calls things that are not as though they were, and they are. God formed man out of the dust, and when formed breathed from Himself into his nostrils the breath of life, and thus man became a living soul in immediate connection with God Himself. As the apostle states elsewhere, we also are His offspring. It is not said "Let the earth bring forth"; but "Let us make." And He made man in His likeness, created him indeed to multiply as the other living creatures, but gave him dominion over them, and made him the centre and head of God's creation on the earth. The seeds of the fruitful earth were given to him, the green herb and its increase to the beasts. Death and violence were not yet. *

24 In this chapter God forms man dust from the "ground," i.e., he had his form first of all without life, and then breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. God Himself was the source of life to him, "for we also are his offspring." He was Ha-adam (Man) from ha-adamah (the ground), and then got life from God; it was thus Adam became a living soul. That man, and man only, had life from God, not simply by will as an angel might, but communicated from God and in a body, is evident, but only as life - existence. As to animals, they are formed from the ground, but they are brought to Adam to name as the paramount lord; it is their relation to Adam here, not their nature; all refers to Adam's place before God. Alive, through the breath of God in his nostrils; responsible; in the garden he had been placed in to enjoy; lord of the animals by God's authority; and God, interested in his estate, gives him a helpmeet taken out of himself, made for him, not a human being with him.