GODS BREATH OF AIR-LIFE

GENESIS 2:1-7 Thus the heavens and the earth, and all the host of them, were finished. ² And on the seventh day God ended His work which He had done, and He rested on the seventh day from all His work which He had done. ³ Then God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because in it He rested from all His work which God had created and made.

⁴ This is the ^[a]history of the heavens and the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, ⁵ before any plant of the field was in the earth and before any herb of the field had grown. For the Lord God had not caused it to rain on the earth, and there was no man to till the ground; ⁶ but a mist went up from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground.

⁷ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being.

 

 

References to breath or breathing are frequent in the Bible, with many allusions to God as the giver of breath (and life) to man and animals. One of the best-known verses in the Bible is Genesis 2:7, “And 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 soul.” This verse sets a pattern for the rest of the Bible, where breath is often equated with life itself. In fact, references to breath or breathing are frequent in the Bible, with many allusions to God as the giver of breath (and life) to man and animals. 
In these verses, I. Here is a name given to the Creator which we have not yet met with, and that is Jehovah—the LORD, in capital letters, which are constantly used in our English translation to intimate that in the original it is Jehovah. All along, in the first chapter, he was called Elohim—a God of power; but now Jehovah Elohim—a God of power and perfection, a finishing God. As we find him known by his name Jehovah when he appeared to perform what he had promised (Exod. 6:3), ³ I appeared to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, as God Almighty, but by My name Lord^[a] I was not known to them.

so now we have him known by that name, when he had perfected what he had begun. Jehovah is that great and incommunicable name of God which denotes his having his being of himself, and his giving being to all things; fitly therefore is he called by that name now that heaven and earth are finished.

II. Further notice taken of the production of plants and herbs, because they were made and appointed to be food for man, Gen. 2:5, 6. Here observe, 1. The earth did not bring forth its fruits of itself, by any innate virtue of its own but purely by the almighty power of God, which formed every plant and every herb before it grew in the earth. Thus grace in the soul, that plant of renown, grows not of itself in nature’s soil, but is the work of God’s own hands. 2. Rain also is the gift of God; it came not till the Lord God caused it to rain. If rain be wanted, it is God that withholds it; if rain come plentifully in its season, it is God that sends it; if it come in a distinguishing way, it is God that causeth it to rain upon one city and not upon another, Amos 4:7. “I also withheld rain from you, When there were still three months to the harvest. I made it rain on one city, I withheld rain from another city. One part was rained upon, And where it did not rain the part withered.

 

 3. Though God, ordinarily, works by means, yet he is not tied to them, but when he pleases he can do his own work without them.As the plants were produced before the sun was made, so they were before there was either rain to water the earth or man to till it. Therefore though we must not tempt God in the neglect of means, yet we must trust God in the want of means. 4. Some way or other God will take care to water the plants that are of his own planting. Though as yet there was no rain, God made a mist equivalent to a shower, and with it watered the whole face of the ground. Thus he chose to fulfil his purpose by the weakest means, that the excellency of the power might be of God. Divine grace descends like a mist, or silent dew, and waters the church without noise, Deut. 32:2. Let my ^a]">[a]teaching drop as the rain,
My speech distill as the dew, As raindrops on the tender herb,
And as showers on the grass.

 

III. A more particular account of the creation of man, Gen. 2:7. Man is a little world, consisting of heaven and earth, soul and body. Now here we have an account of the origin of both and the putting of both together: let us seriously consider it, and say, to our Creator’s praise, We are fearfully and wonderfully made, Ps. 139:14. Elihu, in the patriarchal age, refers to this history when he says (Job 33:6), I also am formed out of the clay, and (Job 33:4), The breath of the Almighty hath given me life, and (Job 32:8), There is a spirit in man. Observe then,

1. The meaning of or origin, and yet the curious structure, of the body of man. (1.) The matter was despicable. He was made of the dust of the ground, a very unlikely thing to make a man of; but the same infinite power that made the world of nothing made man, its master-piece, of next to nothing. He was made of the dust, the small dust, such as is upon the surface of the earth. Probably, not dry dust, but dust moistened with the mist that went up, Gen. 2:6. He was not made of gold-dust, powder of pearl, or diamond dust, but common dust, dust of the ground. Hence he is said to be of the earth, choikos—dusty, 1 Cor. 15:47. And we also are of the earth, for we are his offspring, and of the same mould. So near an affinity is there between the earth and our earthly parents that our mother’s womb, out of which we were born, is called the earth (Ps. 139:15), My ^a]">[a]frame was not hidden from You,When I was made in secret, And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

 

 and the earth, in which we must be buried, is called our mother’s womb, Job 1:21. And he said:

“Naked I came from my mother’s womb,
And naked shall I return there.
The Lord gave, and the Lord has taken away;
Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 Our foundation is in the earth, Job 4:19. Our fabric is earthly, and the fashioning of it like that of an earthen vessel, Job 10:9. How much more those who dwell in houses of clay, Whose foundation is in the dust, Who are crushed before a moth?

 

Our food is out of the earth, Job 28:5. As for the earth, from it comes bread, But underneath it is turned up as by fire;

 

 Our familiarity is with the earth, Job 17:14. Our fathers are in the earth, and our own final tendency is to it; and what have we then to be proud of? (2.) Yet the Maker was great, and the make fine. The Lord God, the great fountain of being and power, formed man. Of the other creatures it is said that they were created and made; but of man that he was formed, which denotes a gradual process in the work with great accuracy and exactness. To express the creation of this new thing, he takes a new word, a word (some think) borrowed from the potter’s forming his vessel upon the wheel; for we are the clay, and God the potter, Isa. 64:8. 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.

 

The body of man is curiously wrought, Ps. 139:15, 16. My ^[a]frame was not hidden from You,
When I was made in secret,
And skillfully wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.

The workmanship exceeded the materials. Let us present our bodies to God as living sacrifices (Rom. 12:1), as living temples (1 Cor. 6:19),Or do you not know that your body is the temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and you are not your own?

 and then these vile bodies shall shortly be new-formed like Christ’s glorious body, Phil. 3:21. who will transform our lowly body that it may be conformed to His glorious body, according to the working by which He is able even to subdue all things to Himself.