“7 One day the Eternal God scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human, breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul” (VOICE).
7 "the Lord God formed the human[a] from the topsoil of the fertile land[b] and blew life’s breath into his nostrils. The human came to life"(CEB).
7 "The Lord God took some soil from the ground and made a man.[a] God breathed life into the man, and the man started breathing" (CEV).
7 "Then the Lord God took some soil from the ground and formed a man[a] out of it; he breathed life-giving breath into his nostrils and the man began to live" (GNT).
7 "Then the Lord God formed a man[a] from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being" (NIV).
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 soul" (KJV).
Why so many translations? The point is that there is very little difference in the numerous translations, so therefore, there is little doubt as to the meanng of Genesis 2:7. God took special care in the creation of mankind. He formed us with His own hands, and then He breathed HIS BREATH into us and made us living beings.
I have no pictures of God, and I have no pictures that show the time of creation of mankind. So, in this instance, let us say "A word from the Word is worth a thousand pictures," rather than "a picture is worth a thousand words." Picture in your own mind the gentleness and the love that God put into His creation of mankind. The words quoted above show how a loving God created the object of all His love.
And now, the crux of the matter. After all the universe had been prepared, God created mankind. Notice the difference in the creation of mankind. In every other instance of creation, God said something like, "Light be,” or “Let there be light,” and light appeared. But when it came to the object of God’s perfect love, He did the work Himself. He “scooped dirt out of the ground, sculpted it into the shape we call human.” Then, He “breathed the breath that gives life into the nostrils of the human, and the human became a living soul.” In no other animal did God breathe life from Himself—only mankind. He made us special when He breathed His life into us and gave us a “living soul.” We had been created in His image to fellowship with Him. Genesis 1:26 tells us: “God: 26 Now let Us conceive a new creation—humanity—made in Our image, fashioned according to Our likeness. And let Us grant them authority over all the earth—the fish in the sea and the birds in the sky, the domesticated animals and the small creeping creatures on the earth” (VOICE).
God is a tripart being, including Father, Son, and Holy Spirit, just as man is a tripart being having a body, soul, and spirit. We have been created by God to include and experience all parts of His being, and thus, we can fellowship with Him. What a privilege we have been given, and we have been given that privilege because God loves us and wants to communicate with us in a very intimate way. We can hear His voice, know His heart, and commune with Him in a way that no other being can. Let’s not waste our lives staying away from Him; let us draw close to Him and experience everything that He has planned for us!
Colossians 1:16,17 God Revealed in the Functions of the Universe
“For by Him were all things created that are in heaven and that are on earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones or dominions or principalities or power: all things were created by Him and of Him” (KJ21).
There are certain laws of nature that make the universe function so that it is suitable for mankind to live and enjoy. These laws are invisible in themselves, but their effects are certainly visible in our daily lives. They affect us every day of our lives, and God created them as surely as He created the sun, the earth, and all its environment. We are told in Amos 5:8: ”Seek Him that maketh the seven stars and Orion, and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night, who calleth forth the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth. The Lord is His name” (KJ21). The portion of this verse that reads; “…and turneth the shadow of death into the morning, and maketh the day dark with night” speaks of day and night, the process whereby everything on earth has time to rest between times of action, and He made this day/night cycle to pass across the face of the planet so that there is always someplace where it is day and someplace where it is night. There is always daylight somewhere, and there is always dark of night somewhere. That means that sunrises and sunsets are constantly occurring.
Further in the same verse, “…who calleth forth the waters of the sea and poureth them out upon the face of the earth” describes what we call the water cycle. Rain or snow falls, flows toward the oceans, and evaporates, only to be carried over the land and water the crops again. This is the water cycle by which plants and animals are provided with needed water.
Water, itself, has a unique property. Everything contracts--gets smaller as it cools. Water does the same until just above freezing, when it expands and continues to expand for a few degrees below freezing. This causes ice cubes to float. It also causes rivers to freeze over because this frozen water stays above the flowing water and insulates it so rivers don’t freeze solid to the bottom and kill all the fish. It also provides a method whereby arctic villages can be provisioned by trucks driving over the tops of frozen rivers and lakes during the winter. It also allows water to flow year round to turn the turbines of dams to produce electricity. God had all of this in mind when He created.
Water is an interesting compound. It is made up of hydrogen, a very explosive gas, and oxygen, whose presence is necessary for any fire to burn. When God put these two fiery elements together in a special combination—two atoms of hydrogen and one atom of oxygen—a substance is formed which puts out fires. God is amazing. Table salt is made up of sodium and chlorine, two poisonous substances when ingested alone, but when God put them together in His special compound, sodium chloride--one atom of sodium with one atom one chlorine—table salt is formed, and our steaks taste better. Without sodium chloride we could not live. Again, God was thinking ahead.
Much of God’s creative action is visible in land forms. water features, plants and animals, but just as important are the innumerable physical and chemical processes that He put in place. When we consider all these processes, we are doubly amazed at the creative aptitude and power of our great God.
Psalm 8:3,4 God Revealed in the Creation of the Heavens
“When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars, which you have set in place, what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them? (NIV)
Can you agree with me that God must be bigger than what He created? This picture was taken by the Hubble telescope. Lots of stars, right? Not so fast, what you see are not stars; they are galaxies. Okay, lots of galaxies. Ten thousand galaxies, at least that is how many galaxies astronomers have been able to determine that there are in this picture. Okay, I’m impressed, but how big a portion of the sky does this picture include? If you were to hold a dime at arm’s length and look at the sky, you will see just how much of the sky this covers. I’ve read that the camera was focused on a rather dark section of the sky. Astronomers estimate that a galaxy contains from 100,000,000,000 to 400,000,000,000 stars. These are some pretty big numbers. Let’s take a look at a small galaxy, one that contains 100,000,000,000 stars, and let’s use something familiar to examine the size of that number. Suppose I were to give you $100 every minute of every day. How long do you think it would take for me to give you $100,000,000,000? No, too short, guess longer. My calculator shows that it would take a little over one thousand nine hundred two and one half years for you to get your $100,000,000,000. Okay, this is not a good time to think about the national debt.
Close by creations, Jupiter and Saturn
So, God must be very large to have created all of this. If He is that large, can He have any thought about me, one person on one planet near a medium-sized star like our Sun? Well, He knows me, and He knows you. He loves me and He loves you. He loves each of us enough to want to have us with Him, not for 100,000,000,000 years, but for eternity. He did something very special to make that happen. He sent His Son, Jesus, to accept the penalty for every sin that has ever been committed—yes, mine, yours, and everybody else’s. If we are willing to accept this fantastic gift, the forgiveness of our sins, then we will spend eternity with this great big God. I’ve accepted His gift, salvation, and if you have, I’ll get to meet you someday. I’m looking forward to that. So, it turns out that God’s heart is also bigger than the universe He created. This news is too good to keep to ourselves. We need to share it with everyone--friends, neighbors, family, and even with people that we may not even like very much.
Further away creations, a spiral galaxy and a barred-spiral galaxy
A magnificent creation by our magnificent God!
(And He knows your name.)
All photographs from the Hubble telescope.
Genesis 1:9,10 God Revealed in Creation of the Earth
“God: 9 Let the waters below the heavens be collected into one place and congregate into one vast sea, so that dry land may appear. It happened just as God said. 10 God called the dry land “earth” and the waters congregated below “seas.” And God saw that His new creation was beautiful and good” (VOICE).
All it took was one little sentence, “Let the waters below the heavens be collected into one place and congregate into one vast sea, so that dry land may appear.” And dry land appeared—that is, the mountains, the valleys, the plains, the seashores, the cliffs, the canyons—they all appeared just as he said they would. Have you looked at Mount Everest? Have you looked at the Grand Canyon?
Have you looked at the deep valleys in Switzerland? Have you looked at the great plains, the breadbasket of the United States?
Have you looked at the White Cliffs of Dover? Yes, you probably looked at each of these, if not in person, then in a video or photograph. Each of the above is magnificent. Each one can take your breath away. In one short sentence, God created the magnificent beauty of this planet.
Why did He go to the bother of creating such beauty? I can think of three reasons. First, He created all of them in order to prepare a planet that would support all the life needed for mankind to live here. I think He also created the earth with such great beauty simply because He likes beautiful things. And third, I think He created the earth as a place of beauty so that we could enjoy it and be amazed at His creative ability. I can collapse all three reasons into just one. He created the earth to look like this because He loves you and He loves me, and he wanted to please us.
In John 14:1-3, Jesus tells us, “In my Father's house are many mansions: if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto myself; that where I am, there ye may be also” (NKJV). What? Earth is not good enough, and Jesus is going to prepare a new place for us? How magnificent must that be? I am looking forward to the return of Jesus when He will gather us all together and take us home to live with Him for eternity.
Genesis 1:20-25 Discover God in the Creation of Animals
"God: 20 'Waters, swarm with fish and sea creatures. Let birds soar high above the earth in the broad expanse of sky.'
21 So God created huge sea creatures, all the swarm of life in the waters, and every kind and species of flying birds—each able to reproduce its own kind. And God saw that His new creation was beautiful and good. 22 And God spoke this blessing over them:
God: 'Be fruitful and multiply. Let creatures fill the seas. Let birds reproduce and cover the earth.'
23 Evening gave way to morning. That was day five.
God: 24 'Earth, generate life! Produce a vast variety of living creatures—domesticated animals, small creeping creatures, and wild animals that roam the earth.'
It happened just as God said. 25 God made earth-creatures in a vast variety of species: wild animals, domesticated animals of all sizes, and small creeping creatures, each able to reproduce its own kind. God saw that His new creation was beautiful and good. And God paused" (VOICE).
After He created plants, God created the sun, the moon, and the stars. He also made the earths’s axis tilt 23 degrees. By these two actions, He provided not only for day and night, but also for seasons. Then He created animals. I find it interesting that He created sea creatures and birds on one day and land animals on the next day.
I find it interesting, but I am not going to question Him. I am sure that He knew just what He was doing.
So now we have animals everywhere, and the varieties are simply amazing. If you want to be astounded, view a video of the fish around a coral reef. Then look at a video showing the various birds from ostriches to hummingbirds. Or compare a chipmunk to a great blue whale, or a housefly to a hippopotamus.
I am amazed and astounded that all six of these, ostrich, hummingbird, chipmunk, great blue whale, housefly, and hippopotamus share the same basic physical properties to live. Each one ingests food, breaks it apart into its various needed nutrients, and casts off the unused portion. Each one takes in oxygen and gives off carbon dioxide.
Even though the great blue whale lives in the ocean, it breathes the same way land animals do. Fish, on the other hand, can’t breathe air; they absorb oxygen from the water through their gills and excrete carbon dioxide also through its gills.
When I look at a mouse or a ground squirrel, I try to imagine the tiny size of their hearts and the even tinier blood vessels. It certainly takes an omniscient being to design all these animals along with the processes they need in order to live.
Fish, birds, wild animals, tame animals, plants—all forms of life—God said of them, they were and are “beautiful and good.” It is important for us to remember that God made all of this for our benefit, so we can live, have sustenance, and so that we can enjoy the beauty and diversity of all that He created.
In creation, God reveals Himself as a loving God.
