Tuesday 14 July 2015

The breath of life

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. – Genesis 2.7

Chapter two sort of goes back and fills in the gaps of the daily creation account given in chapter one with a focus on Adam and Eve. In the first chapter we got an overview – here we see the details.

God made Adam first and there is a difference between him and all the rest. When we read here about God breathing into man’s nostrils the breath of life it sets man apart. This breath of life means that man, unique in Creation, had a spirit (or a soul, or soul and spirit, I’ll leave that debate up to the theologians). It means that when we die that is not the end because we have an eternal part to us.

This breath of life makes all the difference in the world. It means that there is an ‘us’ in each of us. Philosophers all through time and all over the world have tried to explain this. Psychologists and sociologists have named this ‘usness.’

God’s breath is what gives man a concept of a higher being. Virtually every culture has tried to find some way to connect with the source of the breath that God breathed into Adam.


Thankfully God chose to tell us all about Himself. He gave us His word and even told us how it all began. The same breath that breathed this breath also breathed our His word. We can all know that source of life through His word.

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