Does God get His hands dirty when He forms the human, soil from the ground?
“… the LORD God formed man (Hebrew ʾadam) from the dust of the earth (Hebrew ʾadamah). He blew into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living being” (Genesis 2:7 JSB).
וַיִּיצֶר֩ יְהוָ֨ה אֱלֹהִ֜ים אֶת־הָֽאָדָ֗ם עָפָר֙ מִן־הָ֣אֲדָמָ֔ה וַיִּפַּ֥ח בְּאַפָּ֖יו נִשְׁמַ֣ת חַיִּ֑ים וַֽיְהִ֥י הָֽאָדָ֖ם לְנֶ֥פֶשׁ חַיָּֽה׃
By day six, God had created the heavens and earth and populated all His Creation with life forms. Now, God turns His attention to animate the land with the most advanced forms of life. He says, “Let the earth bring forth every kind of living creature” and fashions cattle, creepers, and wild beasts of every kind. God sees that this is good. Then He turns His attention to creating ha-Adam as His personal representative to oversee all that He creates.
The human is God’s crown jewel to rule over all Creation. God personally forms the human out of the soil of the ground and then breaths into his nostrils the breath of life. In this way, the human becomes specially animated with life from God’s very own breath. Man has the soul of all animals fashioned from the ground but also the special life force from God’s very own breath.
After this, God plants a garden in Eden and places the human there “to till and tend.” So ha-adam receives the important task of overseeing the adamah. In this way, humankind watches the life story unfold for all that the heavens and earth generate. Even the ground, now conscious of itself, can give glory to God, its Father and Creator.
What do you think? Does God get His hands dirty?
God takes dust from ha-adamah (the ground) to form ha-adam (humankind). When God breathes into the human’s nostrils, He “muddies” the dust with the breath of life. Next, He plants a garden and places ha-adam there to till and tend, so both God and the human likely get their hands dirty.
© Jeffrey Enoch Feinberg. JEF is quick to remind his students that we all are “dirt bags.” It’s good that God provides His Spirit to bring us life!
