God created from the dust of the ground.
I want you to close your eyes for a moment. Imagine that you are standing outside our church, in the parking lot next to your car. As you gaze around, you notice that the parking lot is full. It's a normal day. Vehicles are buzzing by on Toronto Road. People are walking into the church. Birds are singing. Jet contrails are crisscrossing in the sky.
Now imagine that there isn't a single car, or truck, or semi anywhere in sight. Nor is there a single human being in sight, nor jet contrails, nor any birds or animals. There is not a single living creature to be seen. Now imagine that there is no church building, no asphalt under your feet, no Toronto Road, and not a single road anywhere. There is no detention pond, no landscaping, no Methodist building, no Cracker Barrel or hotels, and no interstate highway. And finally, there are no trees or shrubs, no flowers, no dormant grass, and not even a single weed.
For all practical purposes, you are standing in the middle of a vast desert. The only identifiable thing is the dust of the ground.
Now consider Genesis 2:4-6 (NIV) which says, "This is the account of the heavens and the earth when they were created. When the LORD God made the earth and the heavens-- and no shrub of the field had yet appeared on the earth and no plant of the field had yet sprung up, for the LORD God had not sent rain on the earth and there was no man to work the ground, but streams came up from the earth and watered the whole surface of the ground..."
Rain and the formation of plant life.
These verses are describing the earth in a desolate state of existence-- not unlike the surface of Mars, only with water! There is dust as far as the eye can see.
But just beneath the dust lay trillions of seeds. There were seeds of every kind of tree, shrub, bush, flower, and plant we've come to enjoy. But here's another detail. The earth was crying out for rain-- that each seed might receive its water and nourishment, and that the dust of the ground and each seed might release its majestic beauty-- apple trees, evergreens, tomato plants, rose bushes, wild flowers, daisies, and prairie grass. But if there is no rain, the seeds can't come to fruition.
One of God's greatest activities in creation was to send rain. Genesis 2:5 is asking us to imagine trillions of seeds laying dormant in the dust of the earth, just waiting to spring to life at first raindrop! Without rain, there is no formation of plant life. There is only the potential for plant life. Seeds need rain!
So in Deuteronomy 11:13-15 (NIV) God says, "So if you faithfully obey the commands I am giving you today-- to love the LORD your God and to serve him with all your heart and with all your soul-- then I will send rain on your land in its season, both autumn and spring rains, so that you may gather in your grain, new wine and oil. I will provide grass in the fields for your cattle, and you will eat and be satisfied."
The earth is desolate without rain.
And then in Deuteronomy 11:16-17 (NIV) God warns, "Be careful, or you will be enticed to turn away and worship other gods and bow down to them. Then the LORD's anger will burn against you, and he will shut the heavens so that it will not rain and the ground will yield no produce, and you will soon perish from the good land the LORD is giving you."
The earth is nothing without rain. But as it stands, God sends the rain. Job 5:10 (NIV) says, "He (God) bestows rain on the earth; he sends water upon the countryside." Job 28:25-26 (NIV) refers to when God, "... established the force of the wind and measured out the waters, when he made a decree for the rain and a path for the thunderstorm..." Job 37:6 (NIV) tells us, "He (God) says to the snow, 'Fall on the earth,' and to the rain shower, 'Be a mighty downpour.' " Psalm 147:8 (NIV) says, "He covers the sky with clouds; he supplies the earth with rain and makes grass grow on the hills." In Matthew 5:45 (NIV) Jesus says "He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous."
The earth is desolate without rain. Genesis 2:5 is teaching us that God isn't just the creator of plant life; God is also sustainer of all life. Drop by drop, storm by storm, season by season, year after year, without God's provision, this great, green, majestic earth returns to dust!
Breath and the formation of human life.
We just saw how plant life is dependent on God's rain. Now consider Genesis 2:7 (NIV) which says, "...the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being."
Just as God formed seeds and deposited them in the soil, so God formed man. Isaiah 64:8 (NIV) says, "Yet, O LORD, you are our Father. We are the clay, you are the potter; we are all the work of your hand." Job 10:9 (NIV) says, "Remember that you molded me like clay. Will you now turn me to dust again?"
It's pretty amazing to think of God fashioning our bodies from the dust of the ground. But Genesis 2:7 invites us to consider what we'd be like without the breath of God. Just as the earth needs rain, so our clay bodies need the very breath of God to become living beings! This is why Job says, in Job 33:4 (NIV), "The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life." And this is why in Job 34:14-15 (NIV) he says, "If it were his intention and he withdrew his spirit and breath, all mankind would perish together and man would return to the dust."
Apart from the breath of God, we are nothing more than clay statues! Apart from the breath of God, we are little more than seeds laying dormant in the dust waiting for the rain. It's only when God sends his rain, it's only when he breathes his breath of life into our nostrils that we become alive! This is why the very last verse of the very last psalm, Psalm 150:6 (NIV) says, "Let everything that has breath praise the LORD." With our breath we need to praise the one who gives us breath, and who gives us rain!
So allow me to summarize. Without God's rain, the face of the earth would be a desolate. Without the breath of God, man would be nothing but a dust bag or a clay statue, void of life. But as it stands, God is his grace sends the rain, he has given us breath, and we have become living beings.
Breath and the formation of spiritual life.
If you are using a different Bible translation than the NIV, Genesis 2:7 literally says that when God breathed into man's nostrils, "...he became a living soul." At this point, you should see a connection. Rain gives rise to plant life. God's breath gives life to mankind. But what about our soul? What about our spirit?
In Ezekiel 18:4 (NIV) God says, "For every living soul belongs to me, the father as well as the son-- both alike belong to me. The soul who sins is the one who will die."
This verse is suggesting that our soul is in a perilous state-- not unlike the earth without rain, and not unlike a body without the breath of God. We have potentiality for life and we have a soul, but our soul is dying because of our transgressions and sins.
Ephesians 2:1-3 (NIV) says, "As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins, in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient. All of us also lived among them at one time, gratifying cravings of our sinful nature and following its desires and thoughts. Like the rest, we were by nature objects of wrath."
Your soul is crying out for living water.
Like the earth, your soul is crying out for living water. Your soul is crying out for the breath of God. Your soul is dry and thirsty. It is corrupted by sin, hostile to God, and under a curse. But here is God's promise to us through prophet of Isaiah in Isaiah 44:3 (NIV). "For I will pour water on the thirsty land, and streams on the dry ground; I will pour out my Spirit on your offspring, and my blessing on your descendants." Your prayer should be, "God send the rain! God breathe on me! God make me alive!"
With God's Holy Spirit, we are dead in our transgressions and sin. In John 4 you might remember how Jesus encounters a Samaritan woman who is drawing water from a well outside her city. We learn that she has been living a sexually immoral life. She's had five husbands, and is now on man number six, who is not her husband. She was being shamed by her community, and forced to fetch water alone.
It's not hard to see that this is a woman who is very much alive physically, yet spiritually dead. She is thirsty physically, but her soul is also thirsty. Nothing has satisfied her in life. Sin has taken its toll on her life physically, socially, and spiritually.
As she is drawing water from the well, Jesus asks her for a drink. And when she balks at Jesus' request, he says in John 4:10 (NIV), "If you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water." Again in John 4:13-14 (NIV) Jesus tells her, "Everyone who drinks this water will be thirsty again, but whoever drinks the water I give him will never thirst. Indeed, the water I give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life."
By the end of the conversation, it is evident Jesus is taking about the Holy Spirit. As the earth needs rain, as the body thirsts for water, so her soul needed the Spirit of God! In John 4:23-24 (NIV) Jesus says to her, "Yet a time is coming and has now come when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for they are the kind of worshipers the Father seeks. God is spirit, and his worshipers must worship in spirit and in truth."
Without God's Holy Spirit, we struggle to quench the thirst of our souls.
Her struggle is our struggle. We spend our lives thinking we can quench the thirst of our souls by virtue of our physical needs. We eat, we drink, we sin, and we satisfy our every craving and desire-- moral or immoral. And yet our souls remain thirsty. If we would ask God, he would give us living water. He would give us his Holy Spirit to quench our parched souls. That's the point!
Earlier in John's gospel, we find Jesus meeting with Nicodemus, who is a Pharisee. Outwardly, he is a devout Jew, steeped in religious tradition, and a man learned of the Old Testament Law. But inwardly, Nicodemus is spiritually dead. His soul is suffocating. He is a rigid and legalistic man, judgmental, and void of joy and grace. Sour faced. In John 3:5-6 (NIV) Jesus tells Nicodemus, "I tell you the truth, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless he is born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit." Jesus is telling him that his soul needs something different than his physical body, his flesh.
John 3:7-8 (NIV) continues, "You should not be surprised at my saying, 'You must be born again.' The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit."
Just as our nostrils need breath, so our soul needs the wind of God. Our souls need the very breath of God! Friends, apart from the Spirit of God, we are suffocating in our transgressions and sins!
Without God's Spirit, we are alive physically, but our souls are not alive spiritually.
Now consider what God tells Adam after he sinned in Genesis 3:19 (NIV). "By the sweat of your brow you will eat your food until you return to the ground, since from it you were taken; for dust you are and to dust you will return."
So check it out. Even after Adam sinned, he was still alive physically. He could work with hands. He could sweat. He could eat food and drink. Right? But look closer. Though alive physically, his life was now oriented toward sin and death. That is our problem! Dust is our destiny. What good is it to be alive physically when your soul is dead? We need to made alive again!
The Spirit of God is to the soul as rain is to the ground. The Spirit of God is to the soul as God's breath is to our physical bodies. We need living water. We need the wind of God. We need to be born again of water and spirit.
In John 20:22 (NIV) Jesus appears to his disciples and breathes on them and says, "Receive the Holy Spirit." What choice does the earth have but to receive God's rain? What choice do our nostrils have but to receive God's breath? What choice does your soul have but to receive God's Holy Spirit?
Acts 2:38-41 (NIV) tells us how to receive God's Spirit. "Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. The promise is for you and your children and for all who are far off-- for all whom the Lord our God will call. With many other words he warned them; and he pleaded with them, 'Save yourselves from this corrupt generation.' Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day."
When we celebrate communion, we remember that we have received God's Spirit and we are forgiven of sin. God's Spirit sets us free from sin. Keep in step with God's Holy Spirit!