Bible Study Genesis Part 27-And God Formed Man

Genesis gives us almost no “how-to” on galaxies, nebulae, or black holes, then suddenly slows down for a single, personal act: God forms a man from the dust and breathes life into him. That turn is where we camp out, because Genesis 2:7 isn’t written to satisfy trivia, it’s written to explain who we are, why we’re here, and why the rest of Scripture is about God’s work with mankind.

We walk through the details of the verse and the meaning packed into a few words. We talk about God “forming” Adam with the imagery of a potter shaping clay, and we explore the Hebrew connection between Adam (man) and Adama (ground) to show how our bodies are designed to live from the earth. Then we look at the two-step picture of human creation: a body made from dust and the breath of God given directly, making us a compound being that is both earthly and God-breathed.

We also tackle a major point of confusion: the phrase “living soul.” By comparing the Hebrew wording used for land animals and sea creatures, we argue that “living creature” often fits better than the loaded English word “soul,” and we explain why that matters for clear Bible interpretation and Christian theology. From there, we connect human uniqueness and purpose to a direct challenge against blending Evolution with the Genesis account.

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Transcript

Why God’s Word Comes First

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Welcome to the program Study in the Chapel. God's Word is supreme at Chapel Ministries. We consider it absolutely essential to a proper relationship with God. We study it, we love it, we rely on it every minute of every day. The following program is an edited recording of the regular Bible studies we hold. And we decided to share these with you in the hope that you too will be able to find inspiration, encouragement, and ultimately salvation through discovering Christ in Scripture. Our intention is to travel all the way through the Bible. It will be a challenging journey, but one that will undoubtedly bring you to a decision. Through this study, you will be faced with either believing or rejecting what God has said to us. It is our intention to provide you with enough knowledge to make an informed decision about God and his word. We strongly encourage you to listen intently and diligently, because though at the moment you may not realize it, these things are truly a matter of life and death. In fact, these are matters of eternal life and eternal death. Never treat what God has said lightly. There's truly nothing more important to you. Now join us as we seek God's will through his inspired word.

Loving Scripture And Teaching Weekly

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All right, we are back in our Bible study. We do this every week because, first of all, we love God and we love his word. I was just thinking this week how much I just have loved God's word since I first started studying it. When I first started going to evangelical churches, don't worry about the funny terms, but when I first started going to Bible-loving churches, it somehow got into my bone marrow. And every single word that God speaks in his word has been important to me. And it's it's excited me and led me to this ministry. It I felt like I had to share this. And then every single week, I want people to just feel the same fire that I have for the things that God has shared with us. It really is amazing. As I've often said, we've been cheated because I didn't know any of this stuff when I was going to church. And we went to church relatively often. They may have taught it to us. I may have heard it before, but it just wasn't presented the way that God wanted it presented, which is in a way that says it's alive because it is alive. And that's why we do this. And I really do honestly pray that everyone that hears God hear God's word, hears God's word taught, whether it's here or somewhere else. I really pray that it does come alive for you in your life, that you apply it to your life and that you bring it forward to others. That's what we're called to do. We're called by the Great Commission to spread God's word throughout the earth. And that's what we're trying to do here.

Subscribe Support And Giving Request

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You can help us out by coming regularly, by subscribing to our channel, by liking the things, by giving us comments, and by giving. You know, don't forget, giving is still an important part of your experience as a Christian. If you're interested in giving to this ministry, go to chapelontheweb.com and there'll be some instructions for you there. It's very simple. We never take anyone's name, we never have a list, we're never going to bother you. But if you feel there is some value in the teaching that you receive here, please go ahead and give. I'm not asking you to give, I'm just saying, as a Christian, you should give where you're taught. All right,

Reading Genesis Toward Verse 7

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let's start out today with a little reading. Genesis chapter two, verse one. Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them. I really am going to try to get through this without commenting. And on the seventh day, God ended his work. Oh, I want to talk about that, which he had made, and he rested on the seventh day from all his work. I want to talk about that. Verse three, and God blessed the seventh day and sanctified it, because that in it he had rested from all his work, which God created and made. These are the generations of the heavens and of the earth when they were created, in the day that the Lord God made the heaven and the earth, the earth and the heavens. Verse five, and every plant of the field before it was in the earth, and every herb of the field before it grew, for the Lord God had not caused it to rain upon the earth, and there was not a man to till the ground. We covered all of these verses so far. If you're interested, go back and look at some of these previous YouTube videos or go to our podcast website, chapelontheweb.com. Actually, no, studyinthechapel.com is our podcast website. Okay, back to verse six. But there went up a mist from the earth and watered the whole face of the ground. And now comes the most pivotal moment of the entire Bible, verse seven. I'm looking over at Catherine's notes there. That's pretty awesome picture. 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. Now we've been pointing out this whole time that there just seems to be something going on here. The creation story, as wonderful as it is, seems so abbreviated. Every time we read it, we long for more detail. We want the story of the creation of the universe in the Bible to be about the creation of the universe. Yes, it's in there, but in exasperatingly sparse detail. It's barely mentioned, if I'm being honest. We want more, don't we? We want to learn more about the universe. God, how did you make the nebulae? Why is there so much hydrogen in the universe? How come there appears to be no other life forms in our galactic neighborhood? Black holes, what even are those? On and on our questions go as we read this without any sort of answer. God isn't sharing with us the story of the creation of the universe. And it's obvious. Where are the details, God? They're not there. I mean, it looks like it looks like we're forced to look somewhere else for those answers because it's become apparent that God is not telling us this story in Genesis to give us a list of universe creation steps. Well, then what are you talking about, God? 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.

The Bible’s Focus Shifts To Humanity

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Here is where the real story begins. Starting right here, and for the rest of the Bible, the focus is on mankind. Everything up to this point has been set up. But let me say, let's not get a big head over this. The point of the Bible heretofore is to tell us how God created an entire planetary system to accommodate humans. But the story very quickly changes direction. What should have been a short story with a few lovely details and a happy ending actually becomes a much longer story with not so many lovely details, but nonetheless ends with a happy ending tucked way, way down the line. In fact, we're still waiting for that part. It's described in there. We'll know it when it gets here, but it's not here yet. But let's not too get too far ahead. Let's stick with the facts we have so far. 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. Now, yes, God is repeating what he described in the first chapter. He's been doing that thus far in the few verses we've gotten to in chapter two. He's repeating himself from before. Verse 26, back in chapter one, says, And God said, Let us make man in our image after our likeness, and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. Here in chapter two, verse seven, God starts to expand on this earlier statement. By the way, you're going to realize that he does that a lot in these first few books of the Bible. I think I mentioned this last time. I'm going to do it again. The way God has been doing things, the way he structured this early part of the Bible, he states something, then moves on to something else, then circles back and gives us more details or a different perspective of the details on the stuff he spoke of before. Now, why does he do that? I don't know. I would like to think he does so in order to emphasize the importance of those repeated things, but that doesn't always mesh with the evidence. Just because God repeats himself doesn't always mean that those things are the most important. So we must assume that they're important. But just because there are some things he doesn't repeat doesn't mean those stated only once things are unimportant. So I'm going to stick with my I don't know answer to the question as to why God repeats some things in greater details and leave other things in their first and only mentioned state. And I'm going to stick with that answer mainly because we shouldn't try to assume what we we should not try to assume what God is thinking when he does things like this. Read it, study it, apply it, and that's all we need to do. Back to Genesis 2, 7.

Why Genesis Repeats Key Details

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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. Now let me repeat my warning from last time. Be prepared to get the impression that I believe everything that God says here. It's all true. That is my stance. Everything God says about everything is true. But I'm saying especially that I accept as true everything God tells me about the creation of man. John, why are you making such a big deal about that? Because the world doesn't want thinking people to believe this story. Well, I do. And that is the way this section of our Bible study will appear. And let me warn you, every section of our Bible study will appear as if I believe what I'm teaching, because I do. I will not question God's account, and I will not apologize to you for God's lack of respect for the world's version of the creation of mankind. 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. Now, firstly, I hope you've noticed that this is the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim, that is doing this forming of man. God is your creator. He is the powerful creator for you. That's what the Jehovah name means. We talked about that last time. I really sincerely hope you're making that connection. Also, I want to state that this is one of the most subtly profound statements you're going to find in Scripture, maybe anywhere. 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. Now perhaps it's not so subtle in the Hebrew, but the way it comes to us in the English is amazing. It's just smooth, it just comes through, and it's one of the most incredible statements ever made.

God The Potter And Adam’s Dust

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First of all, we're told quite dramatically that God formed us. This word formed is actually the word used when talking about what a potter does. You know what a potter is, right? Somebody who makes pottery. When God used the word formed, it invoked the imagery of a potter. You've seen potters at work, haven't you? Either in person or maybe on TV. A potter picks up some amorphous material, puts it on his workspace, usually a turntable of some sort, and then he forms something useful out of it. And the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim, formed man like a potter forms a pot. He took some material and then he shaped it, that material into a man. Now it says here that God used the dust of the ground or the earth if that makes you feel better. That's significant. Now the word, listen to me, this is gonna take some concentration. So I want you to listen to me. The word for man in the Hebrew, when God uses the word man, especially in these early chapters, that Hebrew word is, you ready for this? Adam. Adam. Say that to yourself a couple of times. Adam, Adam. What does that sound like? What does Adam remind you of? It's Adam. The word Adam is Adam. English Adam, Hebrew, Adam. When God uses the word man all the way through, he's just naming Adam. He's using the word Adam for Adam. Now, there are other instances where God uses the word man in the Bible, uses the word Adam in the Bible, and it's not meaning Adam, but you get the point. This is Adam, this is Adam. Adam is the name of the very first man. Adam is Adam. Adam is a transliteration of Adam. We're going to call him Adam. And when we do, we're using a Hebrew word. So God formed, he shaped Adam, the King James says, of the dust of the ground. Now, do you know what the original word is there? You ready for this? The Hebrew word that is translated there ground is Adam. Again, sounds familiar, doesn't it? Well, they're similar. Adam, Adam, man, Adama, both coming from the same root. Adama is the ground, Adam is the man. They both, listen to me, they have the same Hebrew root word. In other words, they are related. Those two words, Adam and Adama, are related. Both words are assigned to these objects, man and ground. Listen to me, to highlight the relationship they have to each other and to the earth. The dust is of the earth, and Adam, the first man, the progenitor, the first one in our race, his body, Adam's body was formed from the earth. But verse 7 has something else to say. In fact, it has two very distinct things to say. We already covered the first one, the fact that man was formed from the dust of the ground. Remember, we talked about this, I think it was last time. It's important to know that man was formed from the earth, from the dust of the ground, because it was from the earth that man would survive. He had to be formed with the same elements as the earth because he was going to live off of the earth. So they share elements. That's important to know. Mankind and the ground are physically related. You can find the same chemicals in man that you can find in nature. That's the way God did things in order for us to survive in the place where he planted us. So God matched the elements of the earth to the elements of the creature he was going to put in it and live off of it. Hope that makes sense to you. So that's number one. And the Lord God, Jehovah Elohim, breathed into his nostrils, into Adam's nostrils, the breath of life, and Adam became a living soul.

Two-Step Creation Body And Breath

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God breathed into Adam. It was a two-step creation process. He was formed of the dust, and then God's breath went into man and made him a living soul. Again, the Bible, the book of Genesis, is simply filled with these startling statements that just slide by us. Because they're in such subtle packages. Through this one statement, we learn one of the most remarkable truths about ourselves imaginable. Through this one statement, we are told that mankind is a compound being. Now I know that that sounds sort of boring and unimpressive, but let's look at it closely. And by the way, one of the reasons mankind is in the mess he's currently in, one of the reasons mankind is in this current deplorable state is that we ignore this. We have forgotten that we are compound creatures. 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. Man is earthly and he's heavenly. You cannot separate the two. You may try to ignore one or the other, but you are going to be a miserable human being. It's like trying to walk around in life ignoring your left arm. It's a part of you. You can't live without your left arm. Now, yes, I know some people have had their left arm amputated. You know what I mean. You have a left arm, you use it because it feels right to. We have forgotten that we are a compound creature. We're trying to go through this life as if we're nothing but earthly. And believe me, let me just move on. We have the dust of the earth and we have the breath of God. This must be remembered. If mankind is to return to God, he must realize this. He thinks he doesn't need God because he has forgotten that he is of the earth and of heaven. He thinks he's just of earth and he acts like it. You know who else is like of the earth? Animals. Human beings are acting like animals. Adama is the man of the soil. Those two words are related to each other because Adam is the man of the soil. In fact, his job will actually be to cultivate the soil. We'll see that later on. And at first, this cultivating was going wasn't going to be much work. But we're also going to see that it in fact becomes a very difficult task because of sin. Nonetheless, man is of the ground. The ground and man share elements. Man is dependent on the ground. He must find his nourishment there. But however, Adam Od Dom also has the breath of God in him. And he wasn't the living creature until that happened. This breath of God made this man of the ground, the King James says, a living soul. Now listen to me the breath of God didn't displace the dust of the ground. They're there together. That's why man is body and spirit. And we will continue to be that, in my opinion, through eternity. The Bible makes clear we will have bodies off, we're not gonna be spirits. We will have bodies off into eternity. They will be new bodies. That's exactly what the Bible says. We will have new bodies. Bob is up there with a well, he's way, he knows what his new body is gonna be like. He hasn't gotten it yet. We all get it at the same time, but he knows what that's gonna be like. And he's gonna be thankful, believe me. Nonetheless, we are a mixture of heaven and earth. Isn't that wonderful? Now, just one more thing to say about this verse, even though we could spend an hour right here. We won't. Verse 7 says, listen to this, because this is

“Living Soul” And Nefesh Explained

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important. This may sound like trivial nonsense to you, but I want to share it with you anyhow. Verse 7 says that the Lord God breathed into man's nostrils the breath of life. Then it says, man became a living soul. That's what the King James says. Now I'm bringing this up in part to tell you about this living soul business. And it's not, if you can believe it, what mankind what makes mankind unique. This isn't what makes mankind unique, this breathing into his nostrils. Yes, it's unique to mankind, but this isn't what makes us unique. You know why? Because similar, very similar statements are made about land and sea animals right here in Genesis. Now, God help me to communicate this. What trips us up, I hear, believe what trips us up here, I believe, is the English word soul. It carries with it, well, unnecessary baggage. I mean, we've all been told by religious people that Fido and the tiger in the zoo and the squirrels in the trees, none of those animals have souls, and I agree with that. The King James, the people that wrote the King James unwittingly confused us here on this matter. God didn't make man a living soul, he made man a living creature. Just like the other living creatures he made. The phrase living soul in the King James is translating in the Hebrew Chai Nefesh. Now, before I go on, I haven't said this in a while, but let me say that Hebrew is not an easy language, and I've never claimed to speak it. When I reference Hebrew words, it's simple, it's simply me saying what someone else said about it. I have a very good translation or very good pronunciation program that I try to refer to. So I use those, but sometimes I missed the mark. I try to find the experts and what they say. I get my info from them. Now I realize when I say high nefesh, I'm missing accents or punctuation pauses or other pronunciation issues. Now, if you've noticed those things when I speak any language other than English, you're not a genius. Everyone knows I can't speak Greek or Hebrew. I admitted that long ago. If you know the difference between how I say kind of fashion the proper way, then you get the point and there's no need to make a big deal out of it. Let me say the internet age has brought out all the arrogant experts on every topic, and they like to show off. No less true when it comes to scripture. Okay. And believe me, people correct me at times on our channels. You know, it's it's rude, I think. You get the point? You know what I was saying? All right, back to Hai Nefesh. The King James here in Genesis 2.7 renders Chi Nefesh living soul. Now, let me say this translation creates a problem for us since it's sort of misleading. And that's why we're gonna stop here for a moment. I'm trying to demystify this verse. I've been trying to demystify the whole chapter so far, but here I'm just working on this one verse. This phrase, has also, listen to me, in the Bible, has been translated as living creature. And this I believe is a much more accurate and certainly less confusing rendition. Verse seven is not meant to infer some billowy, undefinable, misty thing. The original is just describing a being, listen to me, that's animated by life. That's the key here. Chin nefesh is animated life, not drawn life. I'm talking about life that interacts with its environment, that sort of animation. Chinefesh, living creature, animated creature, a creature that interacts with its environment. This can apply to man or beast and is often used to describe both in scripture. For example, here, as I said, in this very same book of Genesis, only a few verses prior to this one, but in the previous chapter we read, chapter one, verse 24. And God said, Let the earth bring forth the living creature, chinefresh, or chinefresh, living creature after his kind, cattle and creeping thing, and beast of the earth after his kind, and it was so. These are not creatures with souls, but they are active and moving and exhibiting all the dynamism of a living creature. And that's why they are referred to there through the use of this Hebrew phrase, high Nefesh. Similarly, God uses the same term for sea creatures, as we saw just a few verses earlier, still, backing up to verse 20 of chapter one. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, Nefesh Chai, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven. Verse 21. And God created great whales and every living creature, Chai Nefesh, that moveth, which the waters brought forth brought forth abundantly after their kind, and every winged fowl after his kind, and God saw that it was good. The point is that these are created living things that are distinct from non-living created things like rocks and dirt and water. Not because they're living souls, just because they're living creatures, as the original term infers. Why did the King James decide to use soul? I don't know. But it has confused lots and lots of people. They've said this is the point where man has his soul inserted into him. That's not the case at all. It's a mistranslation. Now, that may be the longest oversimplification on record, but I thought I would clear up the confusion as quickly as I could. Genesis is not referring to the creation of the human soul here in chapter two, verse seven, is just trying to say that mankind was given the benefits and characteristics unique to life and living.

Human Uniqueness And Rejecting Evolution

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However, having said that, verse seven does contain a statement that separates mankind from all other living beings and at the same time forever associates us quite uniquely with the living God. This is one of the keys to understanding what the Bible's true intention is. We need to know the importance of our uniqueness in our uniqueness in creation in order to understand our purpose, our created purpose. Listen to me. None of you were created randomly. None of you. Whether you're a child of God or a tool that God is going to use for his children of God, there is a purpose for you. No one was born without a purpose. No one is created. Nothing is created without a purpose. There is a created purpose, and we have to know that if we're going to understand God's word properly. And understanding our own purpose will help us key in on the true purpose of all of creation, at least the part we're familiar with. We are unique because we are intimately connected with God from our very creation. And because of that, we are different, quite a bit different. This is, by the way, listen to me. I know I bring this up all the time. I promised you I wouldn't, but I'm doing it. This is why evolution is so heretical. This is why evolution is so blasphemous. This is why it is, this is going to make some of you mad. I know it. This is why it is impossible to be a Christian and believe in the theory of evolution. Evolution is not only unscriptural and frankly wrong, but it actually counters the dignity of our place in creation purposely. That is the purpose of evolutionary theory is to take mankind's uniqueness from him, actually, all creatures' uniquenesses from them. It's to take it from all of us. And listen to me, if you downplay the dignity of human beings and creation, then you have invalidated the entire Bible. If mankind is nothing more than just the present-day iteration of a long line of ape-like creatures, then there really is no reason to believe anything the Bible says. Close your book now if you can't get past this. Those of you who try to reconcile evolution with Scripture, your efforts fall right here. You don't get past the first 40 verses of the Bible. Well, actually, your attempts die far sooner than that. But if you think you've made it to the second chapter of Genesis, your arguments peter out at verse 7, because the Lord God formed man and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life. Does that sound like anything remotely like evolution? Does evolution offer anything similar to this? Of course not. The mechanism, that's why I'm telling you, either this is ridiculous or evolution is ridiculous. There's no way to reconcile the two. There's no way. The mechanism of life generation mentioned here is absolutely unprecedented. Everything in evolution is precedented. It actually relies on precedent. Nothing is unique. It can't be. Evolution says that every life form depends on the previous life form and has some of that life form in it, and it will pass on something else to itself. There's nothing unique whatsoever in evolutionary life. Nothing. It's just nonsense. Throw it out. It's foolishness. This is how man was given 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 creature. So I hate to.

Final Wrap Up And Outro

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Next week we'll finish this up and then continue to move forward. See you then.

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We hope this study has blessed you. God's word is a great treasure, and it's our belief that a thorough, purposeful study of it will bring all of God's children to an understanding of his eternal plan of redemption. It is our prayer that this will be so for all of our listeners. Please join us again soon. New content is being added all the time, so make sure you check back often. For more information on Chapel Ministries, including our YouTube channel and podcasts, please visit www.chapelontheweb.com. And if God has laid it upon your heart to share materially with us, we encourage you to follow the links to our secure giving page. Please note, Chapel Ministries is not an IRS registered nonprofit organization, and your donations to this program are not tax deductible. It's our hope that you do not rely on taxing authorities to decide for you who is worthy of your generosity.