Dust and Glory

Genesis 2:7

Dust and Glory

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.

F

orasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust; in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ; who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself.[1]

Those words are no doubt familiar to numerous Canadians, especially those who are familiar with the Anglican Communion. In the midst of that collect are the words: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. These words surely are familiar to all English speaking peoples. Dust to dust reminds us of our humble origins; but these words isolated as they are fail to speak of the glorious possibilities which God has prepared for man. No verse of the Word of God presents this contrast as succinctly as does the text for this message.

The profundity of Genesis 2:7 is that it describes man as a combination of what is low and what is high. On the one hand man is described as being formed from the dust of the ground. This is an image which is lowly though it is not evil, as the Greeks thought, for even the dust of the ground was made by God and is thus good because He made it. Contrasted to this humble image is the thought that man has received life directly from God. God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and thus we are presented an image which is glorious. It is man’s unique role to combine both dust and glory.

Man’s Humble Origins — If you were planning to conduct a word study of some word found within the pages of the Bible, and you wished that study to hold the prospect of holding your interest, you wouldn’t think dust would be such a word. However, I suggest to you that a study of the word will prove far more interesting than you might imagine. Throughout the Word of God dust is a symbol of that which is of little worth because it speaks of that which is of low or humble origin. As an example consider the occasion of Abraham pleading with God for Sodom and Gomorrah. As he petitions God for mercy he emphasises his own insignificance to engage in such pleading. Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty [Genesis 18:27, 28]? Likewise, Hannah, as she rejoices in God’s goodness to her in giving her a son, says:

He raises the poor from the dust

and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

he seats them with princes

and has them inherit a throne of honour.

[1 Samuel 2:8; cf. Psalm 113:7]

Jehu, son of Hanani, the prophet of God pronounced this frightful prophecy against Baasha, King of Israel. I lifted you up from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you walked in the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to provoke me to anger by their sins. So I am about to consume Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat. Dogs will eat those belonging to Baasha who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country [1 Kings 16:2-4]. The king neither obeyed God nor honoured Him and was again brought down to the dust.

Dust is sometimes employed as a symbol of the total defeat of an enemy. The Arameans destroyed Israel’s army and made them like the dust at threshing time [2 Kings 13:7]. David speaks of the defeat of his enemies in similar terms. In the Psalms we read this passage describing David’s victories.

I pursued my enemies and overtook them;

I did not turn back till they were destroyed.

I crushed them so that they could not rise;

they fell beneath my feet.

You armed me with strength for battle;

you made my adversaries bow at my feet.

You made my enemies turn their backs in flight,

and I destroyed my foes.

They cried for help, but there was no one to save them—

to the LORD, but he did not answer.

I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind;

I poured them out like mud in the streets.

[Psalm 18:37-42]

Of Solomon we read that God will bless in powerful fashion.

He will rule from sea to sea

and from the River to the ends of the earth.

The desert tribes will bow before him

and his enemies will lick the dust.

[Psalm 72:8, 9]

Dust is sometimes seen as a sign of mourning. When Achan’s sin had caused sorrow in the tents of Israel, Joshua tore his clothes and fell facedown to the ground before the ark of the LORD, remaining there till evening. The elders of Israel did the same, and sprinkled dust on their heads [Joshua 7:6]. Job uses the word dust frequently to illustrate the insignificance of man. In a classic passage near the end of the book, the suffering saint declares,

My ears had heard of you

but now my eyes have seen you.

Therefore I despise myself

and repent in dust and ashes.

[Job 42:5, 6]

Dust is not evil, nor can you consider it to be nothing; but it is next to nothing. Mathew Henry makes this observation on the issue of man being formed from the dust. He was not made of gold dust, powder of pearl, or diamond dust, but common dust, dust of the ground. Hence he is said to be of the earth, coi>kov"—dusty, [1 Corinthians 15:47].[2] We must believe that Moses wished to stress man’s humble origin by his choice of the word dust. Man may only aspire to glory by the grace of God his Creator.

There is a further image which the word dust conveys: it symbolises frustration. God’s curse pronounced on Satan was in part that you will crawl on your belly and you will eat dust all the days of your life [Genesis 3:14]. This does not mean that snakes eat dust nor even that God or Moses thought so. Dust in the mouth is a figure for defeat and humiliation.

Satan was created to be a beautiful and powerful being who served our God. In the midst of a prophecy concerning Tyre, Ezekiel turns attention to the Devil. This is what the Sovereign Lord says:

You were the model of perfection,

full of wisdom and perfect in beauty.

You were in Eden,

the garden of God;

every precious stone adorned you:

ruby, topaz and emerald,

chrysolite, onyx and jasper,

sapphire, turquoise and beryl.

Your settings and mountings were made of gold;

on the day you were created they were prepared.

You were anointed as a guardian cherub,

for so I ordained you.

You were on the holy mount of God;

you walked among the fiery stones.

You were blameless in your ways

from the day you were created

till wickedness was found in you.

[Ezekiel 28:12-15].

At some point this intelligent and mighty being, chief of all the angels, began to think that he could get along without God. According to Isaiah 14:13,14 he said in his heart,

I will ascend to heaven;

I will raise my throne

above the stars of God;

I will sit enthroned on the mount of assembly,

on the utmost heights of the sacred mountain.

I will ascend above the tops of the clouds;

I will make myself like the Most High.

Satan rebelled, but God brought him down. Instead of finding himself in charge of God’s creation, he found himself a fugitive in the universe. Instead of replacing God, he was doomed to eternal separation from God. In this failure, Satan had his first taste of dust. He had another taste of dust in Eden when he incited rebellion against God and discovered that instead of immediately killing the man and woman God graciously came to clothe them and to give them a promise of deliverance. Satan’s most bitter taste of dust was at the Cross when he found that instead of striking back at God he had been unwittingly instrumental in advancing God’s design for redemption.

Dust also symbolises death. As the Lord God pronounced judgement on the man He spoke these stunning, humiliating words for the man who had thought he could become immortal through rebellion.

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.

[Genesis 3:19]

Job, in his misery, spoke of this fact.

I will soon lie down in the dust;

you will search for me, but I will be no more.

[Job 7:21]

The Psalmist, speaking prophetically of the Christ, says,

My strength is dried up like a potsherd,

and my tongue sticks to the roof of my mouth;

you lay me in the dust of death.

[Psalm 22:15]

In the writings of Solomon are found several dark statements for the individual who imagines he can live for the moment and without God. All go to the same place; all come from dust, and to dust all return [Ecclesiastes 3:18], is one such statement. It is a humbling thought that we cannot escape this singular fact that one out of one die. Thus the wise man urges readers to reflect on their ultimate humiliation with these words.

Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,

or the golden bowl is broken;

before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,

or the wheel broken at the well,

and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

“Meaningless! Meaningless!” says the Teacher.

“Everything is meaningless!”

[Ecclesiastes 12:6-8]

The picture is dark and perhaps we would despair were it not for the knowledge that God knows who we are and that He has made provision for us. Listen to this beautiful passage of the Word which speaks to this point.

As a father has compassion on his children,

so the LORD has compassion on those who fear him;

for he knows how we are formed,

he remembers that we are dust.

As for man, his days are like grass,

he flourishes like a flower of the field;

the wind blows over it and it is gone,

and its place remembers it no more.

But from everlasting to everlasting

the LORD’s love is with those who fear him,

and his righteousness with their children’s children —

with those who keep his covenant

and remember to obey his precepts.

[Psalm 103:13-18]

God remembers that we are dust. It is true that man flourishes and dies, but we must never forget that from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear Him. This is the hope of the Christian and this is the message we are charged to carry as we travel through this fallen world. Ours is a message of hope and deliverance for all who will receive it. Of God we are confident that

He raises the poor from the dust

and lifts the needy from the ash heap;

he seats them with princes,

with the princes of their people.

He settles the barren woman in her home

as a happy mother of children.

Praise the LORD.

[Psalm 113:7-9]

The Breath of Life — The reason for men’s ability to call on God for renewal or even to remember their origin is that men are more than dust. Man is a living being. Man is spirit and man has a soul given by God. Genesis 2:7 indicates this truth by stating that after He had formed man from the dust of the ground God continued His work by breathing into his nostrils the breath of life. Thus man became a living being. This is man’s glory.

Obscured by our English tongue is the fact that in many ancient languages the words spirit and breath were the same word. For instance the Latin word spiritus means both breath and spirit. The Greek word pneu'ma means breath in one context and spirit in another. In the Hebrew tongue, j'Wr carries both breath and spirit as meanings dependent upon the context. The point of this excursus is to note that any Hebrew reader would immediately see that according to the text man enjoys a special relationship to God. God breathed into man and in the act of breathing He imparted something of His own Spirit to man. Man is thus a spiritual being. Therefore, although we recognise that man is somewhat like the animals in sharing certain physical characteristics, man is above the animals and should excel them in loving and obeying the Creator.

Unfortunately, man has not excelled the animals. In fact, because we have listened to the specious speculations of men without the Spirit of God we today witness a generation convinced that they are no different from the animals. Man is utterly depraved in his natural condition and without divine intervention. There is nothing good in man which would make the Creator love him or which would make him presentable to the Creator. Not only can man not do any good thing acceptable to God, but man cannot understand spiritual truth until he is renewed by God’s Spirit. This is why Paul writes:

“There is no one righteous, not even one;

there is no one who understands,

no one who seeks God.

All have turned away,

they have together become worthless;

there is no one who does good,

not even one.”

“Their throats are open graves;

their tongues practice deceit.”

“The poison of vipers is on their lips.”

“Their mouths are full of cursing and

bitterness.”

“Their feet are swift to shed blood;

ruin and misery mark their ways,

and the way of peace they do not know.”

“There is no fear of God before their eyes.”

[Romans 3:10-18]

Was man’s fallen condition the whole story we might have reason to despair. Although man cannot seek God, God can and does seek man. The purpose of God’s seeking is to recreate man according to the pattern originally presented in Genesis. This is what Jesus meant when He said to Nicodemus, You must be born again [John 3:7].

That this message of man’s fallen condition and of man’s need to be born from above is offensive is patently evident. Two years ago the International Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention called for Baptists to pray for the salvation of Hindus during Divali (a Hindu festival). This call was issued on the heels of a similar call for Baptists to pray for the salvation of Jews during the days of Yom Kippur.

Hindus around the world reacted with choler. A spokesman for the governing Bharatiya Janata Party of India responded to Baptist compassion by saying:

Firstly, India is more religious than any other country in the world. Morally, it is more Christian than any other Christian country. Secondly, is it not an insult to India to tell Hindus that they are all sinners and that only Jesus can save them?[3]

The response reveals precisely the point I wish to make. No doubt India is a religious nation, but Indians are in spiritual darkness and cannot even realise their condition. Of course it is an insult to an individual’s fallen spirit to tell him or her that they are sinners and to remind them that only Jesus can save them. However, if we will be true to our calling, we must speak the truth in love. Consequently, a spokesman for the World Hindu Federation responded to the call of the Southern Baptists in the following manner.

It (the convention) is nothing but to misguide the people. They are claiming that they can give salvation to the sinners. It is nothing but a farce.

To make the story complete I must present the words of one other Hindu spokesman.

Those who believe in one god, one book and one messenger, they talk of conversion. Hindus have many gods and many messengers and we do not believe in conversion.

The child of God cannot help but grieve at the darkness in which such an individual resides. Thinking himself secure, he is blinded. Indeed he only proves that the Word of God which is spoken through Paul is correct: the god of this age has blinded the minds of unbelievers, so that they cannot see the light of the gospel of the glory of Christ, who is the image of God [2 Corinthians 4:4].

However offensive the message may appear to Hindus, or for that matter to irreligious Canadians or even to religious Canadians, the message of life remains that one must be born from above. The Bible carefully presents the truth that 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 [John 3:5, 6]. Man must be born again of God, just as Adam was born of God in the first instance [cf. Luke 3:37]. God gives new life now through His Spirit, breathing into us as He once breathed into Adam. Without that necessary new birth, one cannot see the Kingdom of God.

A Living Being — This final thought occupies our closing moments. Because of God’s work of forming man and breathing into him something of His own Spirit, man became a living being [hY:j' vp,n< literally a living soul]. This same phrase is also used in Genesis 1:24, but because of the special aspects of man’s creation given in the second chapter we would rightly conclude that a distinction is intended. Man is not only alive; man knows he is alive. He knows his origin and he knows his Creator. Man knows he owes allegiance and obedience to the One who gave him life.

Man knows that he depends on God for physical life and that if he will have spiritual life he must come to God. Perhaps you are tempted to think that you do not depend upon God for your physical life. Consider Isaiah’s word on this subject.

Stop trusting in man,

who has but a breath in his nostrils.

Of what account is he?

[Isaiah 2:22]

James Montgomery Boice paraphrases this verse by asking, Why trust in man who is able to take only one noseful of breath at a time? Trust God, whose breath is inexhaustible.[4] The breath of God in us may be our glory, but we still receive it one breath at a time. We breathe in. We hold our breath. We breathe out. Then we must breathe in again … or die. Nothing could better characterise our utter dependence on God.

What if God should withhold His breath? Elihu, the young challenger to Job’s badgering trio of friends, answers this question by saying,

If it were his intention

and he withdrew his spirit and breath,

all mankind would perish together

and man would return to the dust.

[Job 34:14]

The Psalmist made a similar observation in the 104th Psalm.

When you take away their breath,

they die and return to the dust.

[Psalm 104:27-30]

Paul contrasts the first Adam in his weakness with Christ the second Adam in His power. It is written: “The first man Adam became a living being”; the last Adam, a life-giving spirit [1 Corinthians 15:45]. There is clearly a reference to our text. In his reference to Christ the second Adam he is saying that whereas Adam existed by breathing in, and the breath he breathed was from God, Christ is the One who breathes out, for He is a life-giving Spirit. We live spiritually and physically only as we turn to and as we are united to Him.

Do you remember when I quoted Solomon earlier in Ecclesiastes 12:6, 7?

Remember him—before the silver cord is severed,

or the golden bowl is broken;

before the pitcher is shattered at the spring,

or the wheel broken at the well,

and the dust returns to the ground it came from,

and the spirit returns to God who gave it.

Ultimately, the dust returns to the ground and the breath—the spirit—returns to God who gave it. This is humbling, but it is the preacher’s way of reminding us that now is the time of God’s favour, now is the day of salvation [2 Corinthians 6:2]. When death comes it is too late to begin to walk in God’s glory. Now, while you have life, come to Him who is able to give eternal life. Trust Christ the Lord and know that you are accepted in the Saviour.

I close with this prophetic note from Isaiah.

Your dead will live;

their bodies will rise.

You who dwell in the dust,

wake up and shout for joy.

Your dew is like the dew of the morning;

the earth will give birth to her dead.

[Isaiah 26:19]

Should I be speaking to one who knows the dust of creation but who somehow has yet to know the glory of real life in the Lord God, our invitation to you is to wake up and shout for joy. Rise from the dust and shake off the mantle of death as you trust in Christ. That faith becomes the means by which you enter into life and share the glory of God. Amen.

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[1] The Book of Common Prayer, Burial of the Dead, Internment

[3] Hindu Groups Unfazed by U.S. Baptist Conversion Call, CNN.com, October 23, 1999