A commonly missed thing that many people take for granted or read over when it comes to scripture happens very early in the Bible when we look at Genesis. It actually happens in Genesis Chapter 1 and then spills into the beginning of Genesis Chapter 2. In Genesis Chapter 1 God goes through the creative process one day at a time and then God gets to the sixth day and
“26 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 over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.”
So we can see quite apparently God created man in his own image. We will dive deeper into this verse later, but for the sake of this post I just wanted to point out something. So if we move ahead to chapter 2 and
“Thus the heavens and the earth were finished, and all the host of them.” and we know that God rested on the seventh day. Now keep in mind man was already created on the sixth day. Here is a quote from Genesis Chapter 2.
“5 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.
6 But there went up a mist from the earth, and watered the whole face of the ground.
7 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.”
Does something seem redundant here, because at first glance it does. In Genesis 2:7 it shows that man was formed by God of the dust of the ground and breathed the breath of life into his nostrils. So, in Genesis 1 we have God creating man in his image and in Genesis 2 we have God forming man of the dust. Notice the two different verbs being used here, created versus formed. These two verbs are very different in English and we will find that they are also very different in Hebrew. In Hebrew we will see that make or form is called asah and create is bara. Bara is only ever used with God as the subject. To me, as I have thought about this, it is as if when God was creating us, it was a framework as God designed us in the image of God’s Spirit. To me, what is happening in Genesis 2, is the formation of our physical body and God breathing that Spirit of Life that was created in God’s image into the clay man that was formed of the dirt and animating us as a living sentient being. These are just my personal views and if I am wrong I pray for guidance and correction. It is simply food for thought.