WORD STUDY – DUST – ‫עפר‬
Genesis 2:7: “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.”
I remember attending a rather boisterous prayer meeting where
everyone was praying at once and out loud. There was one old
boy who was really wailing and repeating over and over: “Oh,
Lord, I am but dust…”
I suppose he was implying that but
dust meant he was nothing. Well, I will admit you can’t get
any lower than but(t) dust. However, odds are he was not
referring to but(t) as a noun, but to the Hebrew word ’aphar
which is rendered as dust in Genesis 2:7 which would really be
bragging. When we hear the word dust we usually think of very
fine particles of skin, dead dust mites and/or fine dirt,
etc. It is everything on earth that has been broken down to
its lowest component.
What is thought provoking is that God fashioned man out of
these dead broken down particles. If you check it out, you
find that man is the only creature to be made from the ’aphar
adamah (dust of the soil). Genesis 1:24 tells us he made the
creatures of the earth from the ha’eres not from the
aphar”(dust) or the adamah (soil).
In the creation story we have a reference to the ha’eres,
which means land or soil, and the ha’adamah which also refers
to the land or soil. ‘Adama is where we get the word for adam
which is also a reference to land or soil. Then we have the
word ‘aphar which we render as dust but could also mean land
or soil. Yet, the Talmud teaches that in Classical Hebrew no
two words can mean exactly the same thing, so all three of
these words much carry some difference.
Looking at these words carefully we discover there is a major
difference between man and animals.
Animals were merely
formed from the ha’eres which is a reference to everything in
the land, rocks, sand, soil, etc.
Man, however, was formed
from the aphar” of the ha’adamah.
As I indicated earlier
ha’adamah comes from the root word adam and this is a
reference to the fertile land, it is the life producing soil.
Then we learn that God breathed a spirit (nephesh) into man
and not into animals. We tend to think that it is this nephesh
that sets us apart from the animal, however, we have other
references in the Old Testament where animals are said to have
a nephesh. So it cannot be the nephesh that sets a man apart
from animals. Then what is that sets us apart from Gizmo the
cat and us? It is the substance that we were created from that
makes us different. Gizmo was made from the ha’eres, rocks,
sand, soil etc. But we were made from the aphar or the dust
of the ground.
So now we need to discover the distinction from aphar and
ha’eres.
Is aphar just fine particles ground down into
microscopic size and blown in the wind?
Is it just the
molecules or atoms or the ha’adam (soil)?
I have heard of
Christians experiencing gold dust falling during worship
services. Analysis of these particles show it is not real
gold but just dust with a gold color. Maybe this is not gold
dust but aphar. What was coming down was really the dust that
God used to form man. Perhaps we got the wrong idea about
this gold dust business. It is not sign of God’s prosperity or
God showering this congregation with the best He has to
offer. Maybe God was trying to show that during that worship
service the saints who were intensely praising God had
returned to the original state man was in before the fall,
when man was in perfect harmony with God. Well, that is just
some more of this dusty old professor’s musings.
Somewhere in the history of the church some scholars with the
right credentials examined the Hebrew word ’aphar and declared
aphar to mean dust in English. These scholars saw that such a
rendering was good and therefore anyone to suggest anything
more from the word ’aphar would be a heretic. So here I go
again bucking tradition.
Yet, there appears to be something special about ‘aphar and
perhaps dust is not our best English word to plug in here,
although I have no clue as to what we could render it as.
This word is spelled, Ayin, Pei and Resh. So right away I see
the Ayin as the mind, the Pei as the body and the Resh as the
Spirit. This dust that God used to create man somehow also
gave man a connection with both the natural world and the
Spiritual world which is something the animals do not have.
The Ayin speaks of the mind, or deep insight. It implies the
ability to reason and communicate.
Now we know animals can
communicate with each other and as a believer I believe they
can communicate with God. However, no matter how developed an
animal is in communicating, it cannot form a language with
grammar and syntax to carry on a conversation. For man to
have a free will, he must have a language. This is the one
basic difference between an animal and man as an animal does
not have a free will, it only acts on instincts.
Perhaps this ‘aphar dust which ends with a Resh representing
the Spirit, really has a spiritual element, a light, something
that forms a connection with the spiritual world and allows
the Spirit of God to dwell in us. At the fall we lost this
capacity but because of the death and resurrection of Jesus
our bodies can now be the temple of God as it was intended to
be. Until the redemptive work of Jesus, God could only dwell
in an earthly temple, which contained the presence of God, the
Shekinah, the fire of God, the Urim and Thumim and the Holy
Spirit. The second temple did not contain these elements, but
now, as both Jesus and Paul taught, our bodies are the temple
of God. Through the redemptive work of God our bodies can
contain what the animals cannot because they were not made of
‘aphar and in need of a redeemer. An animal’s body cannot be
a temple of God as it was not formed from this mysterious
aphar (dust).
I have noticed, like you may have noticed, that sometimes an
animal will pause from his activity and look up at you.
Perhaps that animal senses that presence of God, that Shekinah
and/or the Holy Spirit that dwells in the redeemed. The animal
kingdom longs to be close to its Creator. Perhaps that is why
a squirrel pauses for a moment to stare at you. It is not you
but his creator that he senses.
I don’t know what this mysterious ‘aphar is. Tracing this word
through its Canaanite origins it means something that was the
first particles that formed the natural world. I do not know
what English word to put to it. But I am quite sure it is not
dust as we know it, which is fine particles of dead skin or
dead dust mites. It is not soil as the text would use the
word ha’eres. It was something that came from the adama ground
before God cursed the adama in Genesis 3:17. Maybe it is DNA?
Oddly the serpent was cursed to eat or consume the ‘aphar in
Genesis 3:14, but it was not of the ‘aphar ha’adama. The very
thing we were created out of, the serpent was to feed upon.
Take that to bed with you tonight. Without the redemptive
work of Jesus Christ we are just food for the enemy to feast
upon. Ever feel like the enemy is feasting on you? Well,
Jesus took care of that 2,000 years ago on cross so it is your
own fault if you are the enemy’s blue plate special.