Throughout the story of creation in Genesis 1, we repeatedly read that “God said.” Each time that we do, the actual words that God spoke then produced the specific results that He wanted. The emphasis in Chapter 1 is on the creative power of God’s Word as being sufficiently great to produce the physical universe in accordance with God’s perfect will. To reflect the greatness of God’s powerful ability to produce all that He desires, God is referred to throughout all of Chapter One as that which He is: He is God.
But the creation account of mankind, as it is told in Genesis 2:7, is different. It says this:
—the LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, making him a living being.
According to an online Strong’s concordance, the Hebrew word translating as breath is neshamah, meaning “puff i.e. Wind, angry or vital breath, divine inspiration…” It comes from the root word nasham: “gasp;… properly, to blow away, i.e. Destroy – destroy.”
When God puffed His life into man, it was indeed vital—necessary to man’s existence. But “blow away… destroy?” What could life have possibly destroyed?
Consider this: Death. Life destroys death
The moment man first received life from God, the eternal existence of Jesus already assured the everlasting continuation of that life by Jesus’ willingness to give His own. The right doing that flows eternally from the right relationship of Jesus with the Father would be the overcoming factor that puts every evil out of sight forever by putting everything beneath the feet of Jesus (see 1 Corinthians 15:25-27).
God also certified the everlasting quality of life that is self-defined by its resurrection power in Jesus. Then, in choosing to share even greater abundance of the good life that comes from God, the Holy Spirit came to Earth to dwell in those who would willingly accept God’s Gift of everlasting life in Jesus. The life-giving Presence of God within reborn men and women would be phenomenal, giving unprecedented assurance of God’s goodness to all.
So, as life is given onlyby means of God’s free will decision to share the good life that self-exists in Him, individuals who rightly choose to trust God must have faith in Jesus. The goodness of God that Jesus clearly reveals is always aboveboard for all to personally fully see and believe. Thereby the underhanded deceptiveness of evil is overcome with forthright Truth.
That is divinely inspired justice, is it not? Now, every time that we who have been made alive in Christ Jesus rightly speak forth God’s words, our exhale shares a little more of the God-given life that is in us with others. In choosing to freely give as we have been given, we further extend God’s goodness, doing further good for all. Every time that we speak the Truth of God’s good grace into any situation, we put a little more of evil’s rebelliousness in its right place: beneath the feet of Jesus.
God’s neshamah chayyim—divinely inspired “breath of life”—is eternally that. The gasp associated with it, according to the definition at the beginning of this piece, is undoubtedly no less than the sound made by individuals who suddenly realize the enormity of the grace and Truth of God that Jesus reveals. Former wrong thinking is blown away, destroying a little more evil in the process. And God accomplishes it all His way—the right way: through right belief in the goodness of God.
Who but God would ever have rightly thought that all out?
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