God created the heavens and the earth and all things in them for six days. He formed all the beautiful environments for men to live according to the providence of creation. And He made man in His own image and blessed him to subdue and rule over all things. (Genesis 1:27-28)
Genesis 2:7 tells us the process of God's creation of the first man Adam. It says, "Then the LORD God formed man of dust from the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living being." That is, God formed man of dust from the ground. This contains two meanings.


* "Forming man of dust from the ground" is closely related to God's providence of human cultivation in cultivating men's heart-fields, bearing believers like wheat, and leading them into Heaven.

What is human cultivation? As a farmer grows wheat, he first sows the seeds, and earnestly tends to them. At the time of harvest, he gathers the wheat into his barn, but he burns the chaff. In a much same way of such law of nature, God 'cultivates' human beings as if He were a farmer who wants to gain the wheat.


God created men of dust from the ground and blessed them to 'be fruitful and multiply.' But Adam the first man committed sin and his descendants all became sinners. To save them, God prepared for the way of salvation. That is, when His appointed time came, God sent His only begotten Son, Jesus, and also sent the Holy Spirit into the hearts of those who were forgiven of sins by believing that Jesus Christ is their personal Savior.

Just as farmers grow the grain with all their strength, God has also shown His limitless love to all the souls. However, some seek for God and believe in God, while others stay distanced from God and live in sin. It is completely up to the free will of each individual which of the two paths a man chooses.

Those who heard the gospel, accepted Jesus Christ, and received the Holy Spirit can spiritually become 'wheat' by bearing spirit with the Spirit when they listen to and practice the Word of God, and they can enter Heaven. On the other hand, even though they received the Spirit, those who do not seek or believe in God and do not practice His Word are spiritually the 'chaff' and they will be thrown into the unquenchable fire of Hell.

To the extent their spirit grows, they will enter their different dwelling places in Heaven accordingly. There is one important factor to help our spirit grow. Just as a seed of grain should be planted in a good field to bear abundant fruit, the heart-field should also be good.


The attributes of a man's heart is similar to those of the ground

After Adam committed sin, God sent him out from the Garden of Eden, to cultivate the ground from which he was taken as recorded in Genesis 3:23. "To cultivate the ground from which he was taken" spiritually means that man, who was made from the ground, should cultivate his heart. To cultivate the heart-field is to cast away untruth and to pull out evil attributes from the heart. To the extent a man cultivates his heart-field into a good field, his spirit can grow up well and bear good fruit.

By the way, depending on what is added to the ground, the character of the soil can change. Even if the field is bad, as a farmer adds good soil, applies fertilizer, and diligently cultivates it, it becomes a good field. Likewise, depending on what is input into the heart, the character of the heart-field can also be changed. If you keep on adding good things, it will become the heart-field of goodness, but if you keep on adding evil things, it will become evil.

According to how you treat it, it will become either a good heart or an evil heart. Even though you were born with a heart which was mostly filled with goodness, if you keep on adding evil into it, it can become the heart-field of evilness. On the other hand, even though you were born with a heart with relatively greater evil, if you continue to hear, see, and input good things, it can become a good heart-field.

As you can see, the original attributes of a man's heart is similar to those of the ground. The reason they are similar is because God made man from the dust of the ground. God knew that human cultivation would be accomplished within the justice of this cultivation when He created man of the dust from the ground.

If God had created man from gold, the heart of man would not have changed from the heart that God originally created. Then, men would have had a heart like gold, but it would not have been acknowledged that he himself loved God with his own free will. It doesn't comply with or adhere to the rules of justice. It would provide for the enemy devil and Satan to have grounds to lodge complaints against the justice. Moreover, it was not what God truly wanted.

God wants His children to realize the love of God by themselves, and to love Him and trust Him unchangingly. This is the true love and this is the truth. This is a true goal to cultivate humanity.


* God wanted men to subdue and rule over all things on the earth and the forces of darkness as well as their hearts.

"Forming man of dust from the ground" also is related to authority to subdue and rule over all things. God told Adam, who was made of dust from the ground, 'to subdue the earth' as recorded in Genesis 1:28. Here, the earth refers to all things from the ground. Additionally, it has the spiritual meaning that Adam should subdue his own heart.

In addition to this, "the ground" sometimes refers to the world which belongs to the domain of darkness. "Subdue the earth" also means that Adam should subdue all the fleshly things that belong to the earth as well as the enemy devil and Satan. God hoped that Adam who was created of the dust from the ground would subdue and rule over the forces of the darkness as well as everything of the earth. As you can now see there are deep meanings contained in God creating men of dust from the ground.