We are now told how God made man. He points to himself as the Potter. He uses what he himself has made and formed it into a human being (see also Job 33:6; Isaiah 29:16; Jeremiah 18:6; Romans 9:21).
After the Lord formed man from the dust of the earth, he was not yet a real man. As yet there was no life in him. Then something happened that has not been done earlier with any other creature. The Lord God breathed into his nostrils the breath of life.
In this way God showed that man is the creature closest to him. Man gets special treatment. In this way, he also showed that man is his representative on earth. It is God’s breath that causes man to live. This is how he became a living soul, a living being. The only living being who has been given life directly by God’s breath.
7 then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature.