I poured them out like mud in the streets. I beat them as fine as dust borne on the wind They cried for help, but there was no one to save them. You made my enemies turn their backs in flight, I crushed them so that they could not rise I did not turn back till they were destroyed. In the Psalms we read this passage describing David’s victories. David speaks of the defeat of his enemies in similar terms. The Arameans destroyed Israel’s army and made them like the dust at threshing time. The king neither obeyed God nor honoured Him and was again brought down to the dust.ĭust is sometimes employed as a symbol of the total defeat of an enemy. Dogs will eat those belonging to Baasha who die in the city, and the birds of the air will feed on those who die in the country. So I am about to consume Baasha and his house, and I will make your house like that of Jeroboam son of Nebat. I lifted you up from the dust and made you leader of my people Israel, but you walked in the ways of Jeroboam and caused my people Israel to sin and to provoke me to anger by their sins. Jehu, son of Hanani, the prophet of God pronounced this frightful prophecy against Baasha, King of Israel. Now that I have been so bold as to speak to the Lord, though I am nothing but dust and ashes, what if the number of the righteous is five less than fifty ? Likewise, Hannah, as she rejoices in God’s goodness to her in giving her a son, says: As he petitions God for mercy he emphasises his own insignificance to engage in such pleading. As an example consider the occasion of Abraham pleading with God for Sodom and Gomorrah. Throughout the Word of God dust is a symbol of that which is of little worth because it speaks of that which is of low or humble origin. However, I suggest to you that a study of the word will prove far more interesting than you might imagine. Man’s Humble Origins - If you were planning to conduct a word study of some word found within the pages of the Bible, and you wished that study to hold the prospect of holding your interest, you wouldn’t think dust would be such a word. It is man’s unique role to combine both dust and glory. God breathed into man’s nostrils the breath of life, and thus we are presented an image which is glorious. Contrasted to this humble image is the thought that man has received life directly from God. This is an image which is lowly though it is not evil, as the Greeks thought, for even the dust of the ground was made by God and is thus good because He made it. On the one hand man is described as being formed from the dust of the ground. The profundity of Genesis 2:7 is that it describes man as a combination of what is low and what is high. No verse of the Word of God presents this contrast as succinctly as does the text for this message. Dust to dust reminds us of our humble origins but these words isolated as they are fail to speak of the glorious possibilities which God has prepared for man. These words surely are familiar to all English speaking peoples. In the midst of that collect are the words: earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust. Those words are no doubt familiar to numerous Canadians, especially those who are familiar with the Anglican Communion. Orasmuch as it hath pleased Almighty God of his great mercy to take unto himself the soul of our dear brother here departed, we therefore commit his body to the ground earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust in sure and certain hope of the Resurrection to eternal life, through our Lord Jesus Christ who shall change our vile body, that it may be like unto his glorious body, according to the mighty working, whereby he is able to subdue all things to himself. The LORD God formed the man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.