The dust

"Out of the dust he causes the wretch to rise." 1 Samuel 2: 8

In the dry regions of the world, dust is known ! In the Middle East and Africa in particular, what a discomfort when it arises on everything around us !

In the Bible, the dust speaks at first of smallness, of insignificance.

Let us remember where we came from : "God formed man, the dust of the ground" (Gen. 2: 7). Abraham interceding before God knew it : "I am as dust and ashes" (Gen. 18:27) ; Job had learned it (Job 30:19, 42. 6).

We must admit that "the first man is taken from the dusty earth ... such is the dust, so also are those who are dust", but, glory to God, "as we have borne the image of that which is dust, we shall bear the image of the heavenly" (1 Corinthians 15: 47-49). What a wonder: earthly beings drawn from the dust of the ground, God desires to make celestial beings !

The dust also speaks of death : "You are dust and you will return to the dust," says God to the first sinful man (Gen. 3:19). Resigned, Job observes : "Now I will lie down in the dust ... and I will no longer be" (Job 7. 21). This hard reality does not escape Moses and he expresses it to God, who is from eternity to eternity : "You make man turn to the dust" (Psalm 90: 3). But, astonishingly, our Lord has accepted to know death. By the prophetic spirit he had to say to God : "You have put me in the dust of death" (Psalm 22:15), but to triumph on Easter morning and be placed on the throne (Heb. 12. 2). From the dust to the throne! To his people, to his beloved ones who had died in the faith, he would soon say : "Awake and exult with songs of triumph, you who dwell in the dust" (Isa. 26:19).

The dust is still the image of what is innumerable. Abraham received this extraordinary promise : "I will cause your offspring to be like the dust of the earth ; so that if anyone can count the dust of the earth, your offspring also will be counted" (Gen. 13: 16). Anyone who believes may call himself a child and heir of Abraham, the father of all believers (Romans 4: 13-25). God alone knows the number !

Source (To pleasing the Lord)