The commercial in the video below is a strange and fanciful one. In it, Nike claims that it collects the “air” of the best athletes in the world and makes it available to you in their Nike Air shoes; but what it promises is something that only God can deliver.
Unfortunately, as Scripture rightly notes, our air or breath is passing: What is your life? You are a mist that appears for a little while and then vanishes (James 4:14).
In contrast, God’s breath sustains and gives life:
- The Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being (Gen 2:7).
- The Spirit of God has made me; the breath of the Almighty gives me life (Job 33:4).
- This is what the Sovereign LORD says to these dry bones: I will make breath enter you, and you will come to life (Ez 37:5).
- And when Jesus had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained” (John 20:22-23).
- But after three and a half days, God breathed life into [the two slain witnesses], and they
stood up! Terror struck all who were staring at them (Rev 11:11). - All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, for reproof, … (2 Tim 3:16).
- By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, and by the breath of his mouth all their host (Ps 33:6).
What this Nike ad promises, only can God deliver. He is the true “Nike.” (In Greek mythology, Nike was the goddess of victory.) God’s breath gives us new life and empowers us to new things. Ruah Adonai (the Breath of God) gives life, empowers us, and bestows upon us new strength. Come, Holy Spirit! Come, Holy Breath of God!
Nike makes fine shoes, but God is the author of all that is fine.