Episode Details

Prayer

Reading

Gen 1:24-31.

“And God said, “Let the earth bring forth living creatures according to their kinds—livestock and creeping things and beasts of the earth according to their kinds.” And it was so. 25. And God made the beasts of the earth according to their kinds and the livestock according to their kinds, and everything that creeps on the ground according to its kind. And God saw that it was good. 26. Then God said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness. And let them have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over the livestock and over all the earth and over every creeping thing that creeps on the earth.” 27. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.

28. And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” 29. And God said, “Behold, I have given you every plant yielding seed that is on the face of all the earth, and every tree with seed in its fruit. You shall have them for food. 30. And to every beast of the earth and to every bird of the heavens and to everything that creeps on the earth, everything that has the breath of life, I have given every green plant for food.” And it was so. 31. And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. And there was evening and there was morning, the sixth day.”

Meditation

Let’s read Gen 1:28 again: “And God blessed them. And God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every living thing that moves on the earth.” This call to multiply is of central importance when it comes to the image of God in man. The blessing of God here is anchored in the gift of multiplication. These two facts tie together to reveal to us three significant insights.

First, multiplying expands God’s rule. We’ve been talking about dominion in our recent studies, and we’ve seen that dominion is about the rule of God being expanded and realised in the creation. One of the great blessings of multiplying is that it is the means of God’s rule expanding. All the potential of creation and all the things that could be achieved would not be possible if it were only ever Adam and Eve who existed. God has designed dominion so that multiplying is a requirement. For all the earth to be subdued and for God’s rule to be expanded multiplying was a necessity. Population control and reduction is not desirable!

Since the fall, however, mere multiplication is no longer enough. The gospel too must go forth, through which the kingdom rule of Christ is declared, and by which the spiritually dead hearts of men are awakened. As the gospel goes out, God’s blessings will flow far as the curse is found. Christ’s rule in the hearts of men, women, and children means that multiplying of children and multiplying of gospel ministry must come hand in hand.

A second insight here is that multiplying expands God’s people. In Genesis 2 we saw that God said it’s not good for man to be alone. To be in the image of God is to be made for relationships. God is love, he is a God of relationships. Father, Son, and Holy Spirit have existed eternally in loving communion together, and when God made us in his image his design was to expand this community of love by bringing man into the divine communion (Jn 17:3,21). We are made for communion and fellowship with God and each other, and this communion comes with multiplying.

A third insight here is that multiplying expands God’s glory. In verse thirty one we read: “And God saw everything that he had made, and behold, it was very good. An