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Tag: Be fruitful and multiply

Command to and Covenant with…

Genesis 35:11-12God blesses Jacob, renames him as Israel and upon revealing Himself as God Almighty, God gives the command to Jacob to be fruitful and multiply and promises him that nations and kings shall come from his loins (Genesis 35:11). God then promises to give to Jacob and to his seed after him, the land and seed that he had given to Abraham and Isaac (Genesis 35:12). After God had spoken with him, God ascended from where he was (Genesis 35:13).

The command that God gives to Jacob is the same that he had given to man, since the creation of Adam (the man) (Genesis 1:27-28), and with Noah, after the flood (Genesis 9:1). The covenant that God reaffirms with Jacob is the same that God had made with his fathers – Abraham (Genesis 12:1-3) and Isaac (Genesis 26:3-4). It is after the blessing and reaffirmation of His covenant, God ascends from where he was.

Points to ponder:
At creation and after the flood, the command to be fruitful and to multiply meant that man is to propagate and fill the earth, representing God (in whose image man was created – Genesis 1:27) to all of creation, so that creation would recognize God as God Almighty and ascribe to Him, the worship and glory that is due unto Him. God’s reaffirmation of the same covenant with Jacob and to subsequent generations, as he did with the generations before him, not only demonstrates God’s faithfulness generation after generation but also his steadfast unchanging character, for in God there is no variableness (James 1:17).

Those of us who have believed in Jesus are a new creation (2 Corinthians 5:17). God’s command to us is to be fruitful and to multiply; fruitful by producing the fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22-23) in our lives and multiply meaning that we ought to be sharing the gospel of Jesus’ love, grace, and mercy to all of creation so that those who are not in God’s kingdom will see him as Almighty God and believe in Jesus and be added into God’s kingdom. Repeated addition is multiplication. 

God does not change and is faithful generation after generation. Are you and I faithful in being fruitful and in multiplying God’s kingdom?

Genesis 35:11-13 (KJV)
11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins;
12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
13 And God went up from him in the place where he talked with him.

God’s command is re-given

God gave Adam and Eve, the command to be fruitful, and multiply, and to replenish the earth. However, Adam and Eve disobeyed God and brought about death into the world they lived in. Subsequently, wickedness and violence became rampant in the world, so much so, that God had to destroy it in a flood, during the time of Noah. After the flood waters receded, it was a new world and interestingly God gives Noah and his sons, the same command that he gave Adam and Eve. God’s command is re-given.

Points to ponder:
When we are believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we become a new creature (2 Corinthians 5:17) and our citizenship is of a new world; of heaven (Philippians 3:20). God’s command (along with his blessing), is given, for us to be fruitful, and to multiply God’s kingdom by replenishing it others who believe in Jesus Christ. God’s command is re-given to us. How do we fare in regards to being fruitful and multiplying God’s kingdom, for God’s command to do so is re-given?

Genesis 1:28 (KJV)
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

Genesis 9:1 
1. And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

Blessings and Fruitfulness

After God created man in his own image, the first thing that God does is, he blesses them and after God blessed them, the first command God gave them was to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:28).

Points to ponder:
How are you and I doing in the first command of God? Are we fruitful?  If we are, what kind of fruit are we bearing – good or evil fruit? Jesus said, “A tree that does not bear good fruit is fit only to be cut and burned.” (Matthew 7:19-20). The (good) fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness and temperance and against such there is no law (Galatians 5:22). Is this fruit evident in our lives? With the blessings of God comes his command to be fruitful. How are we faring in this command?

Genesis 1:28 (KJV)
28 And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

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