Be fruitful and multiply – JARRETT FLETCHER

Back to Genesis. “God said, ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Gen 1:26). As we saw in my first post in this series, this verse informs God’s mandate to ‘be fruitful and multiply’ in Genesis 1:28. God wanted Adam and Eve to fill the earth with fellow image bearers of God.

The concept of being created the image of God has historically been referred to by the Latin phrase imago dei, and it has received a lot of attention throughout church history with many asking, “what is the image of God?”

Having an accurate answer to the question is a necessity. If we are called to multiply image bearers, what are we called to multiply? What does it mean to bear God’s image? Do we still bear God’s image after the fall? If so, in what ways? And why does it matter? I want to answer all of these questions in this chapter, because I believe that comprehending the imago dei helps us read the Bible better, appreciate work of Christ more, and understand our role as parents more clearly.

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After creating the heavens and the earth, man and woman, and declaring everything “good,” God gives Adam and Eve a specific command. “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” (Gen 1:28).[1] This command comes after 1:27, “So God created man in his own image, the image of God he created him; male and female he created them.” Therefore, we must understand God’s command in v. 28 as a command to multiply and fill the earth with fellow image bearers of God.

To play a role in creating image bearers of God is an incredible blessing. In fact, verse 28 begins with the statement, “And God blessed them.” How did he bless them? By giving them the mandate in the rest of the verse, the mandate to fill the earth with children who also bear God’s image.

In a sense, this is a mini Great Commission before the big one we find in Matthew 28:19-20. Just as Jesus called his followers to make disciples of all nations, God called Adam and Eve to fill the earth with people who follow him. Before sin entered the world, this would have happened naturally as they bore and raised children in an atmosphere of perfect communion with God.

The mission of this mandate was glorifying God. Filling the earth with his image bearers is filling the earth with people who bring him glory by their lives, in and through their work and relationships. Adam and Eve’s offspring, then, would be one of the greatest blessings, not only to them, but to the rest of the world, because they would reveal God to the world.

Blessings, Not Burdens

The theme of children being a blessing is repeated throughout Scripture. But this truth is at odds with our culture. We live in a modern, individualistic, materialistic culture that tends to view children as burdens rather than blessings. Would-be parents are told that kids take away your freedom, require years of sacrifice, and are too expensive. Children are reduced to a commodity and a lifestyle choice, like whether or not to get a dog.[2] One entertainer expressed such a sentiment, “My husband and I are either going to buy a dog or have a child. We can’t decide whether to ruin our carpets or ruin our lives.”[3]

Others go even farther and view having children as downright wrong. “One more child means more people to divide the earth’s rapidly decreasing resources with,” says one environmentalist.[4] This quote embodies much of the modern view on children: they are viewed as leeches that suck away the resources of parents, society, and even the earth. Several professors at the public university I attended held such views. They sincerely believed that the earth was overpopulated and the choice to have children, let alone several children, placed an unnecessary burden on the planet.

This view became popular with Paul Ehrlich’s 1968 book titled, “The Population Bomb.” Ehrlich guaranteed mass starvation because of an overpopulated planet. Yet over the next several decades the world’s population dramatically increased. But guess what? Human flourishing- jobs, economic growth, energy, and food- increased right alongside it. But even though this idea of kids burdening the earth’s resources can be easily disproved at an economic level, at the cultural level, many people still talk about kids as if they are primarily a burden.

But this is not how the Bible talks about children. “Children are a heritage from the Lord, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior, are the children of one’s youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them!” (Psalm 127:3-5). Heritage, reward, blessing. Those are the words the psalmist uses to describe children.

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