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.