BE FRUITFUL, AND MULTIPLY
Anyone know the FIRST COMMAND that God gave to MAN?
I’m not talking about the 10 COMMANDMENTS, but the FIRST INSTRUCTION or DIRECTIVE that God gave to man.
***
It happened on the 6TH DAY of CREATION, after God made man.
Genesis 1:26-28:
26 And 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 fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
27 So God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.
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.
BE FRUITFUL & MULTIPLY.
Earlier in the chapter, God had told all the creatures which He had made to multiply AFTER THEIR KIND …
… every LIVING CREATURE, every WINGED FOWL …
… all the BEASTS OF THE EARTH & the CATTLE …
… & every INSECT, which the Bible calls, EVERY THING THAT CREEPETH upon the earth AFTER HIS KIND …
& then GOD turns His attention to MAN …
… & GOD tells MAN to multiply after HIS KIND …
THE FIRST COMMAND given to man was by God was to PROCREATE …
… this came before any other COMMANDMENT in the Bible, before the LAW, before anything else.
& It was a POSITIVE COMMANDMENT (things that we are commanded TO DO) …
… as opposed to the NEGATIVE COMMANDMENTS of “THOU SHALT NOT …” arising out of the Law.
And we see this throughout the Bible.
After NOAH got off the ARK, God said to him also and to his sons in Genesis 9:1: “Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.”
Now the inhabitants of the earth had all been destroyed, so this was a reiteration of what God had said to Adam in the first place …
… but this directive has never changed.
We see no evidence of that in the Bible.
We see throughout the Bible that PROCREATING, HAVING LARGE FAMILIES with MANY CHILDREN …
… has always been perceived as a BLESSING in the Bible.
We see in Exodus 1:7 that the Israelites, had migrated to Egypt … after the death of Joseph grew exceedingly strong in numbers …
Exodus 1:7 says: “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.”
And so we that the Israelites took God’s directive to be fruitful and multiply very literally … and obeyed that command.
… to the point that the Egyptians – who were the secular ungodly – became afraid that they would overtake the land …
Exodus 1:8-10 says:
8 Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph.
9 And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we:
10 Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land.
So Christians should have that attitude of multiplying …
… & potentially filling the earth with people who will be raised up in the Lord …
… & potentially creating more workmen for the Gospel …
… Let the pagans & the atheists destroy themselves … but let God’s people fill the earth.
Why would God’s people – or any people for that matter – be limiting the size of their families?
In Genesis 26, before the children of Israel came to Egypt …
… God appears unto Isaac, the son of Abraham, and promises to multiply him …
… not to diminish his seed and his family size but to multiply him … if he goes there.
This was seen as an IMMEASURABLE BLESSING from God!
God fulfilled this promise to the children of Israel.
Genesis 26:3: “And I will make thy seed to multiply as the stars of heaven, and will give unto thy seed all these countries; and in thy seed shall all the nations of the earth be blessed;”
What did God say to Abraham himself?
In Genesis 15:5: “And he brought him forth abroad, and said, Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them: and he said unto him, So shall thy seed be.”
God wants His people to multiply, to fill the earth.
& Unlike the philosophy & wisdom of the WORLD …
… the Bible defines familial blessing & success as an abundance of children!
Psalm 127:3-5 says:
3 Lo, children are an heritage of the LORD: and the fruit of the womb is his reward.
4 As arrows are in the hand of a mighty man; so are children of the youth.
5 Happy is the man that hath his quiver full of them: they shall not be ashamed, but they shall speak with the enemies in the gate.
BUT THE WORLD TODAY frowns on, shames, & discourages LARGE FAMILIES …
& parents who want many children.
It’s uncouth and unlearned to the world.
You have to be some kind of backwards country hick in their eyes to want many children.
… PARENTS artificially limit the # of children they want to have for their own SELFISH GAIN …
They do this through both BIRTH CONTROL & ABORTION.
I saw a quote recently online that struck a chord: “Some parents would give up their lives for their children. And some parents make their children give up their life for them.”
Speaking of abortion.
One of the main motives for ABORTION is selfishness & narcissism.
It’s really all about what’s best for the mother or the father at that point, isn’t it?
It’s never about that baby growing up inside of them.
It’s a purely SELFISH DECISION to have an ABORTION.
& I understand that some of these women are young … & it’s very difficult …
But ultimately, my sympathy is with the one who’s body parts are being torn from limb to limb.
My thoughts for the MOTHER or the FATHER at that point, while I care for them, is SECONDARY.
I’ve heard the argument that we don’t care about the mothers …
& that our sympathy should be geared more towards her …
But can we apply that same logic to a woman who’s murdered her 1 year old or 1 month old baby?
A baby outside of the womb?
What’s the difference with A WOMAN OR A MAN who kills his own baby …
… @ 6 months old in the womb, or 3 months old in the womb, or a month before being more?
It’s still the same baby.
Why the double standard?
It’s like they don’t believe it’s a baby until it breaches?
It suddenly becomes a baby miraculously the moment it’s born.
They don’t assign any rights to it, until then.
This is HYPOCRISY.
• The other argument is that while it’s in the womb, it’s dependent for life on the mother.
And so that gives the right to kill, as though it’s some sort of parasite.
• But a newborn baby is also dependent on its mother for sustenance.
• By that logic, we should be able to kill children until get a high-paying job and start supporting themselves.
As smart as they claim to be, their arguments are not rooted in logic.
2 Timothy 3:2-4 says:
2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves [abortion is narcissistic, it takes into account no one but yourself], covetous, boasters, proud [abortion on demand crowd], blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy,
3 Without natural affection …
4 … lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God;
Did you know that there is an astounding 200 abortions for every 1,000 live births today?
That ratio is staggering.
1 out of 8 people that walk into PLANNED PARENTHOOD end up having an ABORTION.
Just since 1973, in the U.S. alone, there have been over 59 Million Abortions …
It’s good to keep up on that statistic & to be reminded …
… & that # grows by about 1 million per year, just in the U.S.
Worldwide this year, there have already been over 6 million abortions this year …
& we’re not even into MARCH YET!
God asks this question in ISAIAH 49:15: “Can a woman forget her sucking child, that she should not have compassion on the son of her womb?”
While this verse is not strictly speaking of abortion, the answer is surprising: “yea, they may forget, yet will I not forget thee.” (speaking of His people).
The Bible says that it is a BLESSING to have our quivers FULL of CHILDREN …
That’s not just 2 or 3 arrows in your quiver.
If you only have 2 or 3 arrows going into a battle, you’re going to die!
& This flies in the FACE of the MYTH of OVERPOPULATION …
… & the NEW WORLD ORDER POPULATION CONTROL AGENDA …
It also goes against the modern thinking of our times …
… in which most parents LIMIT the # OF CHILDREN they have to an average of 2.4.
There is serious SOCIETAL PRESSURE & PROPAGANDA all around us to limit the size of our FAMILIES …
But OUR SOCIETAL NORM IS NOT NATURAL or GODLY!
In order for you to have just 2 or 3 kids …
… you have to physically interrupt the NATURAL PROCESS that God has established in our biology.
If you were to leave it up to the way that God set things up …
… most families would average 7 or more kids … which is how it was in the 1700s, 1800s & before ….
… before modern times & the industrial age set in …
Did you know that TODAY …
75% of MARRIED WOMEN use some form of BIRTH CONTROL?
The only time we see an example of someone trying to use birth control in the Bible …
… is an example where the person doing it is killed by God.
His name was ONAN & he’s mentioned in Genesis 38.
Genesis 38:8-10:
8 And Judah said unto Onan, Go in unto thy brother’s wife, and marry her, and raise up seed to thy brother.
9 And Onan knew that the seed should not be his; and it came to pass, when he went in unto his brother’s wife, that he spilled it on the ground, lest that he should give seed to his brother.
10 And the thing which he did displeased the LORD: wherefore he slew him also.
Now, there’s a backstory as to why GOD killed Onan …
… ONAN was compelled, by the Law of Moses, to marry his deceased brother’s wife …
… but he didn’t want to have children with her …
… because he didn’t want to share his own children’s inheritance with her offspring …
So Onan purposely prevented her from becoming pregnant, & God judged this to be wicked …
… & killed ONAN.
THE POINT IS that nowhere in the Bible do you ever see parents taking BIRTH CONTROL …
… or trying to decide how many kids they “want” …
… Biblically, the more kids they were given, the more blessed they felt.
One of the first questions you ask an expectant mother today is: “How many children do you want to have? Is this your last one? Will you have more?”
But the very nature of that question is misinformed.
We should be encouraging families to have more children …
… & to pray for God to bless them with as many babies as He wills!
It’s supposed to be GOD’S WILL for your family.
• Unlike the increasingly NEGATIVE ATTITUDE towards children today in our society …
… having many children is considered a MAJOR SOURCE OF BLESSING & an HONOR in the Bible.
We see, for example, that when Jacob & Esau re-united after having great enmity w/ one another …
… Esau inquired about the children traveling with Jacob his brother …
… & Jacob answered that his children were given to him by God.
It wasn’t about HOW MANY CHILDREN HE WANTED TO HAVE …
… IT WAS ABOUT HOW MANY CHILDREN DID GOD GIVE ME.
• You see how that has been reversed from Biblical times to today?
• The attitude, the FOCUS of our families, has been taken off of GOD …
• … and placed autonomously on OURSELVES.
Genesis 33:5 says: “And he [Esua] lifted up his eyes, and saw the women and the children; and said, Who are those with thee? And he said, The children which God hath graciously given thy servant.”
Children are not just some biological accident or the result of mere biology …
… they’re not just a BLOB OF CELLS that you abort …
… but LIFE literally given by GOD from the very MOMENT OF CONCEPTION.
The PROPHET ISAIAH also says in Isaiah 8:18: “Behold, I and the children whom the LORD hath given me are for signs and for wonders in Israel from the LORD of hosts, which dwelleth in mount Zion.”
Isaiah acknowledges that his children were given to him by God.
It is not our RIGHT TO CHOOSE that is in question here …
That debate is misinformed & devoid of Godly perspective.
PSALM 139:13-16 says:
13 … thou hast covered me in my mother’s womb.
14 I will praise thee; for I am fearfully and wonderfully made: marvellous are thy works; and that my soul knoweth right well.
THE BIBLE SAYS that we are MADE by GOD, even in the womb.
THE BIBLE SAYS that we are FEARFULLY & WONDERFULLY MADE by God right there in our mother’s womb.
THE BIBLE SAYS this is God’s MARVELOUS WORKS.
Job 31:15 says: “Did not he that made me in the womb make him? and did not one fashion us in the womb?”
In Psalm 22:9-10, David says:
9 But thou art he that took me out of the womb: thou didst make me hope when I was upon my mother’s breasts.
10 I was cast upon thee from the womb: thou art my God from my mother’s belly.
God is not only our God @ the moment we are born …
He is our God from our mother’s womb, from conception, & in fact from all eternity.
God says to Jeremiah in Jeremiah 1:5: “Before I formed thee in the belly I knew thee; and before thou camest forth out of the womb I sanctified thee, and I ordained thee a prophet unto the nations.”
These are great Bible verses, btw, to PROVE the PRO-LIFE cause from a Biblical perspective.
Back to Psalm 139:
15 My substance was not hid from thee, when I was made in secret, and curiously wrought in the lowest parts of the earth.
16 Thine eyes did see my substance, yet being unperfect; and in thy book all my members were written, which in continuance were fashioned, when as yet there was none of them.
Not only were we literally fashioned by God in the womb …
… but God knew us & all of our parts before we had any substance or form.
But PARENTS want to QUANTIFY the # of children they ought to have …
Whereas it’s not really supposed to be up to them, but up to God …
& If that sounds STRANGE or EXTREME to you …
… it’s because SECULAR SOCIETY, MOVIES, the MEDIA, & our PUBLICAL EDUCATION SYSTEM …
… has BRAINWASHED you to conform to their DEPOPULATION AGENDA.
• THERE IS A SHOCKING DOCUMENT from 1966 …
… called the JAFFE MEMO …
FREDERICK JAFFE was a former VICE-PRESIDENT OF PLANNED PARENTHOOD …
… In this MEMO, he outlines an EERILY ORWELLIAN DEPOPULATION AGENDA …
(I’ll also post links to it in video for this sermon) …
In it, JAFFE outlines his plan, which he entitles: “Examples of Proposed Measures to Reduce U.S. Fertility”:
Here are some of the highlights:
He says we must RESTRUCTURE the FAMILY:
(a) postponing or avoiding marriage
(b) Alter the Image of Ideal Family Size.
(c) His plan also calls for INCREASED HOMOSEXUALITY …
(d) compulsory education & indoctrination of children
(e) he also calls for FERTILITY CONTROL AGENTS in our DRINKING WATER.
NUMEROUS STUDIES TODAY claim that FLOURIDE in our WATER …
… has the EFFECT of causing MALE INFERTILITY …
… with abnormality in sperm morphology…
… & LOWERED TESTOSERONE LEVELS in MEN.
(f) He even calls for the government to forcibly limiting the # of allowable children to 2 …
& in some special cases, to 3.
• Now, several points of his plan have already been succesdfully established.
• The average age of MARRIED couples in the 1960s when Jaffe wrote this memo …
was 23 for men & 20 for women.
Today that # has increased to over 28 & 26.
… The marriage rate of married adults now is at an all-time low …
In the 60s, 72% of all American adults were married.
Today that # is about 50%.
• The the divorce rate today is also about DOUBLE compared to what it was the 1960s.
JAFFE even proposed FORCED STERILIZATION …
Well, the GOVERNMENT hasn’t had to force that on us yet …
… because we volunteered …
Did you know that prior to 1965, it was illegal for married couples to use CONTRACEPTIVES?
In the 1965, in GRISWOLD v. CONNECTICUT, the Supreme Court ruled …
… that it was UnConstitutional for the government to prohibit married couples from using BIRTH CONTROL.
This laid the groundwork, for ROE v. WADE to become the law of the land in 1973.
Biblically, we see that FAMILY SIZES were DOMINANTLY LARGE …
& IN FACT, it was considered a REPROACH & A LOSS …
… for a WOMAN to be BARREN in the Bible …
… yet today women CHOOSE to be BARREN …
… & take dangerous pharmaceutical drugs to make themselves barren …
We see examples of this in the Bible w/ ELIZABETH, John the Baptist’s mother, who was BARREN …
• But God gave her a child in her old age.
She declares in Luke 1:25: “Thus hath the Lord dealt with me in the days wherein he looked on me, to take away my reproach among men.”
We also see HANNAH, the mother of the prophet Samuel, in great affliction before God opened her womb.
She wanted to have a child so badly, that she was willing to give up that child in service to God.
Hannah’s story opens up the 1st Book of Samuel, ch. 1:
10 And she was in bitterness of soul, and prayed unto the LORD, and wept sore.
11 And she vowed a vow, and said, O LORD of hosts, if thou wilt indeed look on the affliction of thine handmaid, and remember me, and not forget thine handmaid, but wilt give unto thine handmaid a man child, then I will give him unto the LORD all the days of his life, and there shall no razor come upon his head.
We also find in Genesis 11:30 that Sarai, who becomes Sarah, wife to Abraham, was BARREN: “But Sarai was barren; she had no child.”
• We find that this miracle child, Isaac, marries a woman who herself is barren.
Genesis 25:20-21:
20 And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.
21 And Isaac intreated the LORD for his wife, because she was barren: and the LORD was intreated of him, and Rebekah his wife conceived.
So God TWICE performs a MIRACLE …
… that propagates the Godly line which leads to JESUS.
REBEKAH then miraculously ends up having TWINS, JACOB & ESAU.
… Jacob becomes Israel & the Messianic moves forward …
THE VIRGIN BIRTH of JESUS CHRIST is the GREATEST MIRACLE.
… but it was not the only MIRACLE in Jesus’ line that God performed along the way …
Amazingly, we see that REBEKAH gives birth to JACOB & then JACOB also takes a wife, RACHEL …
… who is also BARREN!
Now we have 3 consecutive miracle births in that family alone!
Now RACHEL was not a part of the MESSIANIC LINE …
… but it’s amazing that GOD PERFORMS the same MIRACLE within 3 CONSECUTIVE GENERATIONS …
GENESIS 29:31: “And when the LORD saw that Leah was hated, he opened her womb: but Rachel was barren.”
• But today, women are practically sterilizing themselves.
Did you know that the BIRTH CONTROL PILL makes it hard to have babies even after you get off the PILL?
ON TOP OF THAT, the BIRTH CONTROL PILL & as well as most IUDs act as ABORTIFACIENT.
That means that not only does the BIRTH CONTROL PILL prevent fertilization …
… but as a fail safe, the DRUG is designed TO KILL FERTILIZED EGGS that get through its 1st line of defense.
It how the drug works.
The PILLs 1st line of defense is preventing the SPERM from reaching the EGG & thereby creating life.
But it does something else that most people are not aware of ….
In the case that fertilization does occur (and a significant percentage do) …
… the steroids that are IN THE PILL … Harden the WALLS of the UTERUS.
… so that FERTILIZED EGG has nowhere to implant …
… thereby ending LIFE …
But the way that the companies that sell THE PILL & certain IUDs …
is that they don’t consider it abortion until the EGG implants …
so they prevent implantation …
… even though LIFE SCIENTIFICALLY BEGINS AT CONCEPTION …
• So what they do is CHANGE the DEFINITION OF CONCEPTION from the union of egg & sperm …
… to the implantation of a fertilized egg.
They actually QUIETLY CHANGE the scientific definition, so that they can market their product …
… without people understanding that they’re aborting babies.
• But we see that it is GOD who decides … it’s His prerogative, not ours …
It’s God who opens the womb & bestows the blessing of children.
James 1:17 says that: “Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning.”
Psalm 128 says that when we obey the LORD, that we will be blessed with many children:
3 Thy wife shall be as a fruitful vine by the sides of thine house: thy children like olive plants round about thy table.
4 Behold, that thus shall the man be blessed that feareth the LORD.
5 The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life.
6 Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel.
The reward of obedience to God is always associated with FRUITFULNESS …
… in our work, in our land, & including the blessing of having many children.
Deuteronomy 7:14-14 says:
13 And he will love thee, and bless thee, and multiply thee: he will also bless the fruit of thy womb, and the fruit of thy land, thy corn, and thy wine, and thine oil, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep, in the land which he sware unto thy fathers to give thee.
14 Thou shalt be blessed above all people: there shall not be male or female barren among you, or among your cattle.
Deuteronomy 28:2-4 is a parallel to this.
2 And all these blessings shall come on thee, and overtake thee, if thou shalt hearken unto the voice of the LORD thy God.
3 Blessed shalt thou be in the city, and blessed shalt thou be in the field.
4 Blessed shall be the fruit of thy body, and the fruit of thy ground, and the fruit of thy cattle, the increase of thy kine, and the flocks of thy sheep.
Proverbs 17:6 even says that: “Children’s children are the crown of old men; and the glory of children are their fathers.”
Now that doesn’t mean that every woman who is BARREN has been CURSED or FORSAKEN by God.
Like we saw with HANNAH & ELIZABETH & even SARAH, REBEKAH, & RACHEL …
… these women were not being punished …
… but it was for the purpose of manifesting God’s glory in them …
And God does that still today …
I personally knew a couple who were told by doctors that they cannot have babies …
… but after persistence in prayer, God opened up their womb & they had a child.
The Bible says in Psalm 113:9: “He maketh the barren woman to keep house, and to be a joyful mother of children. Praise ye the LORD.”
I’d like to close w/ this:
• ROE from ROE v. WADE died last week …
She died on Saturday, Feb. 18th, just 8 days ago.
• Her real name was Norma Leah McCorvey.
The irony is that ROE realized the grave mistake of her life when she helped make ABORTION LEGAL in 1973 …
… and never herself had an abortion …
… she never followed through …
Norma Leah McCorvey became PRO-LIFE in 1995 when she came to Christ …
… & she dedicated the rest of her life’s work to overturning ROE v. WADE.
She said in her own words:
“Back in 1973, I was a very confused twenty-one year old with one child and facing an unplanned pregnancy …
I was persuaded by feminist attorneys to lie; to say that I was raped, and needed an abortion. It was all a lie … At the time I fought to obtain a legal abortion, but truth be told, I have three daughters and never had an abortion … I am dedicated to spending the rest of my life undoing the law that bears my name.”
Norma Leah McCorvey stayed true to that vow & fought against the EVIL OF ABORTION the rest of her life …
John 16:21: “A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because her hour is come: but as soon as she is delivered of the child, she remembereth no more the anguish, for joy that a man is born into the world.”
People may worry about having children, but I’ve never known a parent to regret going through w/ a pregnancy.
There may be anxiety and fear, but once the child comes, you can imagine your family without that child.
Our society tells married couples to postpone having children, to have less children, as though it’s some kind of punishment …
But trust God to provide … it’s His design for marriage.