Week of 11/25-12/1: Foundations - The Story Begins

Day Two: Gen. 1:26-28 Then God said, “Let Us make man in Our image, according to Our likeness. They will rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, the livestock, all the earth, and the creatures that crawl on the earth.” So God created man in His own image; He created him in the image of God; He created them male and female. God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful, multiply, fill the earth, and subdue it. Rule the fish of the sea, the birds of the sky, and every creature that crawls on the earth.”

Finish the story by reading 1:29-2:3 in your Bible.

LEARNING THE ALPHABET and how to add are two of the first things you learn in your academic career. Learning addition usually begins by the teacher asking the following question: “If you have one apple and I give you another, how many do you have?”

This is apparently hard to grasp at first because young kids often pull out their fingers to visualize this concept of addition. Over time the concept begins to soak in. But as soon as students begin to master that concept, another mind-blowing concept is introduced: multiplication.

The basis of multiplication is taking one number and adding as many times as the second number indicates. For those scratching their heads and getting their fingers ready let me explain further: 4*4 is nothing more than 4+4+4+4. Some might ask, why multiply when you can add? Multiplication allows you to combine much larger numbers much faster than mere addition. In essence, you multiply when addition isn’t big enough.

Early in Genesis God gave Adam and Eve a God-sized vision and mission. Mere addition couldn’t handle this vision. This was a vision that required multiplication. The Bible says, “God blessed them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply.” Some might argue this is a mandate for married people to have lots of babies. To some extent this is what God means, but I think there’s much more going on here.

You might ask the question: “What were Adam and Eve supposed to multiply?” The previous verse twice mentions that man was made in the image of God. As soon as God said that, God then told Adam and Eve to multiply. He commanded them to multiply His image over all the earth. God desires a world that reflects His glory. This occurs when His image is multiplied throughout the face of the earth.

PAUSE AND REFLECT

▷▷Why did give the command to “be fruitful and multiply”?

▷▷What can you do to multiply God’s image here on earth?

▷▷How does this command further God’s glory?