Daily Devotional: BE!
Day 1: Fruitful and Multiply -- the First Blessing
Genesis 1:28 “Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply; fill the earth and subdue it; have dominion over the fish of the sea, over the birds of the air, and over every living thing that moves on the earth.”
What does that look like? What does it mean to “Be Fruitful”?
Initially, this was God’s instruction to Adam and Eve to continue to have children, and their children would have children, and so on, until the earth was filled with human beings, in the generations to come.
God speaks to Noah in the same way in Genesis 9, to be fruitful, and bring forth abundantly.
God makes a covenant with Abraham in Genesis 17, and once again tells him that He, God Himself, will make Abraham exceedingly fruitful, and multiply him exceedingly, making many nations from his descendants.
God repeats the same covenant blessing to Isaac, and Ishmael, and to Jacob and his children. In fact Joseph named his son Ephraim, meaning Fruitful.
KEY: To be fruitful was a sign that God was fulfilling His covenant blessing, by giving increase of descendants, multiplying them to the point of nation building, when people continued to live righteously.
In Leviticus 26:9, God says: “For I will look on you favorably and make you fruitful, multiply you and confirm My covenant with you.”
KEY: Barrenness came when wicked people ruled.
Psalm 107:33-34
“He turns rivers into a wilderness, and the water springs into dry ground; a fruitful land into barrenness, [a salty waste] for the wickedness of those who dwell in it.”
This is what occurred in the five cities destroyed by fire when God came down to the earth and saw the utter wickedness of Sodom and Gomorrah and their surrounding cities. [Genesis 19]
And yet, Jesus gave a stiff warning to the people He had encountered during His earthly ministry, who refused to believe Him, even though they saw the signs, wonders, and miracles He performed in order to help people in their need. [Matthew 10 and 11].
KEY: Fruitfulness was to apply to humans, animals and plant life.
Everything God created was to abundantly reproduce, and fill the earth with the goodness and the profuse blessings of God, so that everyone would have plenty, which was the sign of God’s blessing on a nation.
Psalm 128:3
Your wife shall be like a fruitful vine in the very heart of your house, your children like olive plants all around your table.”
The abundance produced from just one olive tree, in itself, bearing a tree full of olives, each with a seed to do the same again, is staggering. And each child of a blessed woman was to be given such a blessing to prosper. And a table full of people have the opportunity to bless a neighborhood, a whole community, and even their city, and nation. I think we can find amply proof of that in Proverbs 31.
KEY: Every created thing was to bring praise to God for His goodness to all of His creation.
Psalm 148:7-9
“Praise the Lord from the earth, you great sea creatures and all the depths; fire and hail, snow and clouds; stormy wind, fulfilling His word; mountains and all hills; fruitful trees and all cedars;”
KEY: God wants us to have fruitful, productive seasons, and obtain good results in all we accomplish with Him.
The Apostle Paul puts it this way: In Acts 14:17 he says, “Nevertheless He [God] did not leave Himself without witness, in that He did good, gave us rain from heaven and fruitful seasons, filling our hearts with food and gladness.”
It’s not just about having children, or increasing the herds, or flocks, or crops one has. God wants us to enjoy each season of our lives, and that it be filled with joy and gladness.
KEY: God wants us to be productive in good deeds. In fact it will be on this that humanity will be judged.
Matthew 25:31-46
31 “When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.
32 All the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.
33 And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left.
34 Then the King will say to those on His right hand, ‘Come, you blessed of My Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world:
35 for I was hungry and you gave Me food; I was thirsty and you gave Me drink; I was a stranger and you took Me in;
36 I was naked and you clothed Me; I was sick and you visited Me; I was in prison and you came to Me.’
37 “Then the righteous will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry and feed You, or thirsty and give You drink? 38 When did we see You a stranger and take You in, or naked and clothe You?
39 Or when did we see You sick, or in prison, and come to You?’ 40 And the King will answer and say to them, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these My brethren, you did it to Me.’
41 “Then He will also say to those on the left hand, ‘Depart from Me, you cursed, into the everlasting fire prepared for the devil and his angels:
42 for I was hungry and you gave Me no food; I was thirsty and you gave Me no drink;
43 I was a stranger and you did not take Me in, naked and you did not clothe Me, sick and in prison and you did not visit Me.’
44 “Then they also will answer Him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see You hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and did not minister to You?’
45 Then He will answer them, saying, ‘Assuredly, I say to you, inasmuch as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to Me.’
46 And these will go away into everlasting punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
KEY: God desires that our knowledge, wisdom and understanding of Him will increase.
Colossians 1:9-12
“For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light.”
KEY: God desires Spiritual Growth for His Disciples
2 Peter 1:5-8 says,
“But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love. For if these things are yours and abound, you will be neither barren nor unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ.”
What it Means to Abound
According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary Definition:
- To be present in large numbers or in great quantity
- To be filled or abundantly supplied
Let’s go back to the Book of Genesis and look at that word, “abound”.
Genesis 1:20 “Let the waters abound with an abundance of living creatures.”
And in Genesis 8:17, after the flood, Noah was to bring all the creatures out of the ark so that they could now multiply once again on the earth.
“Bring out with you every living thing of all flesh that is with you: birds and cattle and every creeping thing that creeps on the earth, so that they may abound on the earth, and be fruitful and multiply on the earth.”
Key: To abound, is part of the Glory of God.
When God showed Moses His Glory, God described His Own characteristics:
Exodus 34:6-7
“And the Lord passed before him and proclaimed, “The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious, longsuffering, and abounding in goodness and truth, keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and transgression and sin, by no means clearing the guilty, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children and the children’s children to the third and the fourth generation.”
In Exodus 20:5-6,
God finishes the thought this way:
“For I, the Lord your God, am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children to the third and fourth generations of those who hate Me, but showing mercy to thousands, to those who love Me and keep My commandments.”
Proverbs 28:20
“A faithful man shall abound with blessings…”
It means there will be abundant, overflowing, great, exceeding and even greater than before, blessings for the faithful — in every area of their lives: spirit, soul and body, including their animals and plants. All they do shall prosper, according to Psalm 1:1-3
“Blessed is the man who walks not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor stands in the path of sinners, nor sits in the seat of the scornful; but his delight is in the law of the Lord, and in His law he meditates day and night.
“He shall be like a tree planted by the rivers of water, that brings forth its fruit in its season, whose leaf also shall not wither; and whatever he does shall prosper.”
Ezekiel 47:12 the leaves were for the healing of the nations.
So today we have learned that being fruitful is not only about populating the earth with human or animal offspring, but also replenishing the earth with plant life.
It is also about enjoy God’s abundance, and His blessings, His good deeds, and His way of doing them. It is also about us living like He does — caring for one another, doing good deeds, and having godly character, until the earth is covered with the Glory of God.
Habakkuk 2:14
“For the earth will be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea.”
