Genesis 1:22 And God blessed them, saying, Be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.
In this verse we have the first time we find the word “blessed” in the Bible. The Hebrew word is found 330 times in 289 verses in the Bible. The word means to kneel or to bless. God created man to kneel before Him. Man needs to understand his dependence upon the true God and the wise person expresses gratitude toward God by kneeling before Him. He is the Great God Who is worthy of our worship. We are privileged to bless Him with our lives.
In the context of God’s creation, the word “blessing” speaks of God’s will to cause His creation to do certain good things.
We see here that God willed that the whales and fishes of the sea be fruitful and multiply and fill the waters of the seas. God also willed that the birds be fruitful and multiply as well. God’s will is for there to be plenty of sea creatures and plenty of fowl to satisfy His design for the world.
Prior to the flood, this is exactly what the creatures did. The fossil record shows us that there were large numbers of sea creatures prior to the flood. The fossil record reminds us of the judgment of God upon the wickedness of mankind. The sea creatures and the fowl of the air suffered due to the sinfulness of man.
Man chose not to bow down or to kneel before the Creator God. That refusal did harm to all of God’s creation.
Since the flood, they again have been fruitful and multiplied. The birds have also multiplied greatly since the flood.
There are bountiful stocks of fish for the nourishment of mankind. There has been mismanagement of the sea creatures by man. Man has wasted many fish and yet there are still many of them in the seas. The greed of man has sought to interfere with God’s design for the world. Yet, in spite of this, there are still large numbers of sea creatures and fowl of the air.
Every spring we are reminded of the bounty of ducks and geese as they fly overhead moving to their northern summer home. Then in the fall we again see them flying overhead as they head to their winter home in the south. As they travel, some of them are hunted by man. Some are taken by predators. Yet there are still large numbers of them moving back and forth. God certainly has blessed these creatures over the centuries.
God also used this same word to bless man. He also designed man to be fruitful and multiply. Prior to the flood, there were many people on this earth. Prior to the flood, people lived hundreds of years and they had sons and daughters. At the flood, only eight people survived. That core group was enough to once again fill the earth with human beings after the flood. The world population is just over eight billion people at this time.
The earth is not overcrowded with people. There are lost people who believe there are too many people and that we need to limit the population of the world. If we were to calculate the number of babies that have been murdered, there would be many more people on this earth than what we presently have.
The wars that have taken place over the centuries have also taken many lives. Some of those wars were justified and some were not. However, God is still blessing man with the ability to be fruitful and multiply.
What is needed is for man to be reminded of his purpose on this earth. Man is not here to exploit the earth. Man is here to glorify God.
Revelation 4:11 Thou art worthy, O Lord, to receive glory and honour and power: for thou hast created all things, and for thy pleasure they are and were created.
Man needs to be reminded of his purpose on this earth. Those who are saved, certainly need to bless God for His wonderful gift of salvation. Having received that gift will cause the saved to bless God. He is good to man and He is worthy of glory and honour as we read in Revelation 4:11.
As we continue on in this new year, let those of us who are saved be reminded of the importance of His blessings to man. Let us make much of Him and seek to help others to see the importance of turning to Him in these last days.
Pastor Bartel
