Genesis 1:28 Commentary and Bible Study

Only as male and female capable of reproduction could this command be given. It is a blessing for which both need each other and assumes what comes next – the institution of marriage. The command to be fruitful and multiply was repeated to know after the destruction of all but eight souls by the flood. And Noah and his sons and their wives were to fill the earth again, for it was still God’s will that man should populate the whole earth, despite human sin. Again, it is said in Genesis 9:1, in words that are identical, ‘be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth’, and clearly these words point back to the original command of God to man. Yet men have multiplied and filled the earth, but they have filled it with evil, and God’s purpose in giving the command originally was that the earth should be filled with those who were made in the image of God. Adam could not fulfil the command to subdue the earth on his own. It was only as he multiplied and fill the earth with his descendants that this command could be obeyed, for multiplying and subduing are linked together in one command by God. God gave man the task to do, even before the fall. It was not a hard task or an owner’s one, but it nevertheless required man to extend effort into use the powers that God had given him to achieve the goal. No other creature was given such a task. Man was the only creature capable of understanding consciously the command of God and of intelligently and willingly carrying it out. Man was therefore given a more sophisticated command than simply to multiply. He was given the command which was fitted to the faculties with which God had endowed him.This command also highlights nature of man. To be fulfilled, man must have a purpose, and this purpose. Results from a God-given task. Even before the fall, man could not have been content merely to exist. He needs to know that he has achieved a significant goal, one set for him by God. Adam was aware of something God’s work in creating the heavens and the earth, but now he was given his own task to do in relation to creation.As a result of obedience to this first command of God to man, there will be in heaven, ‘A great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues’ (Revelation 7:9).