The promise of Noah

Genesis 9:7

And as for you, be fruitful and multiply; Bring forth abundantly in the earth And multiply in it.”

This portion of scripture is tricky. The promise of Noah, well it seems as though it happens for everyone. Now, as a Christian, I grew up hearing about and singing, and believing "Every promise in the book is mine." So I get a bit defensive when I see a promise like this and it isn't happening in my life. "God why am I not multiplying?" that exact prayer, and variations of it have been on my heart a lot lately. The interesting thing about that is that this promise seems to be applicable even to non-believers of God. However, if you think about it, it's not exactly the same. See man's inherent nature, after the fall of man in Genesis 3, was degrading. The idea that man was once perfect, but the original sin injected degradation and pollution at what I believe to be a genetic level. That said, any promises towards mankind come with a twist. In fact, you see after this, God starts adding qualifiers to the promises. Things like "if you keep my commands," become common place for the promises God hands out to his people. Oh, and he focuses on ONE group, rather than all of human kind. While this promise holds true for humanity, as you can attest to, it does not continue to grow unencumbered. As humanity gets bigger, so does crime, sin, and evil. We see a promise just before this, in chapter 8, talking about the seasons, then as it gets into chapter 9, God begins dealing with man, he says that the animals, and all creation will be filled with dread and he further opens up our diets to eat anything living, but gives a warning not to eat anything that is living or still has blood in it. He goes on to say that the blood of man is sacred. It is special and he will "demand an accounting" of it. He says that for every man's blood that by men will justice come. That's where many got the idea that true justice for murder is capital punishment (death). Then right after, he gives the previously quoted promise. I'm going to break it down line by line and share what I believe God is saying about it.

As for you be fruitful and multiply

This first part of the promise is interesting. As for you. He makes this promise VERY direct. He say YOU are responsible for this. In many ways we are, we multiply naturally by growing physically, emotionally, spiritually; we multiply relationally by having friendships, getting married, having children, raising them. We grow economically by getting a job, saving our money, paying debt off, giving to other people. We grow and grow and grow. But being fruitFUL and multiplying is different. It implies a persistence of fullness. Something that is appealing and nurtures many. Multiplication too, is different. We add to ourselves, we take away from ourselves and each other; the devil causes division (which is an altogether nasty thing), but only GOD can multiply. He can take something insignificant by itself and multiply it to do miracles. Obedience is all that is required. Subtract our will, add God's will, and he multiplies us.

bring forth abundantly in the earth

At the time this was being said to humanity, there were 8 people alive. Noah, his 3 sons, and their wives. Despite what you may or may not have seen in the 2014 Darren Arronofsky movie, Noah was not crazy, there were no rock monsters, and despite her beauty, Emma Watson was not one of the daughter-in-law's of Noah. Noah obeyed God; he built an ark, and saved his family from destruction. He was then commanded by God to re-populate the earth. But wouldn't that just cause sin to come back about? Yes, in fact, not too long after this point, we see Noah get drunk and sin begins growing again like a plague. But God had begun a plan to fix it all through the SECOND Adam, The Lord Jesus Christ.

and multiply in it.

This seems straight forward, but there is a subtle hint I want you to notice. Notice it says AND multiply in it. That means that after we multiply, we are to then share that multiplication with others. If you look at the following image, it shows a multiplicative growth.

What is so intriguing about this is that as you grow in time, (the horizontal axis) the amount you have (the vertical axis) keeps growing at a faster and faster rate. It becomes easier and you have more and more. What does that mean to us in context? What it means is that as you grow in God and in the ways of God, as you subtract yourself, add God's will and ways through obedience, God multiplies you. And while it seems almost fruitless at the time, God blows you up. and the more you do, the more easy it becomes and

the more effective you become.

Selah...