Re: A discussion of the command to be fruitful and multiply. What category of command is it?
As God's people, we all have received several types of commands. Here are two types. One type is piercingly narrow and specific, often expressed as "don't." Don't steal, for example. Another type of command seems to be general and open-ended, like the command to love God with all of one's heart, mind and soul. Whoever could do it perfectly? The second category of commands, then, could be regarded as having an infinite dimension. So, we can understand this second type of commands to be primarily an obedient posturing of the soul in the right direction. Because we can't do it perfectly, it is apparently a delight to God to observe whatever degree of this command we render to Him – much as a father is happy when his child kisses him, of his own free will.
Let's look at some further examples, more deeply.
Here is an example of the first category: Do not commit adultery. This raises a formidable fence. It comes with a whip. The implications are fierce. If you cross this line, you'll be defying God and you'll wind up in a pack of personal trouble. It is borne out and validated by the experiences of people over 6,000 years, that to forsake this command ALWAYS ends in a personal nightmare.
Here is another type: Don't go into debt. This type has a tight center but an expansive, loose outfield. This one is worded in the Bible specifically as to "owe no man anything but the debt of love" (Romans 13:8). God commands this for our good. Debt can produce depression, and it always presumes on the future, as in the case of getting sick and becoming unable to work to pay it back. If we cross the no-debt line, we won't be able to lay our head on our pillow in complete peace until our debt is paid off. God further delineates the use of money with the command to tithe, to give Him our first fruits. Notice that He doesn't say a thing about the remainder of a person's money. The implication is that "I do not control the details of your use of most of your money. Do with it what you will. It is yours to express your dominion and creativity over the earth, your preferences, and your personality." God intended that money will be spent and saved upon the earth eight billion different ways. His freedom for His people in this area comes out of His largess. He gets the ball rolling, and lets it go. It is apparently a delight to Him to see it being expressed in His kingdom in a myriad of ways.
What about this next type of command? "Go ye into all the world and preach the gospel and make disciples of all nations" (Mark 16:15). Notice that this is a corporate commandment to the body of believers, not directed only at each person. Notice what is NOT said about this verse. It doesn't tell anyone HOW to carry out this command. It doesn't require that it be done relentlessly, with no rest, 12 hours a day, every day, or carried out exactly in the country of Nigeria, Japan or the United Emirates. This is a command given by a benevolent captain of the hosts, who wants to see a bend of the soul in His followers in this direction. He wants to see His cause become our cause – His purpose and heartbeat, our heartbeat. Devoted disciples posture their hearts to be ever mindful of it as opportunities arise and are led by His Holy Spirit within us. Also, notice how the Lord Himself fulfilled it. He did not disciple the entire world. He spent time at weddings. Sometimes He cared for people with no mention of this command. But the bent of His soul was unquestionable. Hmmm.
Now take the age-old command to be fruitful and multiply (Genesis 1:22). It seems to have been intended to be a very happy command. Go play. Enjoy children. Look forward to having them. They will broaden and enrich your life as well as fill God’s Earth. And, when you have them, be sure that you produce godly offspring, by godly training afterwards. Do not despise them or prefer an emotional, less taxing substitute to them, such as pets. Do not become preoccupied solely with other things, to the denial of them, like only seeking to build wealth, running after the acquisition of yet more castles. And behold how the further aspect of this command comes with fiery wrath: Do not abort MY children (see Psalm 127:3 and Exodus 20:13). "I do not give you license to end what I begin within your body." The implication is that we are to love what God loves.
Notice what that verse/command (found in Genesis chapter 1) does not say. It doesn't tell us how many. It doesn't say to be sure to have one every nine months. Instead, we are to notice the spirit of it and posture our lives to want children. God is not a pro-creation policeman; He is rather a creative master who will delight when we make use of His creative processes. The thought of it was never meant to make a jail of productivity out of it.
Also observe how God Himself carried it out. Neither Christ nor the Apostle Paul had any physical children. Paul encouraged some men to become eunuchs, knowing that it would result in no physical children for the Kingdom. God doesn't need our children; He only wants them. Notice how responding to this command took a variety of outcomes in various families in scripture: Isaac and Rebecca only had two sons, Jacob and Esau. Naomi only had two sons. Jairus only had one daughter (Luke 8:42). The woman who housed Elijah only had one son, who died and was brought back to life by Elijah's prayer. In modern times, godly Elisabeth Elliot only had one daughter, who later gave birth to her six grandchildren. Even God the Father had only one son – His ONLY son – though the Messiah was destined to be the firstborn of many brethren.
The prevailing sense in the Old Testament is that most men and women of old craved to have children – lots of them. We know from the New Testament that Christ/Yeshua loved children and wanted as many around him as wanted to be there (Mark 10:14). King David had over 20 children (from at least eight wives, which was not God's original will, but His secondary, permissive, will) and in the extreme, Solomon may have had thousands of offspring (figured at just two for each of his roughly 1,000 women). God, for some reason, allowed children to be formed – even in the wombs of foreign wives and concubines.
What is so wrong in the modern era is that so many couples don’t want any children. They deliberately block the way to conception and birth all their married lives. Wanting to avoid children, they selfishly do not love what God loves. They are not concerned about God’s purposes and they do not cooperate with His designs for His ownership of His world. Thus, they show a lack of love for God Himself.
The Almighty's initial command to take dominion over the earth is achieved in a corresponding multitude of ways. Some individuals take dominion over a postage-stamp-sized piece of earth/responsibility (praying in their back bedrooms, for instance); others are influential over a nation (for example, John Knox in Scotland). So, too, with a farmer. He may plant a large field or a small field, depending on lots of factors. The totality of the corporate body of Christ will eventually display His full will.
In regard to commands with infinite expressions/possibilities, may we love what God loves, and may the peace of God RULE in our hearts in all things (Philippians 4:7). Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty (2 Corinthians 3:17).
