Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it
26 And God said, Let us make man in
our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the
sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth,
and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. 27 So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them. 28 And God blessed them, and God
said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue
it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air,
and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. (Gen
1:26-28)
In the quoted text above, God conveys a GENERAL purpose in His Creation of Man.
All other elements of Creation are created to serve the benefits of this
highest and crowning glory of God’s Creation – Man. Chapter Two of Genesis will
provide a PARTICULAR description of Creation; but Chapter One will serve our
purpose of examining God’s very first Commandment to Mankind. Bear in mind that
this does not relate to the more general Moral Law laid down by God in the Ten
Commandments – but this first Commandment is not exempt, either, from the
greater Moral Law. God generally declines to proclaim laws that reveal sin until
that sin becomes rampant as in that wicked and utterly reprehensible sin of which
Sodom was noted. (Sodomy or homosexuality).
It should first be observed God created Man after “His own image and likeness.”
He created man from the dust of the earth, and made man a free moral agent.
That does not mean man has a free will in committing sin for sinful lusts and
desires all are evoked by a bondage of that will to the Prince of the Air
(Satan). But God intended, I believe, that man should be free to make moral
decisions involving devotion, loyalty, obedience, and love. Love that is
mandatory is not love at all. Only the sinner is an automaton of the Devil.
Those who lust in sin are simply acting out their father’s will – not God’s –
and that father who wills sin is Satan. As Jesus condemned the
hypocritical Pharisees and Jewish priests: Ye are of your father the
devil, and the lusts of your father ye will do. He was a murderer from the
beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When
he speaketh a lie, he speaketh of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of
it. (John
8:44) It is THIS
will that the world calls ‘free,’ but it is neither free nor independent since
it is subject to the influence of the sovereign of their souls – the Devil.
Notice that God created man, being in His own Trinitarian
image, with a three-partite nature – Spirit, body, and soul. This perfectly
reflects the nature of the Triune Godhead of Father, Son, and Holy Ghost in
personality, but not in righteousness. Man, being made from the dust of the
earth, has a physical body. His soul and spirit are, as suggested by the very
terms they employ, ‘spiritual.’ God the Father is a Consuming Fire and Spirit. God is a Spirit: and they that worship him must worship
him in spirit and in truth. (John
4:24) No, evidence
is necessary to reveal the Holy Ghost is a Spirit. But Jesus Christ, being with
God in Eternity Past in Spirit, came to earth in the body of a man and in every
whit as we are and subject to pain, suffering, temptation AND to the Law. The
Man is just a little (and much inferior) model of the Triune God in
composition, if not perfection. So man is two parts spiritual, and one part
physical (or carnal).
As was discussed earlier in the First Day devotion, God
(Elohim) is a noun possessing the particular meaning of a ‘singular/plural’
which means more than One in One. Here in today’s text, we see a reiteration of
that designation of the Godhead as plural in One. “Let us make man in OUR
image, after OUR likeness.” God is a Creator of life, and
those life-forms are made in the most beautiful and meaningful ways. A baby
lion, lamb, chicklet, or kitten reflect the artful genius of our God and Maker.
All such creatures of the animal kingdom are not born completely helpless, but
have a natural instinct to rise immediately to their feet and seek their mother’s
nurturing. Babies of mankind, however, are born completely helpless to survive
the challenges of life. They can neither stand, speak, or communicate except
through a ceaseless outrage of crying for gratification of their wants. Yet,
these little ones are loved by mothers everywhere, are they not? The ‘motherly
instinct’ is a Godly instinct, for all that God made, He thought to be GOOD.
This very lengthy introduction I believe to be necessary to
understand that first Commandment of God which we undertake to examine in this
devotion; and what was that Commandment? It was: “And God blessed them, and
God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth,
and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of
the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.”
This was the first Commandment God gave to mankind after creating male and
female after His own image and likeness. He thereby, gave man a role in the
Creative process as His keepers of the vineyard (Creation), so to speak. What
was that role? To be used of God in creating other male and female whose likeness
was like unto that of God in Heaven, and to be nurturers of that gentle
Creation of plants and animals God had made.
This first Commandment is one of the most vital that God has
ever uttered because it sets the stage for all of God’s purpose in Creation. As
we will learn later in our devotion on the First Marriage in Eden, God made
male and female to form one entity in the institution of marriage – the first
that God instituted. God clearly defines marriage as being between and man and
a woman. In purpose and Godly intent, marriage is the union of one man and one
woman into one body or person. Man and Woman become One with one another just
as the Church becomes One with Christ, as Christ is One with the Father, and
we, being in Christ, are also One with the Father. In the words of the
beautiful prayer of the Lord in the Garden at Gethsemane: 20 Neither
pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through
their word; 21 That they all may be
one; as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be one in
us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. 22 And the glory which thou gavest me I
have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: 23 I in them, and thou in me, that they
may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me,
and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me. (John 17:20-23)
God has made overwhelmingly clear that there is no
definition of marriage except that which exists between a man and a woman in
the estate of Holy Matrimony.
There is no other definition.
The modern perversions of homosexuality, lesbianism, and,
yes, adultery also, are simply that – perversions of wickedness against that
which God has blessed and ordained. Homosexuality turns the Creative Model of
our Maker on its head. It refutes not only the physical law of nature, but the
Moral Law of Nature’s God. It is a filthy and reprehensible sin that decent,
moral people of all religions have recognized as being hostile to God’s will
and Law, and this from the expulsion from Eden, through the centuries and
millennia of time since, in conformity with the wisdom of the ancients of every
civilization.
Two men, or two women, cannot “replenish the earth,” but
only make it desolate of habitation. This fits snugly into the One World
government ambition to reduce the population of the human race by two-thirds of
its present size. They will attempt to accomplish this through indoctrination,
in public schools and other forums, by suggesting the benefits of accomplishing
that goal through abortion, homosexuality, and stringent environmental controls
that make the production and distribution of food impossible. If the goal
cannot be accomplished by such ‘passive’ means, then more forceful means will
be employed.
It is for this reason that God has condemned and forcefully
rejected homosexuality – not only as a grievous sin – but as an ‘abomination’
in the eyes of the Lord. It is such a serious sin that God has said that He
will destroy that nation that allows this filthy sin to be practiced within its
borders. I fear for our nation when I read the words of Leviticus 18 and Romans
1:
22 Thou shalt not lie with mankind,
as with womankind: it is abomination. 23 Neither shalt thou lie with any
beast to defile thyself therewith: neither shall any woman stand before a beast
to lie down thereto: it is confusion. 24 Defile not ye yourselves in any
of these things: for in all these the nations are defiled which I cast out
before you: 25 And the land is defiled: therefore I do visit the
iniquity thereof upon it, and the land itself vomiteth out her inhabitants. 26 Ye shall therefore keep my
statutes and my judgments, and shall not commit any of these abominations;
neither any of your own nation, nor any stranger that sojourneth among you: 27 (For all these abominations have
the men of the land done, which were before you, and the land is defiled;) 28 That the land spue not you out
also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations that were before you. 29 For whosoever shall commit any
of these abominations, even the souls that commit them shall be cut off from
among their people.
(Lev 18:22-29)
22 Professing themselves to
be wise, they became fools, 23 And changed the glory of the
uncorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and
fourfooted beasts, and creeping things. 24 Wherefore God also gave
them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour
their own bodies between themselves: 25 Who changed the truth of God
into a lie, and worshipped and served the creature more than the Creator, who
is blessed for ever. Amen. 26 For this cause God gave
them up unto vile affections: for even their women did change the natural use
into that which is against nature: 27 And likewise also the men,
leaving the natural use of the woman, burned in their lust one toward another;
men with men working that which is unseemly, and receiving in themselves that
recompence of their error which was meet. 28 And even as they did not like to
retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do
those things which are not convenient; 29 Being filled with all
unrighteousness, fornication, wickedness, covetousness, maliciousness; full of
envy, murder, debate, deceit, malignity; whisperers, 30 Backbiters, haters of God,
despiteful, proud, boasters, inventors of evil things, disobedient to parents, 31 Without understanding,
covenantbreakers, without natural affection, implacable, unmerciful: 32 Who knowing the judgment of God,
that they which commit such things are worthy of death, not only do the same,
but have pleasure in them that do them. (Romans
1:22-32)
I am not
reluctant to confirm those who practice the egregious sin of homosexuality are
abominable SINNERs. Do not tell me I am being ‘judgmental’ unless you accuse
the Lord your God of the same presumed indiscretion, for it is His judgment,
and not my own, I merely reiterate His judgment. The modern church has made
itself sterile to proclaim the truth of God and to condemn the sins that God
has condemned for fear of being accused of being ‘judgmental.” I share no such
fear!
There is a sin unto reprobation, but God ‘s arm is not
shortened to forgive every sin that is sincerely repented of with a broken and
contrite heart. We must warn those young people, and elders, who have been
hood-winked by the devil to believe that homosexuality merits respectability
and recognition. The modern church has shirked its duty to God in not doing so.
WE MUST! There is room for even those who renounce that reprobate sin and come
to the Lord: 9
Know ye not
that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived:
neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers
of themselves with mankind, 10 Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor
drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And such were some of you: but
ye are washed, but ye are sanctified, but ye are justified in the name of the
Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Cor
6:9-11) There is a
place with God for every FORMER sinner, including you and me.
It is more important today, than ever before, for the people of God (His
Church) to recognize the importance, and severity of abrogating, that first
Commandment of God.
