2 of 3

In English it is easy to confuse blessing and command, because the blessing of Genesis 1:28 sounds like a command. This verse and its context is often called the cultural mandate. Instead, we should call it the cultural blessing. A look at Genesis 24:60 shows why. There, Rebekah's family is about to send her off to marry Isaac: "And they blessed Rebekah, and said to her, 'Our sister, be the mother of thousands of ten thousands; and may your descendants possess the gate of those who hate them!'" (RSV).

Here again, the first part of the blessing ("be the mother") sounds like a command in English. But it is not. The human blessing appeals to God to make Rebekah and her descendants fruitful. In the next generation, when this blessing does not come for Rachel, Jacob angrily responds to her complaint, saying, "Am I in the place of God?" (Gen. 30:2, RSV).

The Hebrew grammar of blessing in Genesis 24:60 is identical to that in Genesis 1:28. But in English, the blessing comes through more clearly in the second clause of Genesis 24:60: "may your descendants possess" (RSV). In Genesis 1:28, of course, it is God who declares the blessing and fulfills it himself. So it would be inappropriate for the English translation to read, "May you be fruitful."

What is the upshot of all this? God does not command humans to be fruitful. Rather, he himself will bless his creatures and see to it that they are fruitful. He has provided for this by making us male and female, by investing our humanness with sexual desire and love, and by ordaining marriage as the place for, among other things, joyful lovemaking. Marriage is also the God-given matrix from which family naturally springs, the place where children may be born and reared with love and wisdom, "in the fear of the Lord." The biblical blessings show that marriage is the natural and safe place for humans to be open to, and even eager for, God's gift of children.

We must beware of confusing matters. God gave this blessing to the human race as a whole. He does not give it to everyone. Some couples are barren, and their earnest prayers for children are not fulfilled. Others, like the apostle Paul, are called to life without marriage.

If Genesis 1:28 were a "command" that applied to every individual, then Paul would have been disobedient in his apostolic singleness. Paul and everyone else would be obligated to pursue marriage and to order their marriages to produce many descendants.

But does the openness of marriage to children mean that birth control is forbidden? Some have argued that contraception "usurps God's sovereignty." It is true that God is sovereign in blessing couples with children (Ps. 127 and 128). But do we disobey God's sovereignty or reject his providence by spacing the children we bear or by limiting their number?

And what of a couple who decide to have no children at all—though they would welcome a child that God in his wisdom might send them in spite of their precautions? Do they disobey a sovereign God? Some couples give up the good of having kids because of health problems. Others may believe they have a special calling together (say, missions in a dangerous land) that leads them to forgo the blessing and the task of parenting.

next page... |  2 of 3

share this page

November 12 2001, Vol. 45, No. 14