Be Fruitful, Increase in Number, Fill the Earth

Today's reading is from Genesis 9.

One of the most popular images from this passage is the rainbow, a sign of God's promise. But as I read it this time, another thing stood out to me more. It was these words in verse 1:

"Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth."

It's also in verse 7:

"As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it."

The idea of God wanting the earth to be filled with many people & why would God want such a thing really stood out to me & made me wonder~

But before I share my thoughts on that, let's pay attention to some other detail elsewhere first. So I'm sure most of us have heard of the origin of the rainbow from here. It was a sign of a covenant between God and Noah, as it says in verse 13, "I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth."

As I put more thought into it this time, it actually really made lots of sense. In our everyday lives, after we experience a huge rainstorm, when the sun comes out again, there the rainbow sits in the sky. As I see it now, it's really a reflection of what God promised Noah that day. 

Seeing the rainbow is a reminder of why the rain stopped. It's amazing how this physical sign of the covenant is still observable to this day!

Verse 3 raised a question from me.

Why did God introduce meat for food now, & not before?
Feel free to share your thoughts or knowledge on this.

So now back to the command God gave Noah.

"Be fruitful, increase in number, fill the earth.

As I read these words, I was left wondering, why did God want more people on the earth? Did He want more people to love? Was not an adequate amount of humans enough? Why did He want so many people?

It really reminded me that, every human life is special to God. The more people there were, the more He could share His love with. The more joy He would have & He could share~

He wanted to give many people, even yet to be born, an opportunity to share a relationship of love with Him.

Though, I'm sure God already knew how many people there would be on the earth. It was more or less 'predestined' by Him. Whatever the number may be, I'm sure it's very big, and big enough to fulfill God's purpose for the Earth & mankind.

This really shows that every individual is special to God. 

Everyone is unique, everyone is perfectly different.

The more people there are, the more variations of uniqueness there will be. Everyone has different experiences & different opportunities. There are people born with different genes, born in different places, & born into different cultures. None two people are the same.

Everyone is unique because God has a specific role for them in His kingdom.

In conclusion, the vast amount of people God wanted, meant a vast variation to fulfill the many unique roles He has given us in the world, & probably also in Heaven. It means everyone is needed by God. We are all part of one body, if I may. We are all special in our own way to God. Not only that, but God also wanted to give as many people the opportunity to share eternal glory with Him, not so He can be praised by us, but because He wants to share His love with us, even though we don't deserve it.

Godbless~

Always True To His Word

Well I actually studied this passage yesterday, but due to school starting and all, I ran out of time to make the post. This really isn't going to be as easy I thought with school, but I'll do my best to carry on.

So the passage is Genesis 8.

After all the incidents that have previously happened, I feel this this is a great turn around, a great reminder that at the end of the storm is God holding His arms wide open for us~

The first words of the passage are already very compelling in itself.
"But God remembered Noah"
My Bible has a sidenote that says the 'remember' here means the same as to 'pay attention' to. I personally think that this makes the words so much stronger.
Pay attention really implies that God never lost attention of Noah, that Noah had God's full concentration. Isn't that pretty amazing? To have God's full attention & therefore complete protection.
I really feel that here, God wasn't just 'keeping a covenant' with Noah by protecting him from the flood, but He was taking the extra mile because He really loved Noah~

So shortly afterwards, the waters began to recede, life on earth was given another chance.

By now, Noah had been in the ark for a very long time. I'm sure it wasn't the most comfortable place to be, having been tossed around by the ocean for so long, having to live amongst animals, but he would finally be able to leave the ark soon!
So to give him an idea of the progress of waters receding, Noah sent out birds to check for him. After the third bird, Noah had proof that the earth had almost dry.
Not only that, he even decided to remove the covering and have a look with his own two eyes. It says in verse 13  "Noah then removed the covering from the ark and saw that the surface of the ground was dry." So why didn't he leave the ark? Why did he remain in the ark for more than an extra month? I'm sure he would've really wanted to leave, & finally be able to stand on solid ground. But he waited.

He waited for God's command. I really think it's really amazing how much He trusts God now. Even though he saw with his own eyes that the earth had dried, he still waited to God said it was safe. It took another month & more before the earth was completely dry, as it says in verse 14.
I'm sure alot of the times nowadays, we really rely on what we see to confirm it's true. We must see to make sure. And when we do see, we're so sure of ourselves. But here we can really learn from Noah, after so many confirmations of his own power, he still waited for God. And he was right to do so~

Then when he finally was able to step out of the ark, the first thing he did was thank God, by building an altar to Him. As it says in verse 20 "Then Noah built an altar to the LORD".
Would we have done the same after having to experience such poor living conditions for so long? Would we have only been so relieved & forgotten about God?
Well Noah definitely didn't, he thought of God first, He remembered & was extremely thankful for God's plan for his life, even though alot of it was extremely difficult & painful.

God then blesses Noah.
One phrase really stood out to me here.
In verse 22,
"As long as the earth endures, seedtime and harvest,"
Seedtime was obviously when people planted their seeds. But back then they didn't have machines, so I'm sure it would've been quite alot of work to walk a whole field & sprinkle seeds along the way.
Then in the harvest they would find out if all the hard work would be paid off.

At the end of this, God reassures us that both 'will never cease'.
It really reminds me that till now & till He comes back, we'll be expected to work hard on this earth. Work isn't something we should get away from or be lazy about. But at the same time, He assures us that with work comes results, comes rewards, comes the harvest~

So a key thing I picked up from this passage.

God payed attention to Noah.
It reminds me that God always takes the extra mile in His love for us. Are we just going to give Him some of us or none at all? Or are we going to give it all we've got as well?

Godbless~