Be Fruitful and Multiply

AS THE JEWISH EXILES’ TIME IN BABYLON grew from weeks to months, many must have experienced bouts of depression. There would be no immediate rescue; no quick return home. Most were simply surviving from one day to the next. Trauma has a way of numbing the senses and reducing one’s ability to foster a disposition of hope. To say it another way, the exiles were most likely in a pitiable state. Then came Jeremiah’s letter with a wildly different tone. Build. Plant. Marry. Increase. Multiply. Despite their fear, anger and dejection, God was calling his people in exile to flourish.

In some ways, Yahweh was telling this group of displaced Jews to live in Babylon as they had lived in Judah. They were to carry out life as normal – marrying and having children, carrying out domestic and economic activity, building lives and communities. Yet, in Babylon, the way they did life together and how they lived among their Babylonian neighbors would speak volumes about the nature of the God they worshipped. Yahweh desired that they live out in the open among their captors. They couldn’t shine as lights in dark places if they were hidden away.

For these exiles, God was also calling them to a kind of new beginning. The words of Jeremiah 29:5-6 are an echo of the Creator’s mandate to the first human family –"Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28). As God’s image-bearers, Adam and Eve were to increase across the earth, bringing it into subjection to the Creator’s compassionate reign. Yahweh had given them representative rule to extend his kingdom on earth and to worship him through the agency of their calling. Unfortunately, Adam and Eve relinquished these roles when they chose to side with the serpent and rebel against their King. Their decision had grave consequences: sin entered this sacred space and brokenness was the banner over an earthly kingdom that was now under the sway of the serpent.

Generations later, however, God would break through the clouds of despair and appoint one of the earth dwellers as the new ambassador of his kingdom. Abraham would be blessed through his fellowship with Yahweh and would be called to extend God’s blessing to every family on the earth (Genesis 12:1-3). God would also promise him that his descendants would be as numerous “as the stars of heaven and as the sand that is on the seashore” (Genesis 22:17). Abraham’s family would be fruitful and multiply—in Egypt and in Canaan. Now, here in Babylon, these descendants of Abraham were being told to “multiply there, and do not decrease” (29:6). Their location had changed but their mission had not. They were to be a growing community of worshippers whose lives honored the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Our calling and identity as Christians have continuity with Abraham and his descendants. Not only are we Abraham’s children by faith (Galatians 3:7-9), but through the Great Commission’s gospel mandate, the Lord is fulfilling his promise that through Abraham all the nations of the earth will be blessed (Matthew 28:19-20). So, even while living in a Western culture that grows increasingly hostile to the Christian faith, we should seek to “increase” and “multiply.” That increase and multiplication ought to be pursued in so many different ways, but I want to share a few ideas:

1. Share the gospel broadly among your neighbors, co-workers, peers, etc.
2. Disciple all generations with intentionality – children, students, and adults.
3. Plant new small groups and churches.
4. Encourage Christian families to have many children and disciple them well.
5. Grow the number of Christ-centered schools and businesses.
6. Enter into spaces where there is a void of any Christian presence.
7. Advocate and act on behalf of the vulnerable and those who are oppressed.
8. Fund Bible translation projects around the world.

PRAYER
Lord, from the very beginning you have called us to be fruitful and multiply. That calling has continued in every era and location where your people have been. Even when the Jews were in exile in a foreign land, you called them to flourish. You wanted them to increase in their influence and grow as a people so your glory would be made known to their Babylonian neighbors. If that was your calling for them, then surely you have called us as your Spirit-filled Body to live fruitfully in our day. Help us to do so. Amen.

PONDER

1. What do you make of the fact that God called the Jews to “multiply” even under the difficulties of exile?
2. What are some ways you feel overwhelmed by the challenges that Christians face (and could face) in our culture?
3. How might God be leading you to “increase” your Christian influence in exile?