Then God blessed them, and God said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply, fill the earth and subdue it . . .” Genesis 1: 28, NKJV.
Dear Heavenly Parent, how grateful we are to You, for considering us worthy to become a part of Your work of pro-creation. As we come into Your presence this morning to study Your Word, we pray that Your Holy Spirit will guide our study, and show us marvelous things out of Your Holy Word. In the name of Jesus we pray. Amen.
What a wonderful God we serve! God created Adam and Eve in His image, and then He gave them the command to continue the work of procreation. What a honor and a privilege! When God created Eve, He equipped her with the ability to carry children in her body, and then, “in the fullness of time,” give birth to them. I wonder what it would have been like to give birth, before, the entrance of sin. Our parents began to procreate, according to Scripture, after, the entrance of sin (Genesis 4: 1). I have not been able to figure that out. I do not even know if I have to. If there is a message hidden in that fact, in due time, perhaps, God will reveal it.
I am very grateful, that when God created Adam, out of whom, He took Eve, He breathed into Him the breath of life. I believe, that everything that went into the creation of Adam, was also put into the creation of Eve. Proof of that lies in the fact that God created them both, in His image, and likeness (Genesis 1: 26, 27). I am eternally grateful, that in everyone of us, there is, “the breath of God.” That gives me hope for the human race. No one can be considered “hopeless,” while the breath of God is in them. Hallelujah!
After the entrance of sin, something was added to the process of childbearing, pain. “[The LORD God said] to the woman . . . ‘I will greatly increase your pains in childbearing; with pain you will give birth to children” (3: 16a, NIV). What is not very clear to me, is the fact that the first part of the text talks about the “increase” of pain in childbearing, as if pain already existed. Then the text proceeds to say, “with pain you will give birth to children.” So are there two kinds of pain that accompanies childbearing? Permit me to submit to you the following, I do believe that there are two kinds of pain that mothers face in childbearing: physical and emotional. Many times, the emotional pain is greater than the physical pain. God had a lot of faith in women, when He shared with us the act of procreation! Down through the ages, women have had to bear so much pain as mothers.
Eve bore the pain of seeing her son Cain, kill his brother Abel; and then see Cain sent away as a murderer to roam the earth.
Rebekah had to see her beloved, “favorite” son Jacob, run from the threat of his brother Esau. She never saw him again.
Manoah’s wife had to watch her son Samson die, without eyes, by pulling a building down upon himself, and the Philistines.
The mothers in Bethlehem and the surrounding areas, had to watch their babies, two years and younger, die, by order of “power-thirsty” Herod.
Many mothers in our day, have had to bury their sons, and daughters. Some have lost them by miscarriage. It does not matter how old your child is, he or she, is still your child, and watching him or her die, must be the most cruel of pains to touch the heart of a mother!
Mary, the mother of Jesus, had to watch her Son become the Sacrifice for the sins of the world, and die the most horrendous of deaths, upon a cross.
My sisters, you are stronger than you may believe. God knew you were strong enough to bear that much pain. He also knew that He would never allow you to bear it alone.
Don’t ever forget, “You are loved, and blessed, by God.”