Pray the word with David Platt is a resource from radical.net.

Genesis chapter 1 verse 28 and God bless them and God said to them, be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth and subdue it.

And have dominion over the fish of the sea and over the birds of the heavens and over every

living thing that moves on the earth.

This is a pretty remarkable verse when you think about it. So God has created the heavens in the earth and in the pinnacle of his creation he creates man and woman in his image as a reflection of him.

That's first 27 God created man in his own image. In the image of God he created

him male and female. He created them. Men and women created to uniquely reflect

God in a way that nothing else in all creation reflects God in the same way.

That we relate to God in a way that is totally different from everything else in all creation.

And then, verse 28 says, God bless them.

Just see, this is the pure, unadulterated blessing of God,

goodness of God just flowing toward man and woman,

and God says to them, so his blessing is then followed by

instruction, command, be fruitful, and multiply and fill the earth.

So get to picture.

God says, I've created you in my image now fill the earth with my image

with this unique reflection of my grace and my glory. I want my blessing spread throughout the earth in this way.

So this is the in a sense the creation mandate and obviously the implications are

physical, a man and a woman and marriage, and they're to multiply and fill the earth.

But as we go throughout scripture from this point, the very beginning of the Bible is God's continual

desire all throughout the Bible. He wants his blessing, his grace, and his

image bearers known all throughout the earth. This is why later on in

...