I would now like to consider a use or purpose that God intended the marriage relationship to fulfill. That use was to replenish with children the work of God on earth at any given time or dispensation. Adam and Eve were to “replenish the earth” with children (Gen. 1). Instead, they brought in sin and death, populating that earth with a sinful, dying race.
Replenishing in the Old Testament
God judged the “world that then was” by water, except for Noah, his wife, his sons and their wives. When they came out of the ark, God told Noah and his sons to “replenish the earth” (Gen. 9).
After this, the God of glory called out Abraham alone with his wife, saying of them, “Look unto Abraham your father, and unto Sarah that bare you: for I called him alone, and blessed him, and increased him” (Isa. 51:2). Then Israel was told, “The Lord thy God... will... multiply thee; He will also bless the fruit of thy womb” (Deut. 7). In their captivity in Babylon they were to “take ye wives, and beget sons and daughters... that ye may... not [be] diminished” (Jer. 29). This was to be done in view of replenishing Jerusalem when the Lord would make an end of the captivity (Jer. 30:3).
We could go on, but this serves to show God’s principle that is before us. We shall see that this principle still applies to the day in which we live the church dispensation. We might except the tribulation period— “And woe to them that are with child, and to them that give suck in those days!” (Matt. 24) but it will be those who endure through that hour that will once again replenish the earth during the millennial reign of Christ. “And thy seed shall inherit the Gentiles, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited.” “In a little wrath I hid My face from thee for a moment” (Isa. 54).
Replenishing of the Church in Acts
This principle of replenishing the interests of God on earth with our children carries into the church dispensation, if we may so describe it. To call our attention to this principle as it relates to our day, I will refer to some verses from the book of Acts.
On the day of Pentecost, when the Spirit of God came to earth to baptize the believers into one body (Acts 2; 1 Cor. 12), the Apostle Peter says, “Your sons and your daughters shall prophesy” and “the promise is unto you, and to your children” (Acts 2:17-39). Peter knew nothing of Paul’s church truth at this time. These were some of the first words recorded after the formation of the church among the Jewish families. When Peter carries the gospel to the Gentiles, it is to a man who “had called together his kinsmen [family members] and near friends.” The Lord saved them (Acts 10:24-44). When Paul speaks to a Gentile woman, it says, “She attended unto the things... spoken of Paul. And... she was baptized, and her household.” And there was the Philippian jailor who asked the question, “What must I do to be saved?” Together, Paul and Silas say, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, and thou shalt be saved, and thy house” (Acts 16).
Replenishing in the Epistles
The epistles also bear out the principle that God desires our households to be brought into the assembly, desiring that they be “addicted... to the ministry of the saints” (1 Cor. 16:15). Surely, with John we could say, “I rejoiced greatly that I found of thy children walking in truth” and “I have no greater joy than to hear that my children walk in truth” (2 John; 3 John).
God’s Sovereignty and Man’s Responsibility
Before considering this matter as it relates to Christianity, let us understand that our God, the God of all grace, is sovereign in all His ways and that man is responsible in whatever relationship he is in with God. Today, we who know God as our Father are without excuse for failure, because “His divine power hath given unto us all things that pertain unto life and godliness, through the knowledge of Him that hath called us to [by] glory and virtue” (2 Peter 1). Also, “Through our Lord Jesus Christ... we have access by faith into this grace wherein we stand” (Rom. 5) and we have “grace to help in time of need” (Heb. 4). It is that grace which would keep us from falling, if we would avail ourselves of it.
God’s Grace and Man’s Responsibility
We would not have this wonderful relationship with God as Father and with our Lord Jesus as Saviour except for God’s sovereignty and grace. These relationships of grace carry with them responsibilities, flowing from relationship. Peter’s first epistle brings the two thoughts out beautifully and soberly. “Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father.... And if ye call on the Father, who without respect of persons judgeth according to every man’s [not God’s] work, pass the time of your sojourning here in fear” (1 Peter 1).
God brings the two things together with “Abraham; who is the father of us all... who against hope believed in hope, that he might become the father of many nations, according to that which was spoken, So shall thy seed be.” In Genesis 18 the Lord says of him, “For I know him, that he will [in order that he may] command his children and his household after him, and they shall keep the ways of the Lord, to do justice and judgment; that [in order that] the Lord may bring upon Abraham that which He hath spoken of him” (Gen. 18:19).
H. Short
(to be continued)