One of the topics that I most frequently cover in counseling is infertility. Although every experience with infertility is unique, there are often commonalities among the women that I counsel. The most common is a desire to love and serve the Lord through obedience. In many cases they are faithfully serving in a local church, love their husbands well, and are seeking to be obedient to the commands laid out in scripture. But this desire is often accompanied by a deep sense of shame. Their infertility is in no way their fault, and yet they often feel as though they have failed because their bodies are not cooperating with their desires.
As they describe this shame, one of the scriptures that I most often hear quoted or referenced is Genesis 1:28: “be fruitful and multiply.” There is an underlying belief that this mandate is directly applicable for Christians today, and because of their desire to be obedient to the Lord’s commands, their shame is exacerbated by this interpretation. What I want to gently present to you in this post is that this is both a misinterpretation and misapplication of the text. While all of God’s Word is for our benefit, we must first understand the context of the command, where and how it is repeated in scripture, and our current position in redemptive history before it is applied to our lives.
The Original Context
First, let’s note the full scripture in its original context.
And God blessed 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.” Genesis 1:28, ESV
This scripture appears in Genesis shortly after God creates and brings together Adam and Eve, the only two people on the Earth. He created them as his representatives, his image-bearers, to steward the amazing creation he had just completed. There are two important notes for this command.
First, it is incredibly practical. There were no other people on Earth and there was a need for them to populate the planet. Second, this command was given before the introduction of sin in Genesis 3. When Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and sin was introduced into the world, one of the consequences for Eve was great difficulty in child-bearing. This includes, but is not limited to, menstrual disorders, infertility, pregnancy complications, miscarriage, stillbirth, and intense pain in labor. This practical task of filling the world with God’s image-bearers was no longer going to be straight-forward. The presence of sin greatly complicated their mission and introduced shame into their relationship.
Old Testament Context
This mandate is reiterated a few more times in the Old Testament with altered wording. Following the Flood and the deliverance of Noah’s family, God takes the time to create a covenant with them in which he promises never again to flood the entire world. In this promise he also gives the largely practical command to repopulate the Earth in Genesis 9:1 and 9:7:
And God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, “Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth.…And you, be fruitful and multiply, increase greatly on the earth and multiply in it.”
God also uses similar language when discussing his covenant with the Patriarchs. To Abraham God promises that he will make Abraham the father of a great nation. Particularly in Genesis 17:5-6, we see the language of multiplying:
No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham, for I have made you the father of a multitude of nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you.
To Isaac God reaffirms the covenant made with Abraham in Genesis 26:3-5:
I will establish the oath that I swore to Abraham your father. I will multiply your offspring as the stars of heaven and will give to your offspring all these lands. And in your offspring all the nations of the earth shall be blessed, because Abraham obeyed my voice and kept my charge, my commandments, my statutes, and my laws.
When affirming this covenant with Jacob, God states in Genesis 35:10-11:
And God said to him, “Your name is Jacob; no longer shall your name be called Jacob, but Israel shall be your name.” So he called his name Israel. And God said to him, “I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply. A nation and a company of nations shall come from you, and kings shall come from your own body.
Because God had created a covenant with Abraham and all his future descendants, we see an emphasis on multiplication through biological children. God had called this particular, biological family to be his people. And it was through these people, the eventual nation of Israel, that God would demonstrate his love and foreshadow the coming redemption for the entire world.
But the growth of this nation was not without difficulty. The Patriarchs themselves encountered infertility, the family and eventual nation was under attack constantly, and their own disobedience eventually led to their exile. Once again, the task of growing the family of God was filled with obstacles. But through these difficulties God demonstrated his power and faithfulness, and reiterated throughout the Old Testament that he would enable the nation to grow.1
Jesus Provides New Context
For thousands of years God’s people primarily consisted of the Israelites, with a few notable exceptions such as Ruth.2 Yet when Jesus appeared on the scene, a shift occurred. No longer did he emphasize biological fruitfulness3, but spiritual fruit4. His final command before his Ascension, what we know as the Great Commission, was not an exact repeat of Genesis 1:28. Instead, Jesus pointed to a spiritual fruitfulness that would impact the entire world (Genesis 28:18-20):
All authority in heaven and on earth has been given to me. Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.
There is much more to this than we have time for today, but our primary takeaway is this: Jesus solidified that the familial growth of the people of God is now spiritual, not biological. There was an intentional shift away from God’s people being from a single nationality and to being made up of individuals from all tongues, tribes, nations, and people groups. We also see this lived out by the Apostles and emphasized in their teachings throughout the New Testament.5
Believers today obey the mandate to be fruitful and multiply not by having biological children, but by evangelizing and discipling others. Certainly, if we have children, whether biological or adopted, we should share the gospel with and disciple them. But the biological growth of a nation is no longer God’s primary means of growing his Kingdom.
In the growth of the spiritual family of God there is also difficulty. When he was physically present on Earth, Jesus faced resistance and persecution and until the moment he returns his followers will face those same obstacles. But we can rest in knowing that our job is only to share the gospel and the actual task of calling and redeeming is safely in his sovereign hands.
Modern Application
So what does all of this mean for modern, infertile believers? First, biological children are not a requirement. In our limited minds, we sometimes create our own tiers for the citizens of the Kingdom of God. But believers who do not have biological children are not second-class citizens, there is simply a different calling on their life. Perhaps it is a call to adoption or to remain childless altogether, but neither is in and of itself a failure to be obedient to the command to grow God’s family. The only time that we are disobedient to this call is when we refuse to participate in evangelism and discipleship.
Second, your infertility is part of the general curse of sin, not a personal punishment. Although pregnancy announcements can sometimes feel like a direct attack, God is not withholding something from you out of spite. You cannot hurry up and learn your lesson, repent a certain number of times, or have enough faith to earn a child.
So take heart, dear reader. If you are in Christ you are, and will always remain, a cherished, chosen, and adopted child of the King. And your capacity to have biological children will never alter or taint that status. You serve a Redeemer who promises to transform pain into glory.
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If you are walking through a difficult season and can benefit from biblical counseling, schedule a session with me or another qualified counselor today.
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