1.3 Israelites’ Motivations to
Multiply
A Desire to Follow God’s Intent: The
creation mandate that appears in the initial chapters of
the Bible gives us a general picture of what the people
of God in Old Testament times thought about an
increasing population. God blessed the first man and his
wife with the ability to procreate and commanded them to
multiply. “God blessed them; and God said to them, “Be
fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth, and subdue
it” (Genesis 1:28a NASB). A couple’s joyful decision to
procreate or a community’s celebration of the arrival of
a new-born was probably validated and strengthened by
this cultural mandate. As a command given to the first
parents, this command has universal scope and therefore
is not limited to Abraham’s descendants. A desire to
obey this first d ivine command must have under-girded
Israel’s agenda for multiplication.
After the great flood, God commanded Noah and his sons,
“Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth” (Gen
9:1b). God ensured that human life was protected,
through a divine legislation, from acts of murder
committed by fellow humans or animals (Gen 9:5-6). God
repeated the command, “As for you, be fruitful and
multiply; populate the earth abundantly and multiply in
it.” (Gen 9:7 NASB).
A Godly Seed, a Covenant Community: Growth
in population was of great significance to the nation of
Israel. This was especially because God chose one man,
Abraham, and his wife, Sarah, to build a nation. God
declared to Abraham that He would make him “a great
nation” (Gen 12:2) and that He would give the land of
Canaan to his descendants (Gen 12:7). Many years later,
God commanded Abraham’s grandson, Jacob, soon after
assigning a new name “Israel” 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 forth from you” (Gen 35:11). The fulfilment of
God’s covenant depended on the continuity of Abraham’s
lineage. Therefore, it was vital for Israel to multiply
and thereby to ensure their survival. Malachi, in his
prophecy against post-exilic Jews who divorced their
wives, insisted that God’s intention behind the
institution of marriage was to give rise to a godly
offspring. (Malachi 2:15. Although the initial portion
of this verse is notorious for the difficulty it poses
to translators, there is a general agreement regarding
the “godly offspring” that God expected when He
instituted marriage.)
Strategic Military Interests: While still
small in number, this covenant community or family felt
insecure in the midst of other numerically stronger
people. Reacting strongly against Levi’s and Simeon’s
violent attack on a neighbouring town, their father
Jacob said:
You have brought trouble on me by making me odious among
the inhabitants of the land, among the Canaanites and
the Perizzites; and my men being few in number, they
will gather together against me and attack me and I will
be destroyed, I and my household. (Genesis 34:30, NASB.
Emphasis added.)
This verse clearly brings out Jacob’s insecurity and his
rationale for having a large family of thirteen
children. Strength in numbers mattered! By the time
Jacob died in Egypt, he left behind a large family of
sixty nine members excluding his daughters-in-law.
(Jacob and sixty six members of his family migrated to
Egypt. They joined Joseph and his two sons to make the
total strength seventy. Genesis 46:26-27.)
This strategic military aspect of a strong population
was probably the strongest motivating factor that
fuelled Israel’s aggressive multiplication. David,
Israel’s monarch, felt the need to find assurance in
numbers (2 Samuel 24:1ff and 1 Chronicles 21:1ff. “In a
multitude of people is a king’s glory, But in the dearth
of people is a prince’s ruin” Proverbs 14:28). He
commissioned a census to determine the number of
“valiant men who drew the sword” (2 Sam 24:9). God
counted this act a sin and punished David and his nation
by slaughtering 70,000 of them (2 Sam 24:15). This was
God’s way of forcing Israel to trust in Him and not in
their numbers. Besides, it highlights God’s role in
sustaining and regulating a population. He does that
mostly by his supreme control over individual human life
span.
1.4. God’s Intimate Involvement in Human
Multiplication
God was directly involved in the multiplication of His
people. Even though God commanded His people to multiply
in numbers, the Bible does not give us the impression
that the domain of human multiplication is exclusively
and entirely controlled by human decisions. Men and
women indeed have their roles to play in reproduction,
and they enjoy a certain degree of freedom to make
choices. They can indeed choose to abstain from
reproduction—with varying degrees of success. They also
can choose a convenient time or season for reproduction
unlike some forms of life that reproduce only in certain
seasons. Yet, the Bible seeks to tell us that God has
the ultimate control over human population at any given
time through His active control over human fertility and
over individual human life span.
The following passages highlight Israel’s faith in God’s
direct involvement and determined will in multiplying
His people who are faithful to Him. God said to Abraham:
“I will establish My covenant between Me and you, And I
will multiply you exceedingly” (Genesis 17:2 Cf. Gen
22:17.) God assured Hagar concerning Ishmael: “I will
greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be
too many to count” (Gen 16:10. Cf. Gen 17:20) God
promised Isaac: “I will multiply your descendants as the
stars of heaven.” (Gen 26:4a) God promised to protect
Israeli women from miscarriage: “There shall be no one
miscarrying or barren in your land; I will fulfill the
number of your days” (Exodus 23:26; Cf. Deut 7:14.)
Even though people have procreative powers, these would
be useless unless God blesses them individually and
takes care of all the determinants that affect their
chances of multiplication. Not all of these determinants
are under the direct control of individual families or
communities or nations. The various determinants of
human multiplication include, but are not limited to:
- Social, political, and economic
factors: Wars, famines and government restrictions
can prevent multiplication. Some of these can
decimate entire populations.
- Climate, food production and
public distribution of essential items;
- Fertility and health of
individuals;
- Pregnancy and Safe confinement;
- Life span of individuals: People
need to live long enough to be able to marry and
reproduce.
Unless God takes care of all these and
other determinants, a couple’s decision to procreate is
in vain. A Hebrew psalmist stated it succinctly: “Unless
the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build
it”Ps.128:1.
The understanding that God is in control over human
multiplication is reflected in Israel’s prayers,
blessings, and narratives too. A psalmist blessed his
people saying, “May the LORD give you increase, You and
your children” (Ps. 115:14). Isaac blessed Jacob, fully
realising God’s role in multiplying His people, “May God
Almighty bless you and make you fruitful and multiply
you, that you may become a company of peoples.” (Gen.
28:3) Boaz took Ruth as his wife and lived with her. The
writer of Ruth notes that “the LORD enabled her to
conceive, and she gave birth to a son” instead of
viewing the conception as a “natural” outcome of
conjugal life. (Ruth 4:13b)
Judgement: Just as the Lord God
demonstrated His power over human fertility through the
blessing of children, He demonstrated his displeasure
towards a disobedient people by nullifying their
fertility (Hosea 7:11 “As for Ephraim, their glory will
fly away like a bird— No birth, no pregnancy and no
conception!” Cf. Hosea 9:16a.). He also destroyed their
children using wild animals (Lev. 26:22), military
siege, and famine (Hosea 9:16b). God warned that a
disobedient people would end up eating their own
children—an act diametrically opposed to the spirit of
procreation and multiplication (Deut. 28:52-57).
When Israel left Egypt they had grown to the strength of
six hundred thousand, excluding children. (Ex. 12:37;
Num 1:46 and 2:32 put the figure precisely at 603,550
after a census in the Wilderness of Sinai. Those below
the age of 20 years were excluded.) Forty years later,
towards the end of their wanderings in the wilderness,
they numbered 601,730 (Num 26:51. This figure excludes
those under 20 years of age). There was no increase in
their population because everyone – except Joshua and
Caleb – among those who were counted in the previous
census in the Wilderness of Sinai died in the desert as
a result of their unbelief. (Num 26:64-65). It is worth
noting that God decided to kill the entire Israeli
nation – save Joshua, Caleb, and those under 20 – when
ten of the twelve spies gave an unfavourable report out
of their unbelief (Num 14:30-31). And yet, God did not
kill the entire community all at once. He executed his
sentence over a period of forty years. As a result,
those under condemnation could multiply and leave behind
a replacement population. Had God killed the guilty on a
single day or over a short period of time, the people of
the covenant might not have had a fair chance for
survival in the desert or in the land of Canaan. At the
end of the forty years of their journey, therefore, the
population of Israel remained almost the same as it had
been when they had set out of Egypt.
This is a good example that illustrates God’s direct
involvement in human affairs, even to regulate human
population. It was beyond Moses or other leaders of the
community to worry about the maintenance of an ideal
population in the desert in the face of divine judgement.
The Creator and Sustainer of Life, the One who has power
over the life span of individuals, was in a better
position to regulate and control Israel’s population
than any human leader or demographer.
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