God has a two-fold task for families: have children and rule the world. God blessed families with this task, as Genesis 1:28 reminds us:

And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it: and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth.

God repeated this blessing quite often in the Old Testament. After the Flood, God repeated it to Noah and his seed.

And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.

And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly in the earth, and multiply therein. (Genesis 9:1, 7)

When Isaac blessed Jacob, he rehearsed this blessing.

And God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful, and multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; (Genesis 28:3)

When God changed Jacob’s name to Israel, he reiterated this blessing.

And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; (Genesis 35:11)

Having children is central to this blessing, but not for sentimental reasons only. The blessing of children was also God’s plan for subduing the earth. After the Fall, God raised a godly seed with which He intended to fill the whole earth. Through that godly seed, God meant to bring the world into captivity to Himself. We see the potential on a small scale during Israel’s sojourn in Egypt. Take note of this curious statement about Israel’s sojourning in Egypt:

And Israel dwelt in the land of Egypt, in the country of Goshen; and they had possessions therein, and grew, and multiplied exceedingly. (Genesis 47:27)

This fruitfulness scared the daylights out of Pharoah.

And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them. Now there arose up a new king over Egypt, which knew not Joseph. And he said unto his people, Behold, the people of the children of Israel are more and mightier than we: Come on, let us deal wisely with them; lest they multiply, and it come to pass, that, when there falleth out any war, they join also unto our enemies, and fight against us, and so get them up out of the land. (Exodus 1:7-10)

Pharaoh worried about Israel simply because of the way they multiplied. Obviously, they were raising their children to be faithful Israelites. I doubt it would have worried Pharaoh if most Hebrew children later defected to Egypt.

In the account of Israel’s history recorded in Psalm 105, the Psalmist confirmed that this was the point:

Israel also came into Egypt; and Jacob sojourned in the land of Ham. And he increased his people greatly; and made them stronger than their enemies. (Psalm 105:23-24)

So, there is something to this thing of raising up children for God. This is God’s plan for subduing the world.

The same thing is said when Israel went into the Promised Land. God promised to drive out the inhabitants of that land little by little and to multiply the Hebrews until they filled the land. And that would ultimately be the means of conquering the land of Canaan.

And I will send hornets before thee, which shall drive out the Hivite, the Canaanite, and the Hittite, from before thee. I will not drive them out from before thee in one year; lest the land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against thee. By little and little I will drive them out from before thee, until thou be increased, and inherit the land. (Exodus 23:28-30)

We subdue the earth by raising up godly seed (Malachi 2:14-15). If our task were as simple as having lots of kids, there would be little challenge. But we must also raise up a godly seed. The early earth was a time of prolific fruitfulness. We have every reason to think that the population of the earth exploded. But the world was not subdued or brought under the authority of the Creator.

The Fall thwarted God’s purpose for families. This explains why Satan’s attacks have been so focused on the family and why, in our fallen state, we have played into his hands so easily. Don’t think that gay marriage is the primary cause of the moral decay of our culture. Gay marriage might be Satan’s crowning achievement. It accomplishes what he wants exactly: fruitless marriages, the perversion of God’s sexual design, the defacing of His image in man, and the impossibility of a restored image in that “marriage.” But we traveled a long road to this point. And although gay mirage might be the capstone, it certainly doesn’t represent the bulk of His work.

Satan has undermined the family itself at its very foundation. The majority of children in the U.S. and around the world are being raised without fathers. Young people grow up believing marriage is not a good thing – one of our many cultural ironies. Many have lost all confidence in the institution of marriage, instead choosing cohabitation. As a result, we bring bastard children into the world and make them two-fold more the child of hell than ourselves.

We can’t subdue the earth through our children. We can’t even subdue our children! Children raised in Christian homes are disillusioned, bitter, cynical, faithless, and emotionally insecure. And why? Ultimately because of our sin. God created us to spread His glory throughout the world, but we defaced His glory. We chase away His image. We seek our own way. Not surprisingly, the dysfunction of our families displays the devastating effects of our sin.

Consider the way the Bible describes our failure.

But one in a certain place testified, saying, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? or the son of man, that thou visitest him? Thou madest him a little lower than the angels; thou crownedst him with glory and honour, and didst set him over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things in subjection under his feet. For in that he put all in subjection under him, he left nothing that is not put under him… (Hebrews 2:6-8)

But then, verse 8 makes a startling admission.

But now we see not yet all things put under him.

We can think of plenty of examples. We pray, “Thy kingdom come.”  God made the family to be one of the primary means for achieving this goal of spreading His dominion throughout the world: “Thy kingdom come.” But our sin has hobbled us and prevented us from subduing the earth.

What did the writer of Hebrews say in response to this? “But we see Jesus.”

But we see Jesus, who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of death, crowned with glory and honour; that he by the grace of God should taste death for every man. (Hebrews 2:8-9)

We find redemption in Jesus Christ. Apart from Him, we continue to spiral into the abyss. Without Christ, our families will be destroyed, our children will grow into reprobation, and the world will continue to degenerate into absolute depravity. But by the grace of God, we find redemption in Jesus Christ.

The sinners Jesus Christ redeems are again commissioned to “go into all the world and preach the gospel to every creature.” And God has a straightforward purpose for the Great Commission:

Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you… (Matthew 28:20)

In this New Testament age, we subdue the earth by preaching the gospel, declaring God’s glory among the heathen.

To open their eyes, and to turn them from darkness to light, and from the power of Satan unto God, that they may receive forgiveness of sins, and inheritance among them which are sanctified by faith that is in me. (Acts 26:18)

Thus, Jesus taught us to pray, “Thy kingdom come, thy will be done in earth as it is in heaven.” The most important place this is accomplished is in the Christian home, where God’s Word is preached and lived so that the children follow the Lord joyfully.

God’s way of being a family

God wants godly, Christian marriages.

And did not he make one? Yet had he the residue of the spirit. And wherefore one? That he might seek a godly seed. Therefore take heed to your spirit, and let none deal treacherously against the wife of his youth. (Malachi 2:15)

A marriage that genuinely reflects the unity and love of the Godhead – the image that corrects all others – is the kind of marriage that will subdue the earth for the glory of God. So will a marriage that preaches Christ’s love for the church. That requires husbands to lead by serving and serve by leading. It requires husbands and wives to love God before each other, to love each other as Christ loved the church, and to do all these things in front of their children. When a husband and wife do this, their marriage will be transformative.

And this points to one of the great needs of this generation: not just faithful, loving marriages, but marriages that have the power to transform. Sure, it’s great If you haven’t gone out and done anything stupid in your marriage. But if you think that is the whole point, you aim far too low. Our marriages must preach Christ every day. They must be so much like Christ that men are called to repentance by them.

Let God’s creative purpose shape your expectations. When God created the world, He made marriage and commanded the married couple to subdue the earth. At the cross, God re-created the world in a sense. At least we see the beginnings of it. He made a new Adam and a new Eve (the church). And by the fruitfulness of the marriage of Christ to the church, God is spreading His glory throughout the world.

But the marriage of Christ to the church is illustrated every single day in our own marriages, which are a reflection of His.

For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery: but I speak concerning Christ and the church. (Ephesians 5:31-32)

Christ’s marriage produces fruit. We are that fruit. Our children are His children. And as we raise His children for Him, His gospel is spread worldwide.

Not only must we faithfully proclaim Christ through our marriages, but we must raise up our children for Him. We must teach our children to worship God in submission to Him, live in humble obedience, and place His will above their own. We accomplish this by teaching our children obedience and submission at home. They obey God when they obey us. And they learn how to obey God as they learn to obey us.

We must go beyond worrying about whether our children are saved or not. I don’t say that we should not be concerned about their salvation. But we should aim higher. If we only try to keep them in the fold, they’ll bolt the first chance they have. We must raise up soldiers for Christ. That should be our primary concern.

Our goal for our children is that they would be “more than conquerors.” So, we must arm, equip, and train our children so they can go out and subdue. This requires a thoroughly Christian education, an education that becomes a weapon in their hand. It requires Biblical maturity and disciplined independence: an education so they can, independence so they will. It requires strength. Parents must not coddle their children or tolerate whining, excuse-making, laziness, shrugging off responsibility, and such. We must raise our children for war because we are in one.

Conclusion

We build warriors in the little things we do in your homes. The devil is always in the details. The little foxes spoil the vine. In my experience, parents tend to deal with the big things. But if you let the little things go, you prepare your children for failure.

Our military seems to understand the way little things matter. What do spit-polished shoes and creased pants have to do with a soldier’s ability to fight in a war? But our military insists that it does. The same goes for wake-up times, made beds, salutes, and carefulness with weapons.

God made the family to subdue, to rule, to have dominion. In the beginning, the work of subduing the earth required a lot of gardening. We might say that the subduing was all natural. Since the Fall, we have had the added need for spiritual subduing through gospel preaching. 

May God richly bless you in the work of building soldiers for Christ.

The LORD shall bless thee out of Zion: and thou shalt see the good of Jerusalem all the days of thy life. Yea, thou shalt see thy children’s children, and peace upon Israel. (Psalm 128:5-6)