That title can be completed in many ways. My God is Love! My God is Spirit! My God is Holy! And, we could go on and on, but one completion I had never thought of, only recently came to me. My God is a Multiplier! Yes, a Multiplier.
If we are paying attention He begins to reveal this about Himself in the very first chapter of the Bible, in the creation account. Verse 11 we read, “And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself,...” Why the seed in itself? So that it could multiply.
He continues in verse 12, “...and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good.” Yes, it was good, that the herb and fruit tree could multiply.
Let us read on. Verses 21 and 22 tell us that God filled the oceans, seas, the waters abundantly with “every living creature that moveth.” “And God blessed them, saying, be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the waters in the seas, and let fowl multiply in the earth.” This is a double command, if you will, as “multiply” is rabah in Hebrew and means “to increase.” “Fruitful” is parah in Hebrew and means “bear fruit, grow, increase.”
God doesn’t stop here showing he is the God who is the multiplier. In verses 24, 25, 26 we read of God creating the living creature after his kind, cattle, creeping things, and beast of the earth as well as man in His likeness and image. Verse 27 states specifically that He created them male and female. Why? So they would be able to follow His instruction in verse 28, “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it:...”
God very clearly makes known that He is a multiplier. All He created was designed to multiply. It isn’t until verses 16 and 17 of chapter 2 that we read the commandment given by God to man that he was not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. But, we just read in chapter 1 of God’s command to man to “be fruitful and multiply.” That appears to be the first command, a command to be like God and multiply.
In Genesis chapter 3 we read of man’s disobedience of that command of not eating of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. In the first two verses of chapter 4 we read of Adam and Eve’s obedience to that first command, “And Adam knew Eve his wife; and she conceived...” We read that she “bare Cain” and “she again bare his brother Abel.” As we read more of chapter 4 we find Cain, Enoch, Lamech, and others having children. In verse 25 we read of the birth of Seth, another son of Adam and Eve’s.
Chapter 5 is “the book of the generations of Adam.” Verse 1 and 2 tells us once again, “In the day that God created man, in the likeness of God made he him; Male and female created he them,...” Mankind was created both male and female which enabled them to multiply. And, I submit, one of the ways they were created in the likeness of God was that they could also be multipliers.
Chapter 6 begins, “And it came to pass, when men began to multiply on the face of the earth,...” We don’t know just what went on here but apparently there was something not totally as it should have been in the multiplying.
Jumping ahead we read the story of Noah and the flood. As Noah, his wife, his sons and the son’s wives came off of the ark they were told, verse 17 of chapter 8, “Bring forth with thee every living thing that is with thee, of all flesh, both of fowl, and of cattle, and of every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth; that they may breed abundantly in the earth, and be fruitful and multiply upon the earth.” God repeated His command, chapter 9 and verse 1, “And God blessed Noah and his sons, and said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” And, God wanted them to hear this instruction. Verse 7 God again speaks to Noah, “And you, be ye fruitful, and multiply; bring forth abundantly on the earth, and multiply therein.” We do know from verse 19 that this instruction was heeded, “These are the three sons of Noah: and of them was the whole earth overspread.”
Let us move ahead to the story of Abraham. Genesis 15 we read of the covenant God made with Abraham, promising him that his seed would be given the land where he was dwelling, although at this time Abraham was childless. Chapter 16 is the account of Sarai, Abram’s wife, telling him to go in to her handmaid. We know that didn’t turn out the best and afterwards Sarai dealt hardly with Hagar and “she fled from her face.” In verses 7 through about verse 12 we read of an angel appearing to her. Notice especially what the angel said to Hagar, verse 10, “And the angel of the LORD said unto her, I will multiply thy seed accordingly, that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” My God is a multiplier.
Just a few more verses from the story of Abraham. Verse 2 of chapter 17, “And I will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly.” Verse 6, “And I will make thee exceedingly fruitful, ...” In verse 20 there is a Word from God pertaining to Ishmael, the son of Hagar.” And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly, twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation.” God says He would make him fruitful and He would multiply him. My God is a multiplier.
We could continue through the book of Genesis and see over and over again God’s instruction to be fruitful and multiply, His prophecy regarding the seed being multiplied, etc. But let us look as some other areas of multiplication.
There are scores of miracle recorded in the Bible. Maybe we haven’t noticed it but many of them have to do with multiplication. Let us look at some of the miracles that were performed in Egypt when the 10 plagues came upon the Egyptians. Exodus 8 recounts the plague of frogs. Verse 3 says that the river would bring forth frogs abundantly. Frogs naturally inhabited the river but they were GREATLY multiplied. Verse 6 says that Aaron stretched out his hand over the waters and the frogs came up, and multiplied, it says “and covered the land of Egypt.” In verse 3 it had been decreed that the frogs would come into the houses, into the bedrooms and into the beds. There would be frogs in the servant’s quarters and on the people and even in the ovens and kneadingtroughs And, this is exactly what occurred, a mighty multiplication of frogs.
The next plague, another miracle of God, was lice. Verse 16 says the very dust became lice. Even the dust was multiplied and became lice. I’m sure that Egypt had some flies, but nothing to be compared with the next plague, verse 21-24. The houses were full of swarms of flies. Verse 24 calls it a “grievous swarm” that came into the house of Pharaoh and his servants and “into all the land of Egypt.” Also, notice in verse 24 it says that “the LORD did so.” God was the multiplier.
One more plague that speaks of great multiplication was the locust plague. Chapter 10 and verse 12 God commands Moses to stretch out his hand over the land of Egypt for the locusts. Verse 13 tells us Moses did this and God brought an east wind upon the land all that day and all that night and the east wind brought the locusts. Without God multiplying those critters He would have had to bring every locust from the whole Middle East. As we read on we see how many there were. Verse 15 says they covered the face of the land so that the whole land was darkened. My God is a multiplier.
Let us look at a few more miracles of multiplication found in the Old Testament. In 1 Kings 17 we find that God instructed Elijah to go to Zarephath to a widow who would sustain him (verse 9). The widow was gathering firewood to prepare the last meal for her and her son as she had only enough meal and oil to fix for themselves and then she said they were preparing to die. Elijah gave her quite a difficult request or command. He told her to prepare a cake for him and then to make for her and her son. Notice what he told her, verse 14, “For thus saith the LORD God of Israel, The barrel of meal shall not waste, neither shall the cruse of oil fail, until the day that the LORD sendeth rain upon the earth.” As we continue the story we find that it says “and she, and he, and her house, did eat many days. And the barrel of meal wasted not, neither did the cruse of oil fail.” (Verses 15-16) My God is a multiplier.
Another miracle that centers on oil is found in 2 Kings 4. The story here is about a widow whose husband had left her quite a debt and the creditors were coming to take her sons into slavery until the debt was paid off. She came to Elisha and he asked “What shall I do for thee?” (Verse2) And, then apparently God gave him the answer. Elisha asked the woman what she had in her house (verse 2) meaning, it seems, what did she have that might have some value. She responded that all she had was a pot of oil. God inspired Elisha to tell her to collect all of the empty vessels she could ger her hands on, to borrow from all of the neighbors, or as it says “not a few.” She was told to go inside the home and shut the door. Then she began to pour from her small container of oil into the empty pots, pans, jugs and jars. And this continued until they all were filled. My God is a multiplier. At Elisha’s instruction she took the oil and sold it and paid off the debt, and it says, she had enough left over for her and her children to live on. (Verses 3-7)
Many of the miracles we read about Jesus performing were miracles of multiplication. Let us look at a few. Luke 5:4-11 records that Jesus spoke to Simon, telling him to launch the boat out into the deep and let down the nets for a catch or a haul (KJV says draught). Simons responses that they had spent the entire night trying to catch fish and had “taken nothing.” Nevertheless, he says, they will, at Jesus’ word let down the net. (As an aside, Jesus said nets, plural, but Simon says net, singular.) When they had done so, it says, they “enclosed a great multitude of fishes: and their net brake.” (Verse 6) The story continues, they beckoned to their partners to bring the other ship and when they came they filled both ships, “so that they began to sink.” (Verse 7) What a multiplication! Where there were seemingly very few fish and they were unable to catch any a great multiplication took place. My God is a multiplier!
A similar miracle is recorded in John 21:1-14. After fishing all night Simon Peter and the other fellows had caught nothing. Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side of the ship. And, further He told them that they would find fish there. When they did as He instructed them it says they were unable to draw it for the multitude of fish. We find in verse 11 that they had a net full of “great fishes” which obviously were not panfish but large marketable fish. They counted them and found that they had 153. They seemed to be amazed that they had so many of such size that the net hadn’t been broken or ruined. Again, I repeat, my God is a multiplier.
We are familiar with the multiplication of the loaves and fishes. In Matt. 15 and Mark 8 we read the story of the feeding of 4,000 men plus women and children with only 7 loaves and a few fishes. In Matt. 14, Mark 6, Luke 9 and John 6 we read of the 5 loaves and 2 fishes being multiplied so that 5,000 men plus women and children were fed. In both accounts we find that there were more leftovers than what they had to begin with, before multiplication.
Not only is God a multiplier He desires us to be multipliers as well. He wants us to focus on His multiplication. We won’t take time to go into detail but from Gen. 28 we read of the vow that Jacob made to God to give a tenth of what God had promised, which it spells out in verse 4, was the land of Canaan. So, when Joshua led the Israelite across the Jordan this vow came due. God had given instructions on how that 10 percent was to be given and to whom. It was to be given to the Levites who did not receive an inheritance in the land. And, it was to be on the increase, what was multiplied. The increase was the return on the planting of the seed and the offspring of the livestock. Never do we find a tithe on money. Money received in exchange for our labor is just that, an exchange. It is not an increase. Only those plants and animals that were commanded to br fruitful and multiply at creation would increase. So, God wanted the Israelites to focus on His multiplying what they sowed and what their livestock brought forth. My God is a multiplier.
God desires to multiply things for us, physical things. Note Jesus words in Matt. 19:29 and Mark 10:29-30. He says that if we have given up anything for Him and His Kingdom that we would receive a multiplication. “But he shall receive an hundredfold now in this time, houses, brethren, and sisters, and mothers, and children and lands, with persecutions: and in the world to come eternal life.” (Mark 10:30) The apostle Paul spends quite a bit of time in 2 Corinthians talking about money and provision. Look with me at a few verses in chapter 9. Verse 6, “But this I say, He which soweth sparingly shall reap also sparingly; and he which soweth bountifully shall reap also bountifully.” Verse 8, “And God is able to make all grace abound toward you; that ye, always having all sufficiency in all things, may abound, to every good work:” This is speaking of my God the multiplier. He is able to make all abound that what little we have may be multiplied so that we have all sufficiency.
Not only does He multiply the physical things for us but He much more multiplies His Word. The parable of the sower speaks loud about this. Look with me in Mark the 4th chapter. You probably are familiar with the story. Jesus gives clarification to His disciples and shows that the seed that is sown is the Word. The Word that is sown on the good ground, our hearts that The Father has prepared, will be heard, received and it will “bring forth fruit.” As the Apostle Paul said, he planted or sowed the Word. Apollos watered. But, it is God that gives the increase, multiplies. A little revelation, a bit of Word planted and nurtured will grow and mature. And when the harvest comes in we know that it is the Father that has caused the growth, the multiplication.
My God is the Great Multiplier! He is multiplying His family. That is what the creation of mankind was all about. Read Romans 8. In verse 29 we are told that Jesus is the firstborn of many brethren. The Father’s family begins with Jesus but that is not where it stops. He is multiplying that family beyond anything we can imagine. I’m especially taken by reading all of verses 29 and 30. “For whom he did foreknow, he also did predestinate to be conformed to the image of His Son, that He might be the firstborn among many brethren. Moreover whom He did predestinate, them He also called: and whom He called, them He also justified: and whom He justified, them He also glorified.”
My God is a multiplier. He is the Great Multiplier. What a Great and Wonderful God we have who is always and forever multiplying all things!
Garry D. Pifer
1/1/19
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