The flood that covered the earth in the time of Noah was a great judgment and punishment that God brought upon the people of the earth, but it also represented a great cleansing and a new birth in a certain sense. God had seen the evil that men all across the earth were capable of committing and even regretted that he had made mankind.

However, God did find one man, Noah, to be blameless. Noah would be the man from which God would restart his work.

In the last article on the mission of God, we saw that God had made man and woman in his own image and had then had told them to be fruitful, to multiply, and fill the earth. God’s plan, his mission, was that his image would fill the earth. Now, we want to again see how God’s plan continues forward and was not only part of the story of Adam and Eve, but also the story of Noah and continues throughout the rest of the story that God is telling us through his word.

Be fruitful and increase in number

As Noah leaves the ark and steps out onto dry ground, his first act is to worship God. Noah builds an altar and takes some of the clean animals that he had brought with him on the ark and offers a sacrifice to God on the altar. Receiving that sacrifice, God blesses Noah:

Then God blessed Noah and his sons, saying to them, “Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth. The fear and dread of you will fall on all the beasts of the earth, and on all the birds in the sky, on every creature that moves along the ground, and on all the fish in the sea; they are given into your hands. Everything that lives and moves about will be food for you. Just as I gave you the green plants, I now give you everything.

“But you must not eat meat that has its lifeblood still in it. And for your lifeblood I will surely demand an accounting. I will demand an accounting from every animal. And from each human being, too, I will demand an accounting for the life of another human being.

“Whoever sheds human blood,
by humans shall their blood be shed;
for in the image of God
has God made mankind.

As for you, be fruitful and increase in number; multiply on the earth and increase upon it.”

Genesis 9:1-7

God’s blessing to Noah sounds almost exactly like what he had said, recorded in Genesis 1, to Adam and Eve. God confirms that he has made mankind in his image, and it is for this reason that he demands an accounting for every human being who is killed by another. Every person is precious in the eyes of God… Yes, because each person has their own intrensic value, but their value primarily comes to them because of how each person is made.

When God looks at each person, he sees his own image, and this is the value that we must see in each person as well. Each person carries with them, and within them, the image of God. Each person is made to be a representation, a reflection of God, the image of God, to the whole world. God made us so that when the world sees us, they should see God. That is the purpose of an image, to represent the reality. In this case, each person carries within them, and in fact is that image, made to represent God.

And God says the same thing to Noah that he said to Adam and Eve. In fact, he now says it twice to Noah:

“Be fruitful and increase in number and fill the earth.”

God’s mission, restated here following the flood and the cleansing of earth from the evil that men had brought upon it, is that his image, God’s image, would fill the earth. Our role is to represent God, to reflect his goodness and his glory everywhere. In every country, amongst every people, in every tribe, nation, and language, God wants his image to fill the earth. That is the mission that God is on and we see it confirmed and reiterated once again as the earth begins again, renewed once more following the flood.

What does it mean for us?

In that first article, we said that it is important that we understand the truth of how we are made and what God has commanded us to do so that we can answer some of the most fundamental questions that each of us carries with us:

Who am I?

What is the purpose of my life?

These are fundamental questions that we believe each person carries within them, and now we should begin to see some answers to these questions: In understanding the identity that we each carry within us, that we were each created from him, and in understanding the purpose for which God has made us, that we were made to represent him, we can begin to understand that God has a plan for each of our lives.

In the future articles that we will publish regarding the mission of God, we will dive further into God’s plan, the way in which he has called us to live out the identity and purpose that he has given us. God has told us how he intends for us to live the life of the image of God. He has told us how he intends for us to multiply his image all across the earth, making him known everywhere. This will be the subject for a future article in this series on the mission of God, so we will continue to seek out the truth of God’s plan and to be obedient to his commands and his plan for our lives.