The Nursery of the Church

God blessed Noah and his sons and said to them, "Be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth."
GENESIS 9:1
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The Nursery of the Church
These words were a truly necessary comfort after the entire human race had perished by the flood and only eight souls were saved. Noah realized that God is indeed favorably inclined toward him; for He is not satisfied with that first blessing with which He blessed the human race at the creation of the world, but He adds this new one in order that Noah may have no doubt whatever concerning the future increase of his progeny. This promise was all the more welcome because God had previously given the express promise that He would never again rage against the human race with so severe a punishment. For one thing, this chapter confirms marriage; for through His Word and command God joins the male with the female, and that for the definite purpose of filling the earth with human beings. Because before the flood God had been provoked to wrath by the sin of lust, it was necessary, on account of this awful expression of wrath, to show now that God does not hate or condemn the lawful union of a man and a woman but wants the human race to be propagated by it. This was a sure proof for Noah that God actually loves man, is well disposed toward him, and has now put away all wrath. . .. This passage, therefore, deals with the honorableness of marriage, which is the source of both the family and the state, and the nursery of the Church.
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