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In the story of one of his descendants-Lamech-we have the first example in Scripture of the practice of marrying more than one wife-polygamy. Then Lamech took for himself two wives: the name of one was Adah, and the name of the second was Zillah Genesis It is fitting that polygamy originated with the godless descendants of Cain. As with all the other instances of polygamy in the Old Testament, the practice is recorded, but not condemned. In fact, we find no direct prohibition to polygamy.
Reasons Polygamy Was Practiced The practice of a man marrying more than one wife was common in the ancient world. There are a number of reasons why this was so. They include the following: 1. There were more females than males. There was a desire to increase the wealth of the household. A large number of children was needed to work the fields or with the herds.
Many females died in childbirth. In nomadic communities it was important for every female to be attached to a household. God's Purpose God's original purpose as stated in the Garden of Eden is monogamy-one man should marry one woman. Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh Genesis However, once the Fall occurred the marital relationship suffered a change.
The man became the dominant member with the woman in a subordinate position. This led to various forms of exploitation including polygamy. Mosaic Law The Book of Deuteronomy seems to legislate polygamy as a current social practice. If a man has two wives, one loved and other unloved.
Deuteronomy Moses prescribed that a man had to treat the offspring of a disfavored wife equally with the son of a favored wife Deuteronomy This seems to demonstrate that the practice was widespread.
Against Original Purpose Though practiced, polygamy has always been against the original purpose of marriage that God ordained in the Garden of Eden. God specifically told the kings of Israel that they were not to multiply wives: Neither shall he multiply wives for himself, lest his heart turn away Deuteronomy Biblical Examples When the Bible records episodes of polygamy, unhappiness was always the result.
For example, the stories of Abraham, Jacob, David and Solomon show the problems that come with having more than one wife. Abraham And Hagar Abraham took Hagar as his wife after Sarah, his first wife, could not conceive children. This led to all sorts of problems for Abraham and his descendants through the promised line.
Jacob Jacob married two sisters-Leah and then Rachel. He then married Rachel's maid Bilhah followed by Leah's maid Zilpah.
And he shall not acquire many wives for himself, lest his heart turn away, nor shall he acquire for himself excessive silver and gold. Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh. Let deacons each be the husband of one wife, managing their children and their own households well. If anyone is above reproach, the husband of one wife, and his children are believers and not open to the charge of debauchery or insubordination.
So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate. And David took more concubines and wives from Jerusalem, after he came from Hebron, and more sons and daughters were born to David. If he takes another wife to himself, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, or her marital rights.
But to the sons of his concubines Abraham gave gifts, and while he was still living he sent them away from his son Isaac, eastward to the east country. And I gave you your master's house and your master's wives into your arms and gave you the house of Israel and of Judah. And if this were too little, I would add to you as much more. All Scripture is breathed out by God and profitable for teaching, for reproof, for correction, and for training in righteousness,. The saying is trustworthy: If anyone aspires to the office of overseer, he desires a noble task.
Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church? For a married woman is bound by law to her husband while he lives, but if her husband dies she is released from the law of marriage.
Accordingly, she will be called an adulteress if she lives with another man while her husband is alive. But if her husband dies, she is free from that law, and if she marries another man she is not an adulteress. My people—infants are their oppressors, and women rule over them.
O my people, your guides mislead you and they have swallowed up the course of your paths. Rehoboam loved Maacah the daughter of Absalom above all his wives and concubines he took eighteen wives and sixty concubines, and fathered twenty-eight sons and sixty daughters. So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. Because we are members of his body.
Wives, submit to your own husbands, as to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife even as Christ is the head of the church, his body, and is himself its Savior.
Now as the church submits to Christ, so also wives should submit in everything to their husbands. Husbands, love your wives, as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her, that he might sanctify her, having cleansed her by the washing of water with the word, Or do you not know that the unrighteous will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality,. But I say to you that everyone who divorces his wife, except on the ground of sexual immorality, makes her commit adultery, and whoever marries a divorced woman commits adultery.
She saw that for all the adulteries of that faithless one, Israel, I had sent her away with a decree of divorce. Yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear, but she too went and played the whore.
He who finds a wife finds a good thing and obtains favor from the Lord. These are the sons of David who were born to him in Hebron: the firstborn, Amnon, by Ahinoam the Jezreelite; the second, Daniel, by Abigail the Carmelite, the third, Absalom, whose mother was Maacah, the daughter of Talmai, king of Geshur; the fourth, Adonijah, whose mother was Haggith; the fifth, Shephatiah, by Abital; the sixth, Ithream, by his wife Eglah; six were born to him in Hebron, where he reigned for seven years and six months.
And he reigned thirty-three years in Jerusalem. For when Solomon was old his wives turned away his heart after other gods, and his heart was not wholly true to the Lord his God, as was the heart of David his father. He had wives, princesses, and concubines. And his wives turned away his heart. One from among your brothers you shall set as king over you.
You may not put a foreigner over you, who is not your brother. And you shall not take a woman as a rival wife to her sister, uncovering her nakedness while her sister is still alive. Be subject for the Lord's sake to every human institution, whether it be to the emperor as supreme,. However, let each one of you love his wife as himself, and let the wife see that she respects her husband.
Or do you not know that he who is joined to a prostitute becomes one body with her? For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him. A man had two sons. And I say to you: whoever divorces his wife, except for sexual immorality, and marries another, commits adultery. Although monogamy was clearly God's intent - Genesis , the picture blurs pretty quickly after Adam and Eve's Genesis 3 and expulsion from the Garden.
By Genesis 4, you have Cain's son Lamech taking two wives. Moses had two wives as well. The Mosaic Law likewise accommodated the practice of marrying more than one wife, including captured prisoners from foreign conquests Deuteronomy It also made provisions for continuing the family line by marrying a brother's wife if he died without producing heirs Deuteronomy And the stories keep coming: Gideon, one of Israel's champions, had many wives; Elkanah, a presumably godly man and the father of Samuel, had two wives.
The picture gets even dicier when one considers the practice of the kings of Israel. King David, the "man after God's own heart," had eight wives. I have given you your master's house and your master's wives into your bosom For the record, Solomon had wives and concubines. How does one respond to this situation? The answer begins by seeing that God always points His creation back to the primacy and perfection of the original design. Next, you have to read every book to the end -- especially if it is the biblical context.
And if you read the stories about the characters referenced above, you'll quickly find that polygamy was an unmitigated sociological disaster that created heartbreak and sowed familial discord. By the time of the writing of Malachi, God's command to a thoroughly chastised nation was clear: covenantal monogamy was to be the norm. Further, through the ministry of Jesus, we see God "reset the clock" so to speak to the original goodness of monogamous marital union -- pointing forward to a new society and a new way.
He also enacted new provisions to protect women and raise their standing in society. Jesus showed a world that had distorted the meaning of marriage back to the beauty of "the man being joined to his wife, and two will become one flesh. Plus Toggle navigation. Password Assistance.
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