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Thursday, January 13, 2011

Polygamy

God institued marriage in Genesis 2:24 as one man and one woman, and in the New Testament Jesus restates the same. But so many of God's Old Testament people do not follow this arrangement. Instead they follow the culture of the time and take multiple wives. You wonder why Scripture doesn't say God was not pleased with this. Maybe it doesn't have to. Maybe the stories, like today's, speak for themselves about the dysfunction caused by breaking out of the order God has set in place.
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4 comments:

  1. Carla MartinJanuary 14, 2011 at 7:58 AM

    I have been wondering that very same thing throughout my readings! On an unrelated note, I have really been enjoying reading the Bible this way. I enjoy the narratives before each reading and it is so easy to get this small amount of reading in each day. Just a really great way to read the Bible!

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  2. Kristi MeyerJanuary 14, 2011 at 9:02 AM

    I've also wondered the same thing. Someone told me once that silence is not the same as acceptance. As Adam pointed out, it also helps to look at the consequences and dysfunction caused by polygamy. I still wish God would always lay it out in black and white, though!

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  3. Bob LooseJanuary 14, 2011 at 11:24 PM

    God does not stop man from doing stupid things. We have free will. I think of Israel wanting a king just because everyone else had one. How did Saul work out?

    Another example was easy divorce in the Old Testament. Matthew 19:7-8 talks about this.

    “Why then,” they asked, “did Moses command that a man give his wife a certificate of divorce and send her away?” Jesus replied, “Moses permitted you to divorce your wives because your hearts were hard. But it was not this way from the beginning.

    Applying this same line of thinking to polygamy, we know that monogomy was the the way it was in the beginning. God permitted polygamy because man's hearts were hard. They would have always coveted other societies and whined to God, like they did about kings. God "gave in" and let them face the consequenses of their actions.

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  4. Adam GoedeJanuary 15, 2011 at 2:43 PM

    One thing that challenges me about the polygamy is my understanding of sin is that if you embrace it (go against your conscience), it separates you from God. If you continually embrace it you risk losing your faith. So I'm trying to understand how they felt when they married multiple wives. Was there guilt in the back of their minds? And as they proceeded didn't it numb them to God's will? It seems more like the guilt wasn't even there; this was just something normal.

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