Is polygamy ok to God?
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We need to keep in mind that during the time of the OT and even some of the NT people were constantly at war and the war involved hand to hand combat, man against man, thousands of men could die in one day. Women did not fight though they were sometimes killed anyway, for the most part you would have the number of women far outnumbering the men, so it would not seem strange for a well to do man to have several wives. In our time we also have men die in war, however most of the time the number of men to women is close so there really is no need for any woman to have to share a man. One woman is really enough(maybe a little too much) for most men.
No. David repented and Solomon died and went to hell (Ge 2:24).
Solomon wrote the book of Ecclesiastes.
Ecc 1:1 The words of the Preacher, the son of David, king in Jerusalem.
Ecc 1:2 Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher, vanity of vanities; all is vanity.
Ecc 1:3 What profit hath a man of all his labour which he taketh under the sun?
Ecc 1:12 I the Preacher was king over Israel in Jerusalem.
Ecc 1:13 And I gave my heart to seek and search out by wisdom concerning all things that are done under heaven: this sore travail hath God given to the sons of man to be exercised therewith.
Ecc 1:14 I have seen all the works that are done under the sun; and, behold, all is vanity and vexation of spirit.
Ecc 1:15 That which is crooked cannot be made straight: and that which is wanting cannot be numbered.
Ecc 1:16 I communed with mine own heart, saying, Lo, I am come to great estate, and have gotten more wisdom than all they that have been before me in Jerusalem: yea, my heart had great experience of wisdom and knowledge.
Ecc 1:17 And I gave my heart to know wisdom, and to know madness and folly: I perceived that this also is vexation of spirit.
Ecc 1:18 For in much wisdom is much grief: and he that increaseth knowledge increaseth sorrow.
Ecc 2:1 I said in mine heart, Go to now, I will prove thee with mirth, therefore enjoy pleasure: and, behold, this also is vanity.
Ecc 2:2 I said of laughter, It is mad: and of mirth, What doeth it?
Ecc 2:3 I sought in mine heart to give myself unto wine, yet acquainting mine heart with wisdom; and to lay hold on folly, till I might see what was that good for the sons of men, which they should do under the heaven all the days of their life.
Ecc 2:4 I made me great works; I builded me houses; I planted me vineyards:
Ecc 2:5 I made me gardens and orchards, and I planted trees in them of all kind of fruits:
Ecc 2:6 I made me pools of water, to water therewith the wood that bringeth forth trees:
Ecc 2:7 I got me servants and maidens, and had servants born in my house; also I had great possessions of great and small cattle above all that were in Jerusalem before me:
Ecc 2:8 I gathered me also silver and gold, and the peculiar treasure of kings and of the provinces: I gat me men singers and women singers, and the delights of the sons of men, as musical instruments, and that of all sorts.
Ecc 2:9 So I was great, and increased more than all that were before me in Jerusalem: also my wisdom remained with me.
Ecc 2:10 And whatsoever mine eyes desired I kept not from them, I withheld not my heart from any joy; for my heart rejoiced in all my labour: and this was my portion of all my labour.
Ecc 2:11 Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.
Ecc 2:12 And I turned myself to behold wisdom, and madness, and folly: for what can the man do that cometh after the king? even that which hath been already done.
Ecc 2:13 Then I saw that wisdom excelleth folly, as far as light excelleth darkness.
Ecc 3:14 I know that, whatsoever God doeth, it shall be for ever: nothing can be put to it, nor any thing taken from it: and God doeth it, that men should fear before him.
Ecc 3:15 That which hath been is now; and that which is to be hath already been; and God requireth that which is past.
Ecc 3:16 And moreover I saw under the sun the place of judgment, that wickedness was there; and the place of righteousness, that iniquity was there.
Ecc 3:17 I said in mine heart, God shall judge the righteous and the wicked: for there is a time there for every purpose and for every work.
Ecc 12:9 And moreover, because the preacher was wise, he still taught the people knowledge; yea, he gave good heed, and sought out, and set in order many proverbs.
Ecc 12:10 The preacher sought to find out acceptable words: and that which was written was upright, even words of truth.
Ecc 12:11 The words of the wise are as goads, and as nails fastened by the masters of assemblies, which are given from one shepherd.
Ecc 12:12 And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many books there is no end; and much study is a weariness of the flesh.
Ecc 12:13 Let us hear the conclusion of the whole matter: Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14 For God shall bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing, whether it be good, or whether it be evil.
Solomon applied himself to enjoy the best of life,along with many women,but said it is all vanity,and vexation of spirit,and no profit under the sun,and came to his senses,and gave it all up,and said,out of all we do on earth the only profit is to fear God,and keep his commandments,for that is the whole duty of man,for God will judge everyone according to their works,whether they be good or bad.
Solomon repented of all his folly,and wrongful ways,and followed God after that point,realizing that is the only profit.
Solomon repented,for what good is he for a witness to not do those things he did,but only follow God,if he did not repent,and even wrote a book concerning his folly,and that he said it is without profit,but only follow God.
This is a true saying, if a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.
A bishop then must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach . . .
(1 Timothy 1:2)
well if a person with charge to oversee the church must be the husband of only one wife, i think we can at least agree on whether polygamy is good or not, and what more do we really need to know? knowing what is written here, now it is clear that arguing for it is arguing against something good, so . . .
Oh boy, well, I know my post isn't going to be popular in here.
Okay, so I think there is a better question to ask: is polygamy (rather, in the Biblical case, polygyny) sinful in of itself? Well, shouldn't we look at what God has said and what He has (and I'm going to argue what He has NOT) done about it? Isn't that the simple and fastest way to find out? Isn't focusing on our own opinions, our cultural taboos a distraction from the whole point? If we have already made our minds up about this then there can be no true discussion.
After reading through the Old Testament I found it very difficult to reconcile the preconceived view I had been given that essentially stated that polygyny was exclusively for weirdos, tyrants and exceedingly sinful men when the Law of Moses makes provision for this very thing (Exodus 21:10, Deuteronomy 21:15, 25:5-6), and especially how multiple men of God were married to more than one woman simultaneously without conviction. I personally could and can no longer hold the view of polygyny being inherently sinful without my confidence in God's righteous character being weakened in my sight, stemming from the sheer cognitive dissonance I experience from it.
Polygyny was indeed common and accepted in many Near East cultures. But so were many other things that God declared to be an abomination and forbade the Israelites from doing, but strangely the idea of a man marrying more than one woman was not among them if we are to make the argument that God, in all His holiness, "allowed" this supposed sin to be practiced amongst the Israelites and have the land defiled once again. How is that possible? How many times did the Lord emphasise that He did not want Israel to sin like the nations He was displacing? God is either 100% perfect, holy, just and righteous, or He is not. If it is a sin and I am sure we all agree that God is just then somehow we must do mental gymnastics in order to say to ourselves that God had some sort of reason for tolerating and even encouraging (2 Samuel 12 8-9) this sin. I say perish the thought!
In an effort to find Biblical support for the idea of polygyny being sinful, people often refer to Deuteronomy 17. Let's take a look at the specific context:
"When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,' you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself."
The first thing to be noted is that this is clearly a prophecy that we know came to pass with a certain king Solomon. On the subject of the king taking wives, God prohibits kings of Israel from "multiplying" wives as they would turn away that king's heart from the Lord. If God had an opportunity of calling polygyny an abomination just as He declared incest and homosexuality abominations, then surely this would be it, right? Well He doesn't, the Lord is concerned about the heart of the king who is supposed to serve Him alone. But we can say "but multiplying wives is clearly prohibited, therefore a man marrying more than one woman is wrong". Is that really true, though? Let's take a look at the Hebrew word râbâh, translated into English as "multiply". According to Strong's definition, râbâh isn't defined necessarily as meaning more than one at all, but making an "abundance" or creating "excess". If we are even to ignore this, then we would have to entertain the thought that a king of Israel was only allowed one horse.
But what of Solomon's father, David, who also married multiple women? How was his walk with God compared to his son? What does the Spirit of God write of him?
1 Kings 15:3
He (Abijam) walked in all of the sins of his father (Jeroboam) which he had committed before him; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, like the heart of his father David.
1 Kings 15:5
Because David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Urriah the Hittite.
David was never called out by God for his polygynous life. No, he is the most esteemed king Israel had ever had/has outside of Jesus. Several of his wives were not even his originally, but Saul's, and God even gave them to David. Did David's heart turn away from faithfulness to God by being married to multiple women? We absolutely cannot make that assertion. God would not have given Saul's wives to David if He knew David would run the risk of his heart being led astray. Solomon's biggest downfall was loving women outside of the nation, to women who served other gods. It's wrong to equate Solomon's folly with David in any way.
As far as I see it, to believe that polygyny is sinful, we open ourselves to an abundance of problems both within ourselves and in the presence of unbelievers. With these things said, I must mention that I in no way personally promote nor support polygyny, nor do I even like the idea at all. I am of the persuasion that it should not be practiced, especially amongst believers, and not because I believe it is inherently sinful, but because I am of the opinion that it is not helpful to the service to Christ in the Church age that we live in. Clearly Paul in his first letter to Timothy commanded in the Spirit that a man who wishes to take up ministry in the church to have only one wife, if he is to be married at all.
I abhor Mormonism (but not Mormons), Islam (but not Muslims) and other strange and weird religions and cults that practice polygyny. But if we try to argue against Muslims and atheists who say there is much sanctioned polygyny in the Bible and that it is hypocritical to criticise Mormonism and Islam for it, well, I'd have to agree with them. We would open ourselves up to ridicule, and even our God whom we rightly esteem as holy would be mocked. I don't want that to happen, and saying this as a fellow Westerner who finds the concept of polygyny downright alien from a cultural point of view, I cannot let my Western cultural background nor my personal opinion dictate what is inherently sinful and what is not, that's God's job, and He is more than clear in this respect.
Okay, so I think there is a better question to ask: is polygamy (rather, in the Biblical case, polygyny) sinful in of itself? Well, shouldn't we look at what God has said and what He has (and I'm going to argue what He has NOT) done about it? Isn't that the simple and fastest way to find out? Isn't focusing on our own opinions, our cultural taboos a distraction from the whole point? If we have already made our minds up about this then there can be no true discussion.
After reading through the Old Testament I found it very difficult to reconcile the preconceived view I had been given that essentially stated that polygyny was exclusively for weirdos, tyrants and exceedingly sinful men when the Law of Moses makes provision for this very thing (Exodus 21:10, Deuteronomy 21:15, 25:5-6), and especially how multiple men of God were married to more than one woman simultaneously without conviction. I personally could and can no longer hold the view of polygyny being inherently sinful without my confidence in God's righteous character being weakened in my sight, stemming from the sheer cognitive dissonance I experience from it.
Polygyny was indeed common and accepted in many Near East cultures. But so were many other things that God declared to be an abomination and forbade the Israelites from doing, but strangely the idea of a man marrying more than one woman was not among them if we are to make the argument that God, in all His holiness, "allowed" this supposed sin to be practiced amongst the Israelites and have the land defiled once again. How is that possible? How many times did the Lord emphasise that He did not want Israel to sin like the nations He was displacing? God is either 100% perfect, holy, just and righteous, or He is not. If it is a sin and I am sure we all agree that God is just then somehow we must do mental gymnastics in order to say to ourselves that God had some sort of reason for tolerating and even encouraging (2 Samuel 12 8-9) this sin. I say perish the thought!
In an effort to find Biblical support for the idea of polygyny being sinful, people often refer to Deuteronomy 17. Let's take a look at the specific context:
"When you enter the land which the LORD your God gives you, and you possess it and live in it, and you say, 'I will set a king over me like all the nations around me,' you shall surely set a king over you whom the LORD your God chooses, one from among your countrymen you shall set as king over yourselves; you may not put a foreigner over yourselves who is not your countryman. Moreover, he shall not multiply horses for himself, nor shall he cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses, since the Lord has said to you, 'You shall never again return that way.' He shall not multiply wives for himself, or else his heart will turn away; nor shall he greatly increase silver and gold for himself."
The first thing to be noted is that this is clearly a prophecy that we know came to pass with a certain king Solomon. On the subject of the king taking wives, God prohibits kings of Israel from "multiplying" wives as they would turn away that king's heart from the Lord. If God had an opportunity of calling polygyny an abomination just as He declared incest and homosexuality abominations, then surely this would be it, right? Well He doesn't, the Lord is concerned about the heart of the king who is supposed to serve Him alone. But we can say "but multiplying wives is clearly prohibited, therefore a man marrying more than one woman is wrong". Is that really true, though? Let's take a look at the Hebrew word râbâh, translated into English as "multiply". According to Strong's definition, râbâh isn't defined necessarily as meaning more than one at all, but making an "abundance" or creating "excess". If we are even to ignore this, then we would have to entertain the thought that a king of Israel was only allowed one horse.
But what of Solomon's father, David, who also married multiple women? How was his walk with God compared to his son? What does the Spirit of God write of him?
1 Kings 15:3
He (Abijam) walked in all of the sins of his father (Jeroboam) which he had committed before him; and his heart was not wholly devoted to the LORD his God, like the heart of his father David.
1 Kings 15:5
Because David did what was right in the sight of the LORD, and had not turned aside from anything that He commanded him all the days of his life, except in the case of Urriah the Hittite.
David was never called out by God for his polygynous life. No, he is the most esteemed king Israel had ever had/has outside of Jesus. Several of his wives were not even his originally, but Saul's, and God even gave them to David. Did David's heart turn away from faithfulness to God by being married to multiple women? We absolutely cannot make that assertion. God would not have given Saul's wives to David if He knew David would run the risk of his heart being led astray. Solomon's biggest downfall was loving women outside of the nation, to women who served other gods. It's wrong to equate Solomon's folly with David in any way.
As far as I see it, to believe that polygyny is sinful, we open ourselves to an abundance of problems both within ourselves and in the presence of unbelievers. With these things said, I must mention that I in no way personally promote nor support polygyny, nor do I even like the idea at all. I am of the persuasion that it should not be practiced, especially amongst believers, and not because I believe it is inherently sinful, but because I am of the opinion that it is not helpful to the service to Christ in the Church age that we live in. Clearly Paul in his first letter to Timothy commanded in the Spirit that a man who wishes to take up ministry in the church to have only one wife, if he is to be married at all.
I abhor Mormonism (but not Mormons), Islam (but not Muslims) and other strange and weird religions and cults that practice polygyny. But if we try to argue against Muslims and atheists who say there is much sanctioned polygyny in the Bible and that it is hypocritical to criticise Mormonism and Islam for it, well, I'd have to agree with them. We would open ourselves up to ridicule, and even our God whom we rightly esteem as holy would be mocked. I don't want that to happen, and saying this as a fellow Westerner who finds the concept of polygyny downright alien from a cultural point of view, I cannot let my Western cultural background nor my personal opinion dictate what is inherently sinful and what is not, that's God's job, and He is more than clear in this respect.
Hi redeemed
I can see You could write a whole book about it Hahaha
I find it interesting. Maybe the bible doesn't explicitly says that polygamy is a sin.
But we should consider 1°Cor 6:12 and 10:23
For example smoking one single cigarette it's not forbidden either but it might be not good for people, because of the consequences that doing do could bring to your life, so we avoid smoking.
If you look at all the problems and suffering that polygamy brought to the people you mentioned, anyone would get to the conclusion that polygamy is not good either.
I can see You could write a whole book about it Hahaha
I find it interesting. Maybe the bible doesn't explicitly says that polygamy is a sin.
But we should consider 1°Cor 6:12 and 10:23
For example smoking one single cigarette it's not forbidden either but it might be not good for people, because of the consequences that doing do could bring to your life, so we avoid smoking.
If you look at all the problems and suffering that polygamy brought to the people you mentioned, anyone would get to the conclusion that polygamy is not good either.