I will argue otherwise. Polygamy was never the biblical design in the bible. There never existed an express biblical permission for such a deviation from the ordinance of God made at the institution of marriage in the Garden of Eden (Gen 2:21–24).
There are at least four passages that conceivably could be construed as giving temporary permission from God to override the general law of marriage found in Genesis 2:24. They are Exodus 21:7–11, Leviticus 18:18, Deuteronomy 21:15–17 and 2 Samuel 12:7–8. But each one falls far short of proving that anything like divine permission was being granted in these passages.
Scripture does not always pause to state the obvious. In many cases there is no need for the reader to imagine what God thinks of such states of affairs, for the misfortune and strife that come into the domestic lives of these polygamists cannot be read as a sign of divine approval.
For example, it is true that Jacob was deceived by Laban on Jacob’s wedding night but that did not justify Jacob in agreeing to Laban’s crafty plan to get him to stay around for another seven years to ensure continued prosperity. Two wrongs in this case did not make a right.
In ancient Israel, monogamy (not polygamy) was the common form of marriage in Israel apart from kings. Samuel and Kings do not record a single instance of polygamy among commoners except that of Samuel’s father.
What we find in scripture is that polygamy was allowed by God for the same reason as divorce, namely as a temporary concession to human weakness and sinfulness
before the coming of Christ (see J. Murray '
Principles of Conduct').
The New Testament leaves no room for it. Paul’s parallel between the mystical union of Christ and his church and the union of man and wife ‘in the Lord’ is altogether appropriate (Eph. 5:24–33) and converted pagans who previously engaged in the practice are barred from church leadership entirely.
We say this because of our cultural foundations, not religious foundations. There's nothing against it in the scriptures.
Culturally, it's "weird" to Westerners like us because most of us can't comprehend the mindset, so we just write it off as "wrong" spiritually. Eating bugs is weird as well (but also practiced in the Bible and still today).
We can use our spiritual beliefs as a scapegoat for our cultural beliefs and say that God made marriage for one man and one woman, but the scriptures seem to say otherwise, at least for me.
I know my opinion isn't a popular one, but I have yet to see it disputed with the meat and potatoes of scriptural truth.