And there was a certain man ..and his name was Elkanah, .an Ephrathite. And he had two wives,… 1Sam 1:1-2.
God is polygynous in His relationship with Israel; "I was a husband to THEM, says the Lord". Perhaps the Word has a mistake after all?
The God of the Baptists, the
Methodists and any other denomination we can name is polygynous. Watch
out for the falling stained glass windows; take cover friends. All those
who claim to be standing on the Word might need to rethink.
Such folk assume that God ordained monogamy, and only had one "marriage"
relationship as the Lord (husband) of Israel. This position exposes
terrible ignorance of the Word of God and is another example of the
lengths some Christians will go to to avoid facing the truth. Denying
God's Word is not an option.
God is not a monogamous God and the Scriptures plainly show He was
in a "marriage" relationship with two sisters and the consistency of
this figure is so often in the prophets that we are amazed it is ignored
or suppressed.
In Ezekiel 23 the Lord speaks of the divided kingdom of Israel as two
wives who had committed adultery.
Eze 23:1 The Word of Jehovah came again to me,
Eze 23:2 Son of man, there
were two women, the daughters of one mother.
Eze 23:3 And they fornicated in Egypt; they whored in their youth, their
breasts were handled, and there their virgin nipples were worked.
Eze 23:4 And their names were Oholah, the oldest, and Oholibah, her sister.
And they were Mine, and they bore sons and daughters. And
their names: Samaria is Oholah, and Jerusalem is Oholibah.
Eze 23:36-37 And Jehovah
said to me: Son of man, will you judge Oholah and Oholibah, and declare
to them their abominations, that they have committed
adultery,
These two sisters “were mine”, says the Lord and “they bore Him sons and
daughters”.
Notice THEY committed adultery, not God who was husband to both of them.
They turned away and broke their marriage vows, married people commit
adultery, not single people.
God does not hesitate to speak of having two wives which, though in a
figure, demonstrates that polygamy is not the grave sin as some avow
unless God uses the language of sin and in a figure embraces it. Does
God engage in wickedness? Of course not, but tradition calls polygyny
wickedness and in so doing are contrary to God, His Word and His
actions.
If polygamy is adultery as the traditions avow, then God is an adulterer
which is an abhorrent suggestion and it is tradition which needs to
re-examine its falsehood that polygamy is adultery.
If polygamy was adultery then any sons or daughters of one or both of
God's wives would have to be illegitimate according to tradition but of
course we have to acknowledge that the Saviour came through Judah, the
southern Kingdom; one of God's wives.
Let us note the consistency of the prophets in the matter of God's two
wives by reading Jeremiah;
Jer 3:1 They say, If
a man puts away his wife, and she goes from him and will be for another
man, will he return to her again? Would not that land be greatly
defiled? But you play the harlot with many lovers; yet come back to Me,
says Jehovah.
The Lord through the prophet is addressing the northern Kingdom of
Israel as this verse shows:
Jer 3:6 Jehovah also
said to me in the days of Josiah the king, Have you seen that which
backsliding Israel has done? She has gone up on every high
mountain and under every green tree, and has fornicated there.
Jer 3:7 And I
said after she had done all these things, Turn to Me! But she did not
return. And her treacherous sister Judah saw it.
As in Ezekiel, Jeremiah speaks of these two sisters as playing the
harlot against their husband, God.
Jer 3:8
And I saw, when for all the causes for which backsliding Israel
committed adultery, I sent her away and gave a bill of
divorce to her, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not
fear, but she went and whored, she
also.
Through
ignorance,
Christians, who call polygamy sin or adultery, implicate God in
wickedness. Did God permit Himself to act below His own high standards
here? Does God have a permissive will
for Himself?
Sin is that which falls short of the will of God, if polygamy is falling
short of God's "perfect" will, then tradition is unwittingly suggesting
God is a sinner, falling short of His own "perfect" will.
Misinformed missionaries in
polygynous cultures
demand
that men put away wives and all turn to monogamy. It is doubtful they
would demand the same of God who clearly said:
Jer 31:31
Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with
the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,
Jer 31:32
not according
to the covenant that I cut with their fathers in the day I took them by
the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which covenant of Mine
they broke, although I was a husband
to them, says Jehovah;
How plain can it be, God says He was "a
husband to THEM". Them means more than one.
The Lord was not a husband
to "their fathers" since that would make God a homosexual or homoerotic.
No, the Lord was a husband to the two sisters as he declared in Ez.23;
the house of Israel and the house of Judah;
Jer 31:31
Behold, the days come, says Jehovah, that I will cut a new covenant with
the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah,
The New Covenant passage is addressed to the two (figurative) sister
wives of God.
God did not engage in wickedness because he applied the "permissive will" to Himself. If polygyny was wickedness God would not have stooped to embrace it even figuratively. The fact that God had two wives in a figure certainly would shock the foundations of the local "born again" assemblies most of whom claim to be New Covenant Christians.
If you
as a Christian feel some sense of betrayal by those you trusted to teach
you accurately, then we understand. But every day is an opportunity for
each of us to rightly divide the Word of Truth
and avoid shame in that Day.
God is not a monogamous God, our God has two wives in His relationship
with the two kingdoms of Israel.
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