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The reader
should read Genesis 38 and note the genealogy of our Lord Christ in
Matthew 1:3 and Luke 3:33.
The claim polygyny was the "permissive" will of God has to be rejected
for what it is, another feeble attempt to refute that which the Lord has
never refuted or condemned. In this story of Judah, we find Judah
acknowledging the righteousness of his daughter in law.
Judah should have provided her another son to raise up seed to his
brother Er;
Gen 38:8
And Judah said to Onan, Go in to your brother's wife, and marry her, and
raise up seed to your brother.
Onan failed and was killed by the Lord and Judah asked Tamar to return
to her father's house until Judah's third son, Shelah, was old enough to
raise up seed to his brother, Er. Please note this did not exclude
Shelah from having his own wife and family heir. A brother who took his
brother's wife was not excluded from having his own family. Remember,
the brother's role was to raise up seed for his dead brother, so the
child born would take the dead brother's inheritance, not his natural
father's inheritance.
Eventually Tamar understood her father in law had not provided Shelah
and was coming to town. She played the harlot to receive what was
rightfully hers and Judah fathered twins. Judah had to acknowledge that
he had failed to provide his son;
Gen 38:26
And Judah acknowledged them, and said, She has been more righteous than
I have, because I did not give her to my son Shelah. And he never knew
her again.
This incident is before the Law but later in the Law God confirmed and
embedded levirate polygyny. Polygyny is the means whereby lost
inheritance, lost through death and debt, is restored by the kinsman
redeemer.
Polygamy is part of the redemption picture. The "seed of the woman" came
through a Gentile woman who was assured of a husband by the command of
polygamy. Polygyny is not "permitted", it is commanded and our Lord
descended through polygamous families.
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