Jehovah said to Hosea, Go, take to yourself a wife of adultery and children of adultery. For the land has utterly gone lusting away from Jehovah. Hos 1:2.
In the
Old Testament the faithful were blessed by God in basket and store as
seen in Abraham and Isaac, (Gen.24:1,35,
26:12-14). Later, Moses
reminded the people that obedience brought such blessings, (Deut.28:2-4).
It is therefore a most wild and uniformed claim to say Jacob was a
backslider and at a low spiritual ebb when he received four wives from
his uncle Laban. God blessed both Jacob and Laban at the same time (Gen.12:1-3,
30:27, 43). If God blessed
Jacob in basket and store and Laban because he had “blessed” Jacob with
flocks and his two daughters, then Jacob was not a backslider, nor weak in faith.
Also note Isaac's blessing to Jacob (Gen.27:28-29).
Jacob
might have tricked his father into the blessing but the blessing stood
according to prophecy,(Gen.25:23)
and immediately after the blessing Isaac sent Jacob to Pdan-aram, (Gen.28:1-5,
7).
Not only so, but on the way to and from his uncle, Jehovah met Jacob and
gave him promises and blessings, hardly the act of God towards a
backslider and one weak of faith. On the way the Lord made promises in
this passage:
Gen 28:13-15
And, behold, I
am with you, and will keep you in every place where you go, and will
bring you again into this land. For I will not leave you until I have
done that which I have spoken of to you.
On the
return, Jacob was blessed and his name changed to Israel, “for like a
Prince you have power with God and with man you have prevailed” (Gen.32:24-28).
The polygamous supplanter called a Prince by God but a backslider &
weak in faith by those, who in ignorance, fear and feel threatened by polygamy.
