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Why did men have more than one wife in OT times


HisFirst

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I have it :happyhappy:  they were Sadomasochists

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55 minutes ago, *Deidre* said:

But, it wasn't a mandate by God...I think that it was purely cultural. Just like in the US, polygamy is illegal. It's cultural. If you are a Muslim and live in the middle east, polygamy is not seen as adultery, and it is legal. 

True, there is no mandate, but there is no indication God considered one marriage less valid than the other.  In the story of Jacob, there is no sign from God that he considered the marriage to Leah any less valid than the one to Rachel.   So I do not think that one could claim that God views it as adultery. 

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Both Leah and Rachel were wives of Jacob.  So - as you say, that was not adultery.

However, Jacob hated Leah.  It says that twice in Genesis.  It was perfectly fine for him to love Rachel.  A person cannot help whom they love and whom they fall in love with.  So that was fine.  But his hatred of Leah was wrong.  And the pain she endured in having babies for him and him not even naming them and her hoping against hope that each time - the babies would cause him to love her - and it didn't, is one of the saddest things in the Bible.  She finally has to admit that her focus is going to be on the Lord and praising him.

We can surmise that Jacob only went to her tent because Rachel was barren.  I can't imagine what that was like for her - having sex with a husband who hates you - and is only there to impregnant you.  Knowing what marital relations mean to women, that must have been so degrading.  And the Bible says at least three times that she wanted him to love her so badly and truly thought those babies would make that happen.

That's the problem with polygamy.  It brings so much pain.

Take Hannah, Samuel's mother.  Her husband loved her far more than Peninah.  He made sacrifices for Hannah every year that he did not make for Peninah and her children.  Peninah felt what any woman would feel and there she was having all the babies for him and he held Hannah in his heart and not her and she made the wrong choice in how to deal with that.  She decided to persecute Hannah for it.  Hannah's husband tried to tell her it didn't matter, but he didn't understand the degree of verbal abuse Hannah was taking from Peninah nor how it was for women in those days who did not have children.

By the time Hannah gets to the tabernacle to pray, she is such an emotional wreck that the priest thinks she is drunk.

 

 

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2 hours ago, *Deidre* said:

But, it wasn't a mandate by God...I think that it was purely cultural. Just like in the US, polygamy is illegal. It's cultural. If you are a Muslim and live in the middle east, polygamy is not seen as adultery, and it is legal. 

A muslim doesnt know what God wants, only what their false god wants.

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3 hours ago, *Deidre* said:

If you are a Muslim and live in the middle east, polygamy is not seen as adultery, and it is legal. 

Bringing Muslims and Islam into the picture simply muddies the waters. And yes, God did not consider multiple wives in the OT as adultery, since they were all legal wives (but not according to God's perfect plan). But concubines were not wives. They were mistresses.

However, after the coming of Christ and the establishment of the New Covenant, God does NOT make allowance for polygamy. Mormon polygamy is completely out of line, and now the LDS church wants to distance itself from this practice.

Mormons, a nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, practiced polygamy in the early days of the church, but have not done so for more than 100 years. Polygamists who call themselves Mormons are not members of the LDS Church and anyone who is a member and begins to practice is excommunicated. This is not a time set aside for such practices.

http://mormonrules.com/list/do-mormons-practice-polygamy-today

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10 minutes ago, Ezra said:

Bringing Muslims and Islam into the picture simply muddies the waters. And yes, God did not consider multiple wives in the OT as adultery, since they were all legal wives (but not according to God's perfect plan). But concubines were not wives. They were mistresses.

However, after the coming of Christ and the establishment of the New Covenant, God does NOT make allowance for polygamy. Mormon polygamy is completely out of line, and now the LDS church wants to distance itself from this practice.

Mormons, a nickname for members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, practiced polygamy in the early days of the church, but have not done so for more than 100 years. Polygamists who call themselves Mormons are not members of the LDS Church and anyone who is a member and begins to practice is excommunicated. This is not a time set aside for such practices.

http://mormonrules.com/list/do-mormons-practice-polygamy-today

There are openly polygamous flds (fundamental lds) towns in arizona and utah. Ive been at them. No one stops them from following their religious practice. 

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To have more than one wife is wrong because if you have more than one wife you would be breaking the commandment. Because if you were married and your looking at another woman to marry that's lusting. If you can't be content with one wife it's just not right for you to be married. 

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22 hours ago, Out of the Shadows said:

True, there is no mandate, but there is no indication God considered one marriage less valid than the other.  In the story of Jacob, there is no sign from God that he considered the marriage to Leah any less valid than the one to Rachel.   So I do not think that one could claim that God views it as adultery. 

I agree, I read Biblical stories considering that culture, at that time. 

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7 hours ago, worthy said:

To have more than one wife is wrong because if you have more than one wife you would be breaking the commandment...

What commandment is that?

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1 minute ago, Davida said:

In the beginning God made a man and a woman, if HE intended it to be different He would have done so from the start. Adam and Eve disobeyed GOD and then sin entered into the world, when it did so did polygamy.

And yet still, there is no indication in the OT that God viewed it was adultery.  Was Jacob punished for it?  When King David had Uriah killed he alrady had many wives yet was not punished for those, but he was for his actions towards Uriah and Bathsheba.  

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