Why was it okay for Jacob to have two wives?

[Arthur Durnan]

Monogamy, not polygamy (the latter the heatbeat of Mormonism!) is God's rule for today. Man has always sought to disobey the Lord and to function only as he, man, sees fit. Travel to southern Utah, etc, and see the shameful results of an army of females locked in sinful embrace with one dictatorial male! Jesus was quite explicit in Matthew 19 about this issue. One man, one woman, for life. Those who practiced polygamy received the due reward of their deeds, the condemnation of Jehovah. Even today, our unregenerated world is one tragically sick place without the restraining & saving hand of the Son of God.

http://arthurdurnan.freeyellow.com

[BlindSeeker]

My understanding of why it was alright for the men in the OT to have more than one wife is because of what the relationship of a man and women represents.

God created humanity both male and female so they could

[Leonard]

In the Scriptures the only ones strictly enjoined to monogamy are Christian Bishops.

Still, WHY WOULD ANYONE WANT MORE THAN ONE MOTHER-IN-LAW????

[Mark777]

Butero,

I agree with you, now that I thought about it. I can only see problems with plural wives.

Mark

[Rachel72]

I feel more confused now. I don't feel like my question is being answered. Butero said that Jacob did not sin by having two wives. Did God make an exception so the earth would multiply faster? And, if so, why is it okay for God to make exceptions?

Nowhere have I read that said it was okay, I am just assuming it was a sin. Why the slave girls? Why the two wives?

Was God going thru a trial and error thing? I thought He was perfect. Am I reading too much into this? Should I just accept your answers as they are based on God's Word? I feel like I am being bad to God for asking these questions, as I am new to the Bible. I am not new to being a Christian, but I have never taken the Bible as an important part of daily living till now.

Thanks to all...I am overwhelmed at the responses, the short and long ones. Thank you for caring so much.

One more thing, I think what I am trying to get at is why are we doing things so different now, and the way we look at sin, than in the OT? Look at Sodom and Gomorrah? I bet 10000 times over, they could not match the sin in the world today. And, God has not destroyed our nation(s) yet. The people in the OT had the benefit of talking to God and hearing Him out loud or in their ear, but evident enough that they knew He was talking to them. Why can't that be happening now? More and more, I want to be with Jesus right now. Sometimes I get confused, and cannot figure out if He is talking to me or if it is my subconscious telling me He is. I long for Him to reveal Himself to me. I don't need to see Him to believe, I am just at a place in my life right now when I REALLY need Him.

What kind of mindset should I have when reading the OT? If this can be answered, I can feel better about everything I am so confused on.

Rachel72

Edited June 22, 2006 by Rachel72

[BlindSeeker]

I feel more confused now. I don't feel like my question is being answered. . .

Rachel72,

Did you read my post?

[Guest LadyC]

God never forbade the average man from having more than one wife. from the beginning, it was necessary to populate the earth. culturally during the days when levitican law was being established and so forth, it was necessary for the protection of widows and women who were otherwise unlikely candidates for marriage. a single woman was pretty much without means to support herself if she had no sons, and was left to either glean the fields for whatever she could manage to find, or to prostitution...

God didn't look down on men marrying more than one women, and in fact GAVE david all his wives with the exception of bathsheba.

i don't recall if it's scriptural or if it was just traditional, but men needed the agreement of a first wife before taking other wives. a widow who fell to the responsibility of her deceased husband's nearest kin to marry would pass her off to the next nearest kin should his first wife object.

however, there were certain biblical laws... to not take a sister as a RIVAL wife. traditionally, sisters were to be married in order of age. when jacob married leah, he was decieved into that marriage, but in accordance with tradition. this was a terrible thing to have happened, and certainly unfair. but jacob did take leah's sister rachel as a rival wife, which violated God's law. as a result, there was strife in his camp from that point forward, and rachel's barrenness for many years was a terrible heartache, and then her death further caused emotional distress. those were the consequences of his actions.

[Rachel72]

I feel more confused now. I don't feel like my question is being answered. . .

Rachel72,

Did you read my post?

Yes, I did. Thank you.

[Rachel72]

Ok, I went back to Blindseeker and reread his/her post, slowly. Sometimes I read too fast. Between the next replies from Lady C and Butero, I think I finally got it.

I feel like I should not think about this anymore, just let it be done with, or I will get more confused. I thank you for all the effort you put into your posts, each one of you. I am sure I will have more questions in the future. I don't have a learning disorder, but I have the weakness of scrutinizing everything under the looking glass. But, maybe that way, I will just come to accept some of the ways of the OT.

For Leonard, I saw the first part of Jacob being a scoundrel. It was when he met his brother after leaving Laban, telling Esau he was going to go with him to his land, and then veering onto a different path totally away from Esau.

Thanks everyone,

Rachel72

[irishcowboy]

biologically speaking,

one wife, one child a year,

two wives, two children a year,

three wives, three.....

filling the earth....

Jacob was dealt with as he dealt with people, he was tricked into marrying the first wife, the one he did not love, and then having to work again for the second wife, the one that he did love.

with both wives ( and two other women ) he had 12 children, which with out them, Joseph may not have ended up in Egypt, and the population of Israel would not have increased as it did to become a great nation.

as far as slaves, there were and are different kinds of slaves/servants, those aquired through the spoils of battle, those that have enslaved themselves through debt, those that have rented them selves out, and those that love their master so much they do not wish to leave after their time is up.

is slavery wrong? the Bible tells us how to treat slaves/servants. I do not need any, nor want any.

if a person has a job, they are a servant, and some jobs (supervisor/subordinate) relationship treatments are worse then that of slave / owner treatment...

most owners of the slaves were very kind to the slaves, it was the task masters that did the harm, for they were property of the owner, not of the task master, the taskmaster did not care about them, like the owner did....

like a car or truck, the owner cares about it more then the hired hand driving it, and sometimes the vehicle is totally abused by the driver that is not the owner....

anyways,

I have to agree with some, more then one wife could mean a very.....ummm...... big problem.....

even Jacob had this, there was bitterness between the women in the house(tent)hold and it even spilled over into the children, where there was problems there... there was compitition between the two wifes, and their hand maids, jealousy, anger, bitterness, lots of negative vibes, it is a wonder the tents even stayed up....

Solomon, he kept his wifes locked away... lol...

personally, one wife, the one i have, is the only one i will ever need....

mike