Polygamy
Ecclesiastes 7:25-29, "With all my heart I turned my mind to know, to investigate, and to come to a wise conclusion and an explanation of things, to know that wickedness is foolishness and that folly is madness. And I found more bitter than death the woman whose heart is snares and nets, and whose hands are chains: whoever pleases God will escapes her; but the sinner will be taken by her."
"Behold, I have discovered this, says the Preacher; step by step I searched to find an explanation. What my heart sought continually, I have not found. One man among a thousand I have found; but a woman among all those [in my harem] I have not found. This alone have I found, that God made man upright; but each has sought out many inventions to follow his own downward path".
Now Solomon was a man who certainly knew this subject. This king is reputed to have had one thousand wives, and he was married to each of them at the same time.
Solomon was originally bright, keen-witted, and wise, yet in his old age, he went to pieces by the wiles of the women with whom he had filled his harem. He bankrupted his nation, partly by the extravagance of his polygamous life, and partly in his attempt to build temples in distant places to serve the religions of his many wives (I Kings 11:1-43).
Biblical Polygamy is in reality "POLYGYNY"—a many-wived man. Its corollary "POLYANDRY" describes the condition of a woman who has many men as husband with herself. But the latter was from ancient time known among all peoples as adultery.
Polygamy, or correctly, polygyny, was permitted after the human race fell from the Covenant God had established with Adam. As father and representative of his whole race he received a law as recently as he had received a nature for himself and his seed.
Genesis 2:16-17, "And the Lord God commanded the man, saying, "Of every tree of the Garden you may freely eat: but of the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil, you shalt not eat of it: for in the day that you eat thereof you shall surely die."
On the one side was God, and on the other was Adam who represented the whole human race in his own person. The word covenant means to bind in solemn mutual agreement an obligation voluntarily assumed and not imposed—but binding by an oath with a curse upon disregard of the agreement.
Amongst men the covenant was primarily a blood-brotherhood in which two men became brothers by drinking each other's blood. It made them kinsmen and gave them life-fellowship. We see the same idea in Moses sprinkling the blood of the covenant upon the vessels and upon the people (Exodus 24:1-8), and in the Lord's Supper where the wine represents the blood of Christ (Matthew 26:28-29). And Christians are the blood of Christ by the baptism of the Holy Ghost, for the life is in the blood—(Christ is the Mystery of God Revealed, p. 63:1).
In the case of the Covenant between God and man, God being the superior, always takes the initiative with the promises conditional on human obedience. Signs and pledges on God's part, and promises for human obedience and penalties for disobedience.
There was NO sin in the beginning. "God saw everything that He had made, and behold, it was VERY GOOD" (Genesis 1:31). On the seventh day, God FORMED (Heb. 'yatsar' or squeezed into shape) Adam, placed him in the paradise of Eden, and made a solemn Covenant with him. Next, Adam named the animals, as God 'squeezed them into shape.' But after all of the creatures had been formed, two by two, male and female, although God had declared "It is NOT GOOD that the man should be alone," there was still no suitable helper for man. Yet creation was FINISHED. So God put Adam to sleep and took from his side a rib from which he made (Heb. 'banah' extended or re-built) the woman.
Unlike Adam and the rest of God's creatures, woman is not a spoken Word of God. She was not in the original creation but is a by-product taken from man. In the rest of nature the male is the most beautiful; but in the human race it is the woman who is beautiful and the man plain. Other than woman no female animal can be immoral. Animals have sex only for reproduction. But woman is designed for sex any time she desires. She is designed so she can deceive and be deceived. God placed her on free moral agency so she can be the most exalted creation co-ruling throughout eternity with Jesus Christ as His Bride. Or she can be the great Harlot and her protestant daughters and cast into the Lake of Fire.
God is looking for the inner beauty of character reflecting Himself. Thus man is made in the image of God to reflect His glory, while woman is of and created for the man as his glory. A woman is to reflect her husband's character, hence she is to learn from, not instruct him; to be submissive, not authoritative. Do you see the perfect type of Christ and His Bride? Saint Paul saw it clearly (Ephesians 5:22-33).
Satan knew there was no way he could deceive Adam, because he was the son of God. His only son made in His image. As the manifested Word of God Adam could not be deceived on the Word of God, "but the woman being deceived was in the transgression" (I Timothy 2:14). Eve was deceived by pride and lust for forbidden knowledge from the Tree "full of wisdom and perfect in beauty" standing beside Christ the Tree of Life in the Garden of Eden. She saw herself independently initiating God's command to "be fruitful, and multiply, and fill the earth," teaching Adam the Devil's wisdom and giving birth to Jesus, "the beginning of the creation of God." Eve brought forth DEATH by Satan's wisdom, not Life by God's Word.
Satan has been working on woman for six thousand years. He was busy at the 1995 Beijing Conference on Women's Empowerment and Gender Equality, each of those women was an unregenerate sinner for Amos the prophet said, "How can two meet together except they be agreed on the Word." That Scripture proves the UN is not of God and without knowing the parties behind the Conference, it's Charter is nothing but stage two of the plan for world socialism presented at the Communist Internationale and Joseph Stalin's 1936 Constitution for Soviet Russia—which are contrary to God's Word.
One woman can send more souls to hell by lust and unclean living than all the pubs in the country. God has placed her on the basis of free moral agency, and like the natural woman the spiritual woman, the church is given a sacred trust—to bring forth life. It's her choice whether she realizes or falls short of God's exalted plan for her.
God's Covenant with Adam was one of obedience by works, which was possible so long as man was in harmony with the mind of God. However, at the fall, Adam surrendered man's dominion over the earth to Satan who became the god of this evil age. Every child born of woman is born to die, born with the nature of this world and a desire for the things of this world which is now ruled by Satan and contrary to God.
After the fall, God introduced polygamy in both man and beast. Speaking on the matter of divorce, Jesus told the Pharisees, "From the beginning it was NOT so" (Matthew 19:7-8). Now there's one covenant for the man, and one for the woman. He is to care and provide for her by the sweat of his brow and she is to serve and obey him who is now to be her ruler.
Romans 5:12, "Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death is the result of sin; and so death passed upon all men; none being able to avoid it because all have sinned".
Sin entered the world by the action of one man who redeemed his wife Eve who should have been burnt as the Law says along with the evil monster in her womb (Leviticus 21:9; Psalm 119:89). Taking her quickly to himself Adam did not put an end to sin, he entered time and mortality, forfeited his dominion and ours to Satan, and death spread to all creatures.
Let's read I Corinthians 15:21-22, "For since by a man came death, by a man came also the resurrection of the dead. For through our natural union in Adam all die, even so through our Spiritual union in Christ, or new birth, shall the elect be made alive".
All of Adam's seed must die like Adam died because we were all were in Adam and limited by his nature. Likewise all of Christ's Seed died in Jesus on Calvary because He was the Fullness of the Word (or Logos) manifest in flesh, and the members of His Bride are attributes of the Word. We were judged in Christ on Calvary and after He died we left His side in the form of the Holy Ghost from which the Church is made. When God pronounced Jesus innocent, we were acquitted and He was raised for our justification (Romans 4:25). We have paid for our sins in Christ on Calvary; there can be no double jeopardy (Romans 6:23). Therefore we are His sinless, blood-washed Bride and can never come to condemnation, "for it is given to a man once to die and then the judgment" (Hebrews 9:27). We now seated in heavenly places, elect, precious, predestinated. "Who can lay anything to the charge of God's elect" (Romans 8:33)?
Romans 5:13, "Before the Law or Covenant with Israel, sin was in the world: but sin is not imputed when there is no Law." Because where there is no Law or Covenant, there can be no penalty for breach of a Covenant which does not exist (Romans 4:15).
Romans 5:14, "Nevertheless death reigned from Adam to Moses [the Lawgiver], even over them that had not personally transgressed a Covenant or Law of God as Adam did [when as a type of Christ, he bore Eve's sin upon his own shoulders and paid its awful penalty that she might be saved when God redeemed him]. He was the figure of Him that was to come".
Adam was a type of Christ. But whereas Adam's self-sacrifice brought DEATH upon all creation, Christ's sacrifice brought LIFE.
Adam did NOT sin. "He that is born of God cannot sin" (I John 3:9). Taking Eve unto himself, he took her responsibility and caused the whole world to come under sin's curse—death when he crossed the time-line and the Life-line to redeem his wife. How could Adam fall when he was in God's image?
Eve sinned when she broke God's covenant of works by UNBELIEF in His Word. Adam did NOT sin (or disbelieve the Word) and broke the Covenant by faith. He knew He was a Son of God and could no more be lost than God could be lost, and therefore God MUST redeem Him. If he joined Eve in time, God would redeem her to eternity with him. By the marriage union, the two were one flesh. However Adam took the "permissive," and not the perfect will of God.
Eve, and later Adam, crossed over the Word into time in conjunction with a sexual experience. Eve through adultery, Adam through compassion for his wife. Whereas prior to the knowledge Eve received from the incarnate Serpent they were naked and were not ashamed. Now they were conscious of the physiological difference and functions of their bodies, they were ashamed of their nakedness, and knew they had fallen short of the glory and Covenant of God.
When they transgressed the Covenant and lost their innocence through carnal knowledge, Adam forfeited his dominion to Satan; not until after the judgment will the heavens and earth be renewed. By Satan's knowledge women will bear children in pain and sorrow, and by lust instead of the Word of God and faith. We are born Spiritually dead, shaped in sin and conceived in iniquity, the nature of the world of which we are a part rules the desires of our mortal spirit and flesh. If God can get us to sit still long enough under the revealed Word for OUR day, He will even quicken our soul in a second birth.
Outside union with the spirit we tend to serve our carnal senses so God introduced the polygamy law for males. "If they cannot contain their passions, and to avoid fornication, it is better for the unmarried and widows to marry than to burn with lust," (I Corinthians 7:2, 9). This is not speaking of polygamy, it shows why God permitted men to have many wives under the Old Covenant. Their unregenerate souls could not always bring their body and spirit subject. But no woman could have more than one living husband.
Some without a knowledge of the Bible or understanding by the Spirit may flush with moral outrage at the thought of God introducing polygamy in all nature following the Fall. So let's repair to His unchanging Word as our authority, rather than self-righteous indignation.
Abraham's father Terah had two wives. Abraham married his half sister. And the law forbidding woman from more than one living husband was universal for when Abimalech, found that Sarah was Abraham's wife as well as his sister he knew he must not marry her. The father of faith, had several concubines (Genesis 25:6; I Chronicles 1:32), and Jacob bore the Patriarchs by his two wives Rachel and Leah, and their concubines Bilhah and Zilah.
Judge Gideon's many wives and his concubine bore him over seventy sons, and presumably many daughters (Judges 8:30-31). A certain Levite had a concubine (Judges 20:10). Elkanah, the father of Samuel the prophet had two wives (I Samuel 1:1-2); Saul had a concubine (II Samuel 3:7), David, a man after God's Own heart had five hundred wives, and Solomon, a type of Christ, had 1,000 wives. How about you?
Paul taught that the Law and the history in the Old Testament were shadows and types of things to come under the New Testament, and the natural types the Spiritual. So natural polygamy before Pentecost established a pattern for the Spiritual Marriage Union between Christ and His many-membered Bride (singular). Were there no polygamy there could be no election and no new birth.
Likewise, were there no natural divorce, there could be no remission for past sins and justification by grace through faith according to Acts 2:38. In consequence of the Fall we were each born in fornication with a worldly nature, and Satan is the god of this world. We had to confess spiritual uncleanliness before we can accept Christ's proposal (Acts 2:38-39). Our espousal is justification by grace through faith.
The Spiritual romance with our heavenly Bridegroom intensifies passion as faith exposes our hidden life to the sharp Sword of His open Word; recognizing and renouncing our shortcomings we turn from the world and separate from the things of the world, drawing ever closer in conformation to His will and good pleasure, which is His Word. Sanctification is the second and ongoing stage of grace: "without holiness no man will see the Lord" (Hebrews 12:14).
The natural types the Spiritual. As an espoused maid seeks to identify with those things that will please her man, and separate from anyone and anything that might not meet his approval, Christians cleanse themselves from habits and desires, thoughts and associations that displease our Lord.
Finally, comes the marriage. But before they can be wed, that first husband, the worldly nature on her soul whose god is Satan must die, not just "put away" or divorced by justification and sanctification of her ten mortal senses. He must die by Fire of the Holy Ghost (Matthew 3:12; Romans 7:1-6). The union is consummated and Christ and His Bride are united by God through faith in the Living Word, "the present Truth" manifesting through her. She is a written epistle of the Word God promised to fulfil in her day. She and the Word are One: she cannot be deceived on the Word for her day. Not even a flirt! Like the natural marriage of a man and woman—if they're truly joined together by God and not some backslidden preacher or half-drunk magistrate, nothing can take them apart.
Now, Christians—those truly born-again by the Word for their day are united with their new Husband, Christ, through a New Covenant of Grace. By faith alone, and not works. A Covenant which cannot be disannulled. In the New Testament, Jesus reaffirmed the indissolubility of the family and monogamy. But the shadows of the old Order are still present.
Man and woman are still under separate Covenants. She can only have one living husband. He can put her away for unconfessed fornication any time and marry another. However, men who are Christians no longer need several wives. By the grace of God and the Holy Spirit in our heart we are able to bring our passions within due bounds.
Of course, if a man has several wives and is subsequently born-again, and they are also born-again, or pleased to dwell with him, he is not to put them away. However he would be disqualified from the (lay) office of Deacon or Bishop.
I Timothy 3:1-3, "This is a true saying, If a man desires the office of a bishop, he desires a good work. A bishop then must be blameless, NOT A POLYGAMIST, vigilant, sober, of good behaviour, given to hospitality, apt to teach;"
I Timothy 3:12, "Let the deacons be the husbands of one wife, [NOT A POLYGAMIST] ruling their children and their own houses well".
Titus 1:5-6, "For this cause left I you in Crete, that you should set in order the things that are wanting, and ordain elders in every city, as I had appointed you: If any be blameless, the husband of one wife, [NOT A POLYGAMIST] having faithful children not accused of riot or unruly".
Yet in this day of grace, we see the shadow of the old polygamy covenant in the (many-membered) Bride of (one) Lord Jesus Christ. It's evident in the separate covenants wherein God deals with the man and the woman. And in the matter of marriage and divorce.
If anyone doubts that God established separate covenants with man and woman following the Fall, ask yourself these three questions. Does the Serpent still move upon his belly? Must man still toil against nature to produce his daily bread? And does woman still conceive in sorrow? If the answer to these questions is yes, then man and woman are not co-equal in nature as it was in the beginning, and she serves God as she obeys her husband.
God Bless you Brethren, we live in the LAST times. Don't become involved in any of these unscriptural movements seeking equality for women. Seek to know the mind of Christ that His will may be seen to manifest through your life. And once you have a revelation of this Message, PASS it on. bb950906.htm
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