WHEN Jesus Christ was on earth, he declared God's standard of marriage. When asked how a man divorced his wife “in all kinds of lands,” Jesus replied, “Have you not read that he who created you in the beginning made you male and female and said, 'This is why the man goes to your father "and your mother and join your wife, and the two will be one flesh"? so that they are no longer two, but one flesh, therefore no man can separate what God has gathered ”
Therefore, a true Christian cannot be polygamous. The apostle Paul, following the advice of Jesus, wrote: "Each has his own wife and each wife her own husband". He also warned that “a woman must not leave her husband; but if she gives up, let her be celibate or be reconciled with her husband; and the man will not leave his wife. (1 Cor. 7:10, 11.) Paul also wrote about himself and his fellow Christians who had taken the lead as an example: like the rest of the apostles and brothers of the Lord and of Cephas, is it not not? "
So, since God's standard for Christians is a wife or a husband, why did God allow His covenant people, Israel, to have more than one wife?
A brief history of polygamy
Polygamy did not begin among true worshipers of Jehovah God. The oldest trace of polygamy is with Lamech, a descendant of the infidel Cain. But Noah's servant of God had only one wife, like each of his three children. Abraham, the friend of God, had a wife, Sarah. But Sarah, patient, aware that Abraham had promised his "offspring", made him have relations with her Egyptian slave Hagar, who thus became Abraham's concubine. Isaac, the son of Abraham, who was later miraculously born to Sarah, and who was the promised "seed", had only one wife. (Genesis 21: 2, 12; 24:67) However, Jacob, son of Isaac, had two wives due to the fraud of his stepfather Laban.
Therefore, when the law came into force, it did not introduce polygamy or co-wife, nor did it encourage such practices. In fact, polygamy was apparently not practiced by the majority in ancient Israel; it was mainly limited to the most important and the wealthiest, but not exclusively to the latter. The fact that kings had many wives was a kind of "status symbol" among the nations.
The references in Psalms, Proverbs and Ecclesiastes to happy marriages seem to take the monogamous state for granted. “Rejoice with the wife of your youth,” says Proverbs 5:18. And Ecclesiastes 9: 9 advises: "Look at the life of the woman you love every day of your vain life that she gave you under the sun." In addition, God's counsel to kings emphasized the danger of polygamy: "He [the king] would not multiply women, and his heart would not return." King Solomon ignored this warning to his regret ...
The Mosaic Law deters polygamy and protects women
The provisions of the law are such that they effectively deter polygamy. Every time a man had sex with his wife, he was religiously unclean for a day. Therefore, relationships with more women were more likely to make the Jews uncomfortable, as impurities prevented a man from participating in a variety of activities. In addition, the inheritance law that the man gave required a double inheritance from the eldest son, even though he was the son of the least beloved woman and polygamy was undesirable in that sense.
Although polygamy was tolerated, the law protected women and gave Jews a much higher and more prestigious status than in other countries. If a man seduced a virgin who was not engaged, he had to marry her and he could never divorce. If a man wrongly accused his wife of not being a virgin at the time of the marriage, he could never divorce.
In addition, because of the less beloved woman, the polygamous man had to support himself and marry, and a foreign virgin captured as a slave in war could be taken as the wife of the soldier who had captured her. But if you later fired her because you did not like her, you could not sell her to anyone else. He had to let her go the way he wanted. Letting soldiers marry captured virgins was a blessing for these girls, otherwise they had no home and no friends.
Nor can a man divorce his wife without good reason. You must have written an official divorce certificate. This would require an authority to testify and probably before the city elder for official approval. This provision, together with the supplementary law that a man cannot remarry that woman if he marries another man who subsequently died or was divorced, acted as an obstacle to premature or frivolous divorces. (Deuteronomy 24: 1-4). In addition, the divorce certificate provided legal evidence for the woman's remarriage. This protected them from the charges of prostitution or adultery. - See Deuteronomy 22: 13-21.
"Time set to work things out"
Although God regulated polygamy, he did not see fit to abolish the custom of his people, just as he did not abolish slavery but rather regulated it. It was not time for everything to return to its perfect level. The author of the biblical book of Hebrews quotes Jesus, referring to the many animal sacrifices made by the Jews: “Your [God's] sacrifice and sacrifice did not want, but you have me. prepared a body. "The legal regulation for the slaughter of animals was only a shadow, not a reality. Jesus Christ made a truly satisfying sacrifice to take away sins. The author, who talks about sacrifices and other characteristics of the law, says: “These were legal requirements for this meat and were introduced for the time intended to arrange things. "- Heb. 9:10.
When Jesus Christ appears on earth, it's time to fix things. It clearly stated the standard of God's monogamy and biblical divorce based solely on adultery. When asked by the Pharisees why God did not impose this rule on Israel, Jesus replied: "Out of respect for their harshness, Moses decided to divorce his wives, but this was not the case from the beginning."
According to Jesus, the prophet Jeremiah had long foretold a change in God's relationship when the new covenant based on Christ's sacrifice came into force. Jeremiah said, “See! Days will come, says the Lord, and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. . . I will put my law upon them and write them in their hearts. "" - Gen. 31: 31-33;
The new covenant would facilitate the hardship of those who are stuck in it. Believing in Christ's sacrifice would take away the consciousness of sin, something that animal sacrifice could never do. The law of this union would not only have been written on stone tables. It would be written in the heart. It would have given them a good conscience over what the law did not do.
When Jesus Christ first appeared on earth, things started to calm down. He explained God's standards for monogamy and the Bible's divorce for adultery only. When the Pharisees asked why God did not apply this standard to Israel, Jesus replied, “Moses forgave you the hardness of your heart until you were separated from your wives, but you were not. from the beginning. "
From what Jesus said, the prophet Jeremiah had long predicted a change in the actions of God when the new covenant came based on the sacrifice of Christ. Jeremiah said, "Yes! There will be days," says Jehovah, "and I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah. I will put my law on them and I will write it in theirs. heart."
The new covenant would ease the hardship of those who join it. Belief in Christ's sacrifice would eliminate awareness of sin, which an animal sacrifice could never do. The law of this covenant would not simply be written on stone tablets. It would be written in hearts. This would give them a clear conscience, which the law does not have.
Moreover, we see that even with the coming of Christ, all things were not right at the same time. After teaching his disciples for three and a half years, Jesus said to them the night before his death, "I have a lot to tell you, but now you cannot stand it." People strive to live up to God's perfect standard. You cannot make all the necessary changes in your life at the same time, all in a short period of time. For example, the early Jewish Christians had to learn a lot about how to break free from many Jewish traditions. The apostle Paul needs to enlighten them when it comes to considering certain days more sacred than others, when it comes to eating, pruning, etc. God did not try, with love and consideration, to make all of these changes at once. - -
This was the case with polygamy. Because of the "hardness of heart" of the Jews, God did not force any change. That was not the point then. As the apostle Paul explains, “Then why the law? It was added to manifest violations until the arrival of the seed to which the promise was made. "But before the arrival of faith, we were legally protected and taken into custody together, dealing with the faith that was to be revealed." As a result, the law has become our guide for Christ. . . But now that the faith has come, we are no longer under a guardian. God made the Jews their own nation by giving them the law. But even though it regulated polygamy, there was a separation because none of the nations challenged such laws.
Jehovah's concern and the advancement of the leadership of his people are evident in this matter of polygamy. By removing mankind from the basis of sin, God has time to perform certain functions for his purpose. It will take your Son Jesus Christ to be a thousand years old to put an end to all the effects of sin and bring humanity to a perfect state in which it is no longer damaged by residues of "hardness of heart" and therefore of aspects can occur relative. Of God. Perfect model. How grateful we are for your patience and undeserved kindness!
