Poligamy

Does the Bible condone polygamy?

As we consider the examples of ancient Israelites, we do realize that the Bible shows that some outstanding servants of God had many wives; as a result we shouldask ourselves:
If God permitted polygamy, may I practice such an arrangement if the local law allows for it?

To answer this, we should first consider. Why this practice was allowed, and whichconsequences result from taking many wives for ourselves?

It was in the Garden of Eden that Jehovah instituted the marriage giving Adam just one wife, this proves that Jehovah is not the originator ofpolygamy, but what happened later is that Lamech, a descendant of Cain, took two wives for himself and with the time others imitated the example. God tolerated the practice and established measures toassure proper treatment of women.

However, the bitter outcome of polygamy is found in the Bible.
Let’s analyze the example of Abraham, his wife, Sarai, asked him to have relations with hermaidservant, because she unable to bear a child, but as we read Gen 18:14 (that I invite you to read) we read that in time Sarah was capable to give birth a son.
It proves that it was unnecessary forAbraham to take another woman for himself.

Two other examples are recorded in the Bible, Jacob’s and Solomon’s.
Jacob became polygamist because of a deception, he loved Rachel but his father in lawtricked him by giving him Leah as his wife. In time Jacob had Rachel as his second wife but the Bible record tells in considerable detail the unhappy rivalry between his wives as recorded in Gen 30:1,Rachel got jealous of her sister Leah.

Similarly the example of Solomon shows that Jehovah clearly stated that the king “should not multiply wives for himself, that his heart may not turn aside”(Deut. 17:17). It is also noted that the foreign wives influenced Solomon to turn to the worship of false gods and “began to do what was bad in the eyes of Jehovah” as it is read in 1 Kings 11:3,4 it...