Even Concubines Put Away
Do you see what God did? He meted out to David a tremendous punishment — God took all his wives, leaving Bathsheba only. With David's first and only legitimate wife, Michal, probably dead (see II Sam. 6:23), God also had cleared the way for Bathsheba to become the legal wife of David. Apparently this was done, that she might be the mother of Solomon, through whom God was to keep His unconditional, dynastic promise to David — a forefather of Jesus Christ — and a prophet used in writing the Bible.
After this David was away from Jerusalem. But, returning, there were ten concubines (his former harem). Here is what David did with them: "And David came to his house at Jerusalem; and the king took the ten women his concubines, whom he had left to keep the house, and put them in ward, and fed them, but went not in unto them. So they were shut up unto the day of their death, living in widowhood" (II Sam. 20:3).
Just as David kept the ten concubines "in widowhood" — that is, he had (Please continue on page 19) no relations with them, for they had been defiled — so he put away his other wives (II Sam. 19:6) because they too had been defiled by a neighbor (II Sam. 12).
David had -truly repented. He practiced polygamy NO MORE! When David was becoming old, he went "fully after the Eternal" (I Kings 11:6). He was "a man after God's own heart," because his heart was right He did repent. He had been a warrior. In his younger life he went after many women. He had sown his "wild oats." BUT HE REPENTED!
His heart turned to GOD. His life's race ENDED in victory — he "went fully after the Eternal." It is not the one who starts out with the biggest burst of speed, but the one who finishes first at the END of the race who wins it.
His son, Solomon, started out righteously, unselfishly, relying on God. But, "when Solomon was old," he had seven hundred wives and three hundred concubines — it must have been a record harem. And his wives turned away his heart from God, and to their idols.
It was SIN! Regarding it, God's Word says: "Solomon did evil in the sight of the Eternal" (I Kings 11:6).
There was polygamy in ancient Israel. But it was SIN! God condemned it — He never condoned or sanctioned it. They reaped what they sowed.
What GOD Joins in Marriage
Also Israelites practiced what God had forbidden — divorce and remarriage. On this, Jesus said: "Moses (not God) because of the hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your wives: but from the beginning it was not so. And I say unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adultery: and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth commit adultery" (Matt. 19:8-9). God has never legalized divorce and remarriage.
It is not allowable today.
Jesus said, in this same connection: "Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female?" Notice, Jesus was dating this from the BEGINNING. And God never changes! "And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife: and they twain shall be one flesh?" Notice, a man shall cleave to his WIFE — not wives. And they Two — not he and several wives — shall be one flesh.
"What therefore God hath joined together, let not man put asunder" (Matt. 19:4-6). It is what GOD joins together. That is the definition of MARRIAGE. God does not join together one man with plural women! Any woman a man may "marry" according to man's codes, in addition to the wife GOD joined him to, is NOT his wife, so long as his real wife lives. Any additional women, whether in polygamy, or by divorce one at a time, is plain ADULTERY! GOD never joins the second, let alone the additional "wives." They are NOT truly wives — they are adultresses, and the man becomes an adulterer. THIS BREAKS GOD'S LAW. IT IS SIN.
Jesus thus put us straight on monogamous marriage.
God made ONE wife for Adam — not a harem! He started the human family out as He ordained they should go — a family of ONE man and ONE wife!
And, remember, God gave this absolute command regarding future kings of Israel — telling them they must not do as the pagan nations around them (whose kings had their harems): "Neither shall he multiply wives to himself!" Saul, Israel's first king, DISOBEYED that command. He let demons take hold of him.
God deposed him, and put David in his place. David started out in polygamy, but God punished him. HE REPENTED thoroughly, and he finished his reign with his only living wife.
Solomon finished his life in polygamy and idolatry — and God, in punishment, rended the KINGDOM away from his son, Rehoboam.
GOD DID NOT CONDONE POLYGAMY!
He PUNISHED those who practiced it! It was always SIN! It is SIN today!
Hosea and other prophets constantly dwell upon the thought of monogamous marriage as being a symbol of the union of God and His people, and denounce idolatry as unfaithfulness to this spiritual marriage-tie.
Christ to Marty ONE Church
The marriage relationship, in the New Testament, is the type of the relationship between Christ and God's Church.
The worldly churches are MANY. Those who claim the NAME Christian — Roman Catholic, Greek Orthodox Catholic, hundreds of Protestant churches — all claim to be, combined, the Church which Christ started. They seem to believe, somehow, that when Christ returns to earth to marry His CHURCH, that Jesus Christ will be a POLYGAMIST — that He will marry HUNDREDS of Churches — have HUNDREDS of WIVES! THEY ARE WRONG!
Jesus Christ will marry but ONE Church — the True Church of GOD — and all these worldly churches will be on the outside looking in!
Listen! "Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honor to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and His WIFE (not wives) hath made herself ready" (Rev. 19:7).
One of the qualifications for a Minister in GOD'S Church is that he have only ONE wife! No POLYGAMIST may be a Minister of Jesus Christ in His True Church!
Here it is: "A bishop (elder, overseer, preacher, minister), must be blameless, the husband of ONE wife" (I Tim. 3:2). Likewise, a man may not even be a deacon if he has more than one wife (Verse 12).
Let us, then, understand it once and for all! Polygamy is a SIN. God condemns it! It is ADULTERY! IT HAS NEVER BEEN APPROVED OR CONDONED BY GOD AT ANY TIME, IN PATRIARCHAL DAYS — IN OLD TESTAMENT TIMES — OR NOW, TODAY!