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Hi everybody, it's Talitha again.
Today I wish to tell you a little bit about the foundation of our family dream, that is, the conviction that God meant marriage to be a bond forever, between man and woman. Marriage is a holy institution, and the marriage covenant is not to be violated by either the husband or the wife.
Now, we also see in the bible that this bond of marriage may be between one man and one woman just as well as between one man and several women, and we also see that it is NOT meant to be between one woman and several men, or between woman and woman, or man and man.
It is our conviction that God gave us plural marriage, or polygyny, as a tool of dominion, in order to raise godly children that are loyal to Him, and in order to raise up a multi-generational household that can stand strong against the enemy and survive even in difficult times, relying on God's Law Word for guidance.
This is what we are working towards, joyfully and with great zeal. Questions ? Write a comment and ask :)
I think that you should probably explain how you see in the Bible that God calls for a marriage between one man and several women. I know the God of the Bible allowed polygyny but not that He endorsed it. I find this assertion questionable. Are you planning any blog entries that might explain this belief?
ReplyDeleteRebeckah,
ReplyDeleteThank you for the opportunity.
To answer your question: No, I am not going to do apologetics on this blog, as we have done so extensively on our main website http://joshuahshouse.com. If you are interested, please feel free to read there what we have to say.
Here is a very very very short answer to your statement though, just to give you an idea:
You say God did not "endorse" polygyny. Well, fact is, Scripture does not differentiate between monogamous and polygynous relationships, they are all treated as marriage. We do not think polygyny buys you a ticket to heaven by any stretch of the imagination, but we do view plural marriage as a tool of dominion.
Grace and Peace,
Talitha
Thank you. I didn't want to assume that the Joshua's House blog spoke for you. Often the blogs linked to a site are simply ones the site manager likes and not ones that explain philosophy or see it in the same light. I will look there. Also, I hope I didn't sound like I was trying to tell you what to do. Sometimes what I say sounds bossy when I mean nothing of the sort. I was just confused. ;)
ReplyDeleteOh, and just to clarify, I wasn't saying that God didn't endorse polygyny in the Bible, just that I didn't know that He did. My impression, from the various stories of the Bible involving polygyny, was that it was a situation rife with jealousy, hurt feelings, jockying for position and petty strife. Are there any positive stories in the Bible dealing with polygyny? I can't remember any but I can't claim to have studied my Bible intensively for a long, long time either.
ReplyDeleteRebeckah,
ReplyDeleteI guess we have to remember that the account of Jacob and his family, for example, is not about "having more than one wife" necessarily, much like the story of Isaac and Rebecca and their children is not about "having two sons", if you catch my meaning.
As for "positive stories", you can look at the life on King David, for example. Abigail gladly enters into marriage with him, you never hear a word about strife between the wives... But the story of King David's life is not about polygyny either, he just had multiple wives ;)
As far as "jealousy, hurt feelings, jockying for position and petty strife" are concerned, you can boil down whatever difficulties arose between the wives to having, or not having, children, and favoritism on the side of the husband (which God's Law Word forbids) that lead to barrenness. Having children was the primary concern of the women (not sharing their husband with another wife), as children were valued highly by both husband and wife.
Most importantly though, polygyny is not treated in any special way in the bible, except for a few regulations to protect and provide for the wives. Polygynous relationships as well as monogamous relationships are, as I said before, just "marriage", and what is said about marriage refers to both (again, with very few explicit exceptions where either is mentioned specifically).
Grace and Peace,
Talitha