Thursday, November 19, 2009

Polygamy - Deuteronomy 21:15-17

Two Sundays ago, our church elder, Mr. Brown, talked about Deuteronomy 21:15-17. These verses are giving us instructions on what to do when there is as man that has two wives; one loved, and the other unloved, both giving him children. When the time comes to give the inheritance to the first born son, who will receive it? The true first born belongs to the unloved wife. The father wants to give the inheritance to the first born of the loved wife, but in vs.17 it says that you have to give the inheritance to the true first born (even if it’s the son of the hated wife).


Mr. Brown said that a man (or anyone) cannot act on his emotions. He must act in obedience to Gods Word. Mr. Brown also said that there is not one verse in the Bible that directly says that polygamy is wrong, but it is full of principles that do. We see that God only wants men to have one wife. How many wives did God give Adam? Only 1!


Also, in every situation in the Bible where a man had more than one wife, there were marriage problems and problems between all the children. Polygamy is wrong!


One thing I learned is that when the Bible does not say that something is specifically wrong, we must look at all the principles laid out in the whole Scripture. Based on these principles we can know what is right or wrong.

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