Meditations

Question from moody radio listener on Aug 26, 2017:

Why did God allow King David and others in the bible to have many wives?

Passages to be considered:

Genesis 2

²⁴ Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.  -kjv

Deuteronomy 17

¹⁵ Thou shalt in any wise set him king over thee, whom the Lord thy God shall choose: one from among thy brethren shalt thou set king over thee: thou mayest not set a stranger over thee, which is not thy brother.

¹⁶ But he shall not multiply horses to himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt, to the end that he should multiply horses: forasmuch as the Lord hath said unto you, Ye shall henceforth return no more that way.

¹⁷ Neither shall he multiply wives to himself, that his heart turn not away: neither shall he greatly multiply to himself silver and gold.  -kjv

Answer from Dr Michael Rydelnik:

I will say why does God allow people today to have affairs? Why does God allow people today to do things that are wrong? It seems to me that God does not impose judgment on us instantaneously when we disobey him and yet we might ask the very same question about things that go wrong today, even spiritual leaders do things that are wrong and it seems to me that when we look at David, it was clear that when God created marriage, he wrote that it was to be one man one woman for life, for this cause the man shall leave his father and mother and shall cleave to his wife, this is Genesis 2:24. Cleave means make permanent bond to his wife, not to his wives but to his wife. And the two shall become one flesh and then it says the man and the woman were naked and unashamed. That’s the creation of marriage. Right there. And it seems to me that God’s intention for marriage was always to be between one man and one woman for life. That being said, in Deuteronomy 17, when God tells Israel that they are going to have kings, and that a godly king would not multiply wives, I think it’s interesting that it said multiply wives or horses. In other words why those two things, well, one it might be a king’s prerogative to take as many wives as he wants, you know that’s what kings could do. And also, it’s the king’s desire to build up his military. And God says neither of those are what I want from a king because God’s intention for marriage for a king was to have one man, not to have multiple wives and certainly not to build up his army so that he can depend on his army, instead of depending on God. So, that’s Deuteronomy 17. So, all I can say is David was being disobedient, and God mercifully did not thrash him instantaneously when he multiplied wives.