Question:
God told mankind to be fruitful and multiply. Genesis 1:22, etc. It certainly was no evil or sin for a man to have more than one wife. See instructions given in Deuteronomy 21:15-17. And many illustrious characters had more than one wife. David did, and he is said to be “a man after God’s own heart.”
Answer:
In the first place, it would seem that if God had designed that man should have more than one wife, He would have made more than one wife for Adam. The record does not say that He created them male and females, but “male and female,” a female for a male. He gave Adam one wife, and the divine expression is, “They twain [the two, not four nor five, nor three even] shall be one flesh.” We have no more reason to gather from the Scripture that polygamy is right than that polyandry is right. Why has not the woman just as much right to two or more husbands as the man has to two or more wives?
Secondly, God wishes man to learn some things in the providential outworking of events and by direct precept. Man had, in the beginning, God’s plan clear and straightforward. He ought to have followed that plan. When males were killed in war and strife, man began to multiply wives to himself, contrary to God’s plan. And man’s devices have had some sad outworkings. Good men have failed to carry out God’s plan. Their hearts have been right, and God has accepted them notwithstanding their sins, but this does not excuse their sins, bad example, or the bad results. Abraham had many trials and much sadness on account of his two wives. He would have avoided much of his trial if he had believed God and refused to act on Sarah’s suggestion. Isaac’s life seems to have been a quiet and happy one; he had but one wife. Jacob had two wives, and his life was consequently miserable because of the jealousy of his wives and sons. David had more than one wife. He was a man after God’s own heart in his sorrow for sin, in his devotion, in his faithfulness, in his willingness to receive God’s reproof; but he certainly did not follow God’s way in multiplying wives to himself, and went directly against the commandment of God, that the king should “not multiply wives” to himself. Deuteronomy 17:17. But just as soon as a man has more than one wife simultaneously, he multiplies wives to himself.
We have only to think of the sad history of David’s family, of his rebellious and wayward sons, to see the folly of his having many wives. So also with Solomon. In the teaching of Jesus, He brings us back to the original plan of Eden. “Have ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning made them male and female, And said, For this cause shall a man leave father and mother, and shall cleave to his wife [one]: and they twain [one male, one female] shall be one flesh? Wherefore they are no more twain, but one flesh.” (See Matthew 19:4-6). Indeed it is contrary to God and His truth and His plan to have more than one wife.
