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Originally Posted by Nitehawk013
God blessed where He promised to because He has an overall purpose that had to be accomplished.
Don't leave out the factthat in those lives, the primary reason for their shortcomings and failures are those very marriages you mention. Abraham's foolish move is still hurting the world today. David's lead to his never being able to build the temple. Solomon's lead him to fall into all sorts of sin. Samson's got him killed. On and on and on the story goes.
sure, God didn;t strike them down and they may have been blessed...but in the end they all paid for their sins. God did not approve of their "marriages". They sewed their own miserable harvests with their selfish actions.
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Very true brethren, God’s Word often demanded men marry more than one woman. God wouldn’t demand that a man sin. Marital arrangements were obviously not patterned after a specific design but rather for the well being of all involved.
I think we can agree, Abraham’s choice was one that has led to suffering, however, it was not a “sin” but an unwise choice. For example today it’s an unwise choice to marry the wrong woman…but it’s not a sin.
As for David… it wasn’t his polygamy that caused God to forbid him from building the Temple. In fact it wasn’t even David’s adultery. God forbade David from building the Temple because he was a man of war and had shed blood.
1 Chronicles 22:8
But the word of the LORD came to me, saying, Thou hast shed blood abundantly, and hast made great wars: thou shalt not build an house unto my name, because thou hast shed much blood upon the earth in my sight.
When it comes to Solomon – Solomon’s trouble wasn’t necessarily a result of polygamy either. Solomon’s trouble was that he married foreign wives who served other gods. These women turned his heart from the LORD. There would have been no issue regarding Solomon’s polygamy had he only married women who served the LORD.
Sampson's issue was adultery and again, interest in a foreign woman.
It’s really interesting how we impose our Western values on a faith that is clearly Eastern assuming that God’s will strictly fits our cultural paradigms. A good example is wine and alcohol. It was often seen as a blessing that could be abused in the Bible. Yet since Prohibition in the United States we interpret the Bible in a way that appears for many to forbid any alcohol consumption.
Just interesting.
God bless.