This writing about polygyny is continued from Adultery (Part 1).
How many marriages have been destroyed because a woman, and perhaps even the man himself, thought he was involved in an adulterous relationship? I have found that most define adultery according to the doctrines and traditions which we have learned from our fathers instead of what it actually says in light of Yehovah’s word given through Moses and the Prophets.
O Yehovah, my strength and my fortress, my refuge in the day of affliction, the Gentiles shall come to You from the ends of the earth and say, “Surely our fathers have inherited lies, worthlessness and unprofitable things.” (Jer 16:19)
We err in believing that a man has the same marital constraints on his life that are on a woman’s. This is one of many articles I have written which is dedicated to correcting some of our false ideas regarding the different duties and responsibilities of men and women in Yehovah’s kingdom. Some of the information I found is going to rub some folks the wrong way, as it runs contrary to what we have all learned and accepted as true.
Billy Sunday lived in the early 1900s and preached boldly against sin. He was a drunk before he started coming to the truth and preached much on the wickedness of addictions like alcohol. One day he was asked to tone it down, stop offending people, stop rubbing the cat’s fur the wrong way; he replied, “I’m not changing my preaching, let the cat turn around!”
I say what my sovereign Yehovah says,
Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter! Woe to those who are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight! … Because they have rejected the law of Yehovah of hosts, and despised the word of the Holy One of Israel. (Isa 5:20-21, 24)
If you want safety, peace, and Yehovah’s blessing on your life, then do not add to or take away from any of our Creator’s set-apart ways. My goal in this series of writings is to save marriages and in the process make families stronger.
A Married Woman
Torah is always given to Yehovah’s seed, those who are in covenant with Him! This is why “Israel’s seed” wear tzitzit and their women have a covering (not cloth); even their widows and orphans are to be covered.
“If a man is found lying with a married woman [a woman mastered by a master], then both of them shall die – the man who lay with the woman, and the woman; so you shall put away the evil from Israel. (Deu 22:22)
The man who commits adultery with a man’s woman, he commits adultery with his friend’s woman; the adulterer and the adulteress, shall surely be put to death. (Lev 20:10)
A woman betrothed to a man is the same as her being married to him.
“If a young woman who is a virgin is betrothed to a husband, and a man finds her in the city and lies with her, then you shall bring them both out to the gate of that city, and you shall stone them to death with stones, the young woman because she did not cry out in the city, and the man because he humbled his neighbor’s woman ; so you shall put away the evil from among you.”
“But if a man finds a betrothed young woman in the countryside, and the man forces her and lies with her, then only the man who lay with her shall die. But you shall do nothing to the young woman; there is in the young woman no sin deserving of death, for just as when a man rises against his neighbor and kills him, even so is this matter. For he found her in the countryside, and the betrothed young woman cried out, but there was no one to save her. (Deu 22:23-27)
Adultery For A Man, Is The Taking Of Another Man’s Woman
In contrast to a woman, a man can only commit adultery in the flesh by lying with another man’s woman. I say this based on the same verses we used for the woman above.
Polygyny Vs Polygamy
While a woman may never take multiple men, it is permissible for a man to take multiple women to himself in Torah. This is polygyny, not polygamy and I will explain the difference between the two shortly.
If he [a man] takes another woman, he shall not diminish her food, her clothing, and her marriage rights. (Exo 21:10)
This verse in Torah goes hand in hand with what Isaiah says concerning the last days and the 144,000 men who are chosen and sealed by Yehovah.
And in that day seven women shall take hold of one man, saying, “We will eat our own food and wear our own apparel; Only let us be called by your name, to take away our reproach.” (Isa 4:1)
Polygamy is a man-made deception, a slight of hand, to turn us away from polygyny which is part of Yehovah’s eternal and unchanging plan.
This is one of those topics that we find difficult to understand with our Babylonian minds. I would like to just point out the following technical points for the sake of better understanding.
Polygamy or poly-gamy – The condition or practice of having more than one SPOUSE at a time. And by implication, will include same-sex marriages etc. And thus NOT in line with what Yehovah’s Word teaches us.
While polygyny or poly-gyny – The condition or practice of having more than one wife (woman) at one time. [In Greek ‘poly’ means “multiple or many,” and ‘gune’ means “woman.”] This is what I would say Yehovah’s word does teach us!
This distinction between “polygamy and “polygyny” (the same word that a gyn doctor comes from), while subtle in appearance, has huge implications. A couple LEGALLY MARRIED with a state marriage license is in a SPOUSAL relationship between the state, one man, and one woman; in this relationship the man’s elohim (the state) says that poly-gamy (multiple SPOUSES) is ILLEGAL. (Incidentally, all the off-spring that come from this relationship ultimately belong to the state, who can take any or all of your children from you.)
BUT, the man who does not have a covenant with the state (usually through a driver’s license) and has not asked for the state’s permission to be LEGALLY MARRIED, by applying for and receiving a marriage license; that man simply has more than one woman in his life, or “poly-gune” (a.k.a. “polygyny”) and they are all lawfully married under Yehovah.
Polygyny Is Part Of Yehovah’s Plan
Polygyny is evident among Israel’s forefathers. Abraham had 2 woman at one time, Jacob had four women, Benjamin had two women, David had more than twelve women (plus concubines) and the list goes on.
I use the term “woman” (instead of wife because there is no word for wife in Torah. A “wife” in Torah is simply an “ishshah,” a woman who belongs to a specific man.
To the woman He said: “I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in pain thou shall bring forth sons [benim]; thy desire shall be for thy husband, and he shall rule over thee.” (Gen 3:16)
Yehovah did not say to the woman “I (Yehovah) shall rule over thee,” He said “he (her man) shall rule over thee.”
Many may feel that this is making the woman only a possession; and in a sense that is true. But a man’s woman is much more, she becomes one with her man and enjoys the same status as her man. If he is a Gentile, she is a Gentile; if he is a Ger who dwells with Israel, she is also one of Yehovah’s people. If he is as one born in the land, an Ezrach, and a son of Yehovah, she is Yehovah’s daughter. Because of this relationship of a woman to her man, the marriage is strengthened when she encourages her man to follow all, and only, Yehovah’s ways wholly.
Most Men Are Involved In Spiritual Adultery
You may have noticed above that I referred to a man committing adultery “in the flesh.”
A man can commit adultery without ever being involved with a woman, and most men are adulterers. There is a spiritual adultery that is just as serious as adultery in the flesh and also carries a death sentence. Spiritual adultery is the very reason that Israel, Yehovah’s spiritually born men, were put out of our land by Him to begin with; we wanted to serve other elohim instead of our lawmaker and judge, the Elohim of Israel. Speaking to His sons Yehovah says,
You built your high places at the head of every road, and made your beauty to be abhorred. You offered yourself to everyone who passed by, and multiplied your acts of harlotry. You also committed harlotry with the Egyptians, your very fleshly neighbors, and increased your acts of harlotry to provoke Me to anger. (Eze 16:25-26)
You also played the harlot with the Assyrians, because you were insatiable. Indeed you played the harlot with them and still were not satisfied. Moreover you multiplied your acts of harlotry as far as the land of the trader, Chaldea [Babylon]; and even then you were not satisfied. “How degenerate is your heart” says my Master, Yehovah, “seeing you do all these things, the deeds of a brazen harlot. (Eze 16:28-30)
You are an adulterous woman, who takes strangers [zorim] instead of her man. (Eze 16:32)
Currently men are committing spiritual adultery with the United States, Great Britain, Australia, South Africa and all the kingdoms of the world; but in reality, it is all Babylon!
Man Was Created To Serve Only Yehovah, And A Woman Was Created To Serve Her Man; Any Deviation From This, Is Adultery!
I have met many women who thought their man committed adultery but when they saw what Yehovah’s word actually says they realized that their man did not commit adultery because the woman was not married. I hate seeing marriages and families destroyed and will do whatever I can to preserve them.