You are conflating big families with requiring multiple wives. Many children can be the blessing of God with only one wife.
Some general commentary on your examples: Jacob married Leah then Rachel. In that period of his life, I would argue his thoughts and desires did not particularly involve seeking God. He did eventually seek God and he wrestled with God for a blessing just before he was to meet his brother Esau whom he feared would kill him on sight due to stealing Esau's blessing and swindling Esau's birthright. It was after this encounter with God that Jacob changed. This is also made clear by God renaming Jacob to Israel. Jacob already had 2 wives and 2 concubines so this continued, but what happened is not necessarily aligned with what God's intended purpose and plan for a marriage is.
David did take multiple wives and was also said to be a man after God's own heart. David's best desires though did not prevent his flesh from leading him astray. His multiple wives bore multiple children and the whole situation caused serious calamities to befall Israel and the House of David including a rebellion and civil war by Absalom and the eventual divided kingdom period. Had David been content in the blessing of God for marriage between 1 man and 1 woman, David would have avoided many future troubles for himself, his children, and his kingdom.
Solomon took many wives and concubines. In fact he was extremely worldly and disobedient in many ways to God's law during his life. With his many wives came idolatry. His many wives setup the events that directly led to the divided kingdom even though it was David whose sins brought that prophesied punishment from God. These men David and Solomon were flawed sinful dysfunctional men whom at times wanted to follow God's law but were unable to and multiple wives was an aspect of this sin playing out in their lives. God used them even in their sinfulness to bring about his perfect plan and timing in this world.
Shifting to the New Testament
I Timothy 3:2 clearly indicates multiple wives in marriage is not the intended plan. This is why husband of 1 wife is specified as a requirement of pastoral leadership.
Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
But that is for leaders you may argue. But the reality is we are to follow Jesus and our actions and thoughts should be toward that goal. If leadership requires the Christian be notably qualified by doing well in this way, it is also true that the congregation being led should also be striving to meet the same standard for it is out of the congregation that leaders will be determined and appointed by the Holy Spirit.
It is unfortunate the Bible doesn't fit man's desire for multiple wives or other arrangements for marriage. Before Christ, multiple wives to a husband was tolerated in some cases but that does not mean it was the intended perfect plan God created marriage to be. Specific to Hebrew law, the requirement for a wife (where the husband has brothers) in the family where the wife's husband dies without producing a child was to be married to the brother ( bringing the possibility of two wives to one man) was allowed to insure the bloodline and inheritance of the dead brother was not ended. For Israel this could cause problems if family lines died out given that each family line was promised prophetically specific blessings. Outside of that specific scenario, multiple wives is not condoned. In fact, I would argue that for the Christian, we are expected to follow Jesus. Jesus said to the teachers of the law that divorce was allowed to the Hebrew people by Moses because of their hard hearts (ie not seeking God), and clarified it was not the plan God intended (for marriage to be dissolved). Similarly marriage is designed and intended by God to be a uniting of one man and one woman into one flesh.
Matthew 19:4-6
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Simply stated, God did not set His creation up to match man's sinful nature which came after the man's fall. Since God is Holy and we are not Holy in this life, this makes for a good deal of internal friction for our fleshly nature when we are trying to follow Jesus -- at least there is friction for those whom are following Jesus having believed in Him and trusted that His death and resurrection is the perfect sacrifice through which we are saved by grace through faith (which that faith is also given to the believer by the Holy Spirit awakening the person to the reality that they are dead in their sins and that they are made alive in Christ), and that this salvation through Jesus provides the Christian with the Holy Spirit which replaces our heart of stone (dead in sin and at war with God) with a heart of flesh (alive in Christ Jesus and able to resist the fleshly desires by relying on God and seeking Him). To follow Christ is to follow the Father and the institution of marriage given by God in this context of following God is one man and one woman married before God for life.
Frankly, the corruption of God's intended design and purpose for marriage and of the family produced in that paradigm is definitely part of Satan's plan for humanity. Satan's plan to corrupt is also greatly aided by sinful man's hard heart which ignores God's plan and purpose and supplants God's rule with mans sinful desires. Both destroying marriage and the family through divorce, adultery, and fornication and extending marriage to be multiple husbands and/or multiple wives are corruptions to what God has revealed in the Bible is intended. By following either path falling outside what God intended and specified ( 1 man and 1 woman), we are displaying and revealing evidence of our sinful hard hearts that do not seek and follow Jesus.
You are conflating big families with requiring multiple wives. Many children can be the blessing of God with only one wife.
Some general commentary on your examples: Jacob married Rachel then Leah. In that period of his life, I would argue his thoughts and desires did not particularly involve seeking God. He did eventually seek God and he wrestled with God for a blessing just before he was to meet his brother Esau whom he feared would kill him on sight due to stealing Esau's blessing and swindling Esau's birthright. It was after this encounter with God that Jacob changed. This is also made clear by God renaming Jacob to Israel. Jacob already had 2 wives and 2 concubines so this continued, but what happened is not necessarily aligned with what God's intended purpose and plan for a marriage is.
David did take multiple wives and was also said to be a man after God's own heart. David's best desires though did not prevent his flesh from leading him astray. His multiple wives bore multiple children and the whole situation caused serious calamities to befall Israel and the House of David including a rebellion and civil war by Absalom and the eventual divided kingdom period. Had David been content in the blessing of God for marriage between 1 man and 1 woman, David would have avoided many future troubles for himself, his children, and his kingdom.
Solomon took many wives and concubines. In fact he was extremely worldly and disobedient in many ways to God's law during his life. With his many wives came idolatry. His many wives setup the events that directly led to the divided kingdom even though it was David whose sins brought that prophesied punishment from God. These men David and Solomon were flawed sinful dysfunctional men whom at times wanted to follow God's law but were unable to and multiple wives was an aspect of this sin playing out in their lives. God used them even in their sinfulness to bring about his perfect plan and timing in this world.
Shifting to the New Testament
I Timothy 3:2 clearly indicates multiple wives in marriage is not the intended plan. This is why husband of 1 wife is specified as a requirement of pastoral leadership.
Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
But that is for leaders you may argue. But the reality is we are to follow Jesus and our actions and thoughts should be toward that goal. If leadership requires the Christian be notably qualified by doing well in this way, it is also true that the congregation being led should also be striving to meet the same standard for it is out of the congregation that leaders will be determined and appointed by the Holy Spirit.
It is unfortunate the Bible doesn't fit man's desire for multiple wives or other arrangements for marriage. Before Christ, multiple wives to a husband was tolerated in some cases but that does not mean it was the intended perfect plan God created marriage to be. Specific to Hebrew law, the requirement for a wife (where the husband has brothers) in the family where the wife's husband dies without producing a child was to be married to the brother ( bringing the possibility of two wives to one man) was allowed to insure the bloodline and inheritance of the dead brother was not ended. For Israel this could cause problems if family lines died out given that each family line was promised prophetically specific blessings. Outside of that specific scenario, multiple wives is not condoned. In fact, I would argue that for the Christian, we are expected to follow Jesus. Jesus said to the teachers of the law that divorce was allowed to the Hebrew people by Moses because of their hard hearts (ie not seeking God), and clarified it was not the plan God intended (for marriage to be dissolved). Similarly marriage is designed and intended by God to be a uniting of one man and one woman into one flesh.
Matthew 19:4-6
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Simply stated, God did not set His creation up to match man's sinful nature which came after the man's fall. Since God is Holy and we are not Holy in this life, this makes for a good deal of internal friction for our fleshly nature when we are trying to follow Jesus -- at least there is friction for those whom are following Jesus having believed in Him and trusted that His death and resurrection is the perfect sacrifice through which we are saved by grace through faith (which that faith is also given to the believer by the Holy Spirit awakening the person to the reality that they are dead in their sins and that they are made alive in Christ), and that this salvation through Jesus provides the Christian with the Holy Spirit which replaces our heart of stone (dead in sin and at war with God) with a heart of flesh (alive in Christ Jesus and able to resist the fleshly desires by relying on God and seeking Him). To follow Christ is to follow the Father and the institution of marriage given by God in this context of following God is one man and one woman married before God for life.
Frankly, the corruption of God's intended design and purpose for marriage and of the family produced in that paradigm is definitely part of Satan's plan for humanity. Satan's plan to corrupt is also greatly aided by sinful man's hard heart which ignores God's plan and purpose and supplants God's rule with mans sinful desires. Both destroying marriage and the family through divorce, adultery, and fornication and extending marriage to be multiple husbands and/or multiple wives are corruptions to what God has revealed in the Bible is intended. By following either path falling outside what God intended and specified ( 1 man and 1 woman), we are displaying and revealing evidence of our sinful hard hearts that do not seek and follow Jesus.
You are conflating big families with requiring multiple wives. Many children can be the blessing of God with only one wife.
Some general commentary on your examples: Jacob married Rachel then Leah. In that period of his life, I would argue his thoughts and desires did not particularly involve seeking God. He did eventually seek God and he wrestled with God for a blessing just before he was to meet his brother Esau whom he feared would kill him on sight due to stealing Esau's blessing and swindling Esau's birthright. It was after this encounter with God that Jacob changed. This is also made clear by God renaming Jacob to Israel. Jacob already had 2 wives and 2 concubines so this continued, but what happened is not necessarily aligned with what God's intended purpose and plan for a marriage is.
David did take multiple wives and was also said to be a man after God's own heart. David's best desires though did not prevent his flesh from leading him astray. His multiple wives bore multiple children and the whole situation caused serious calamities to befall Israel and the House of David including a rebellion and civil war by Absalom and the eventual divided kingdom period. Had David been content in the blessing of God for marriage between 1 man and 1 woman, David would have avoided many future troubles for himself, his children, and his kingdom.
Solomon took many wives and concubines. In fact he was extremely worldly and disobedient in many ways to God's law during his life. With his many wives came idolatry. His many wives setup the events that directly led to the divided kingdom even though it was David whose sins brought that prophesied punishment from God. These men David and Solomon were flawed sinful dysfunctional men whom at times wanted to follow God's law but were unable to and multiple wives was an aspect of this sin playing out in their lives. God used them even in their sinfulness to bring about his perfect plan and timing in this world.
Shifting to the New Testament
I Timothy 3:2 clearly indicates multiple wives in marriage is not the intended plan. This is why husband of 1 wife is specified as a requirement of pastoral leadership.
Therefore an overseer must be above reproach, the husband of one wife, sober-minded, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not a drunkard, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own household well, with all dignity keeping his children submissive, 5 for if someone does not know how to manage his own household, how will he care for God's church?
But that is for leaders you may argue. But the reality is we are to follow Jesus and our actions and thoughts should be toward that goal. If leadership requires the Christian be notably qualified by doing well in this way, it is also true that the congregation being led should also be striving to meet the same standard for it is out of the congregation that leaders will be determined and appointed by the Holy Spirit.
It is unfortunate the Bible doesn't fit man's desire for multiple wives or other arrangements for marriage. Before Christ, multiple wives to a husband was tolerated in some cases but that does not mean it was the intended perfect plan God created marriage to be. Specific to Hebrew law, the requirement for a wife (where the husband has brothers) in the family where the wife's husband dies without producing a child was to be married to the brother ( bringing the possibility of two wives to one man) was allowed to insure the bloodline and inheritance of the dead brother was not ended. For Israel this could cause problems if family lines died out given that each family line was promised prophetically specific blessings. Outside of that specific scenario, multiple wives is not condoned. In fact, I would argue that for the Christian, we are expected to follow Jesus. Jesus said to the teachers of the law that divorce was allowed to the Hebrew people by Moses because of their hard hearts (ie not seeking God), and clarified it was not the plan God intended (for marriage to be dissolved). Similarly marriage is designed and intended by God to be a uniting of one man and one woman into one flesh.
Matthew 19:4-6
He answered, “Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, 5 and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? 6 So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate.”
Simply stated, God did not set His creation up to match man's sinful nature which came after the man's fall. Since God is Holy and we are not Holy in this life, this makes for a good deal of internal friction for our fleshly nature when we are trying to follow Jesus -- at least there is friction for those whom are following Jesus having believed in Him and trusted that His death and resurrection is the perfect sacrifice through which we are saved by grace through faith (which that faith is also given to the believer by the Holy Spirit awakening the person to three reality that they are dead in their sins and that that are made alive in Christ), and that this salvation through Jesus provides the Christian with the Holy Spirit which replaces our heart of stone (dead in sin and at war with God) with a heart of flesh (alive in Christ Jesus and able to resist the fleshly desires by relying on God and seeking Him). To follow Christ is to follow the Father and the institution of marriage given by God in this context of following God is one man and one woman married before God for life.
Frankly, the corruption of God's intended design and purpose for marriage and of the family produced in that paradigm is definitely part of Satan's plan for humanity. Satan's plan to corrupt is also greatly aided by sinful man's hard heart which ignores God's plan and purpose and supplants God's rule with mans sinful desires. Both destroying marriage and the family through divorce, adultery, and fornication and extending marriage to be multiple husbands and/or multiple wives are corruptions to what God has revealed in the Bible is intended. By following either path falling outside what God intended and specified ( 1 man and 1 woman), we are displaying and revealing evidence of our sinful hard hearts that do not seek and follow Jesus.