Monogamy was clearly God’s intent [Genesis 2:22-24] but after Adam and Eve were exiled from the garden, marriage lines became blurred.
The Old Testament references several men who took more than one wife such as Cain and Esau. What is interesting, however, is the wives of Esau made life bitter for himself and his parents [Genesis 26:34-35].
Polygamy, distorts what Christian marriage represents: *’‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh.’” This mystery is profound, and I am saying that it refers to Christ and the church. Nevertheless let every one of you in particular so love his wife even as himself; and the wife see that she reverence her husband.” [Ephesians 5:31-32).*
When Jesus arrived on the scene, he spoke about a model marriage in Mark 10 after the Pharisees tried to trap him with the question:
*Some Pharisees came, and to test him they asked, “Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?” He answered them, “What did Moses command you?” They said, “Moses allowed a man to write a certificate of dismissal and to divorce her.” But Jesus said to them, “Because of your hardness of heart he wrote this commandment for you. But from the beginning of creation, ‘God made them male and female. For this reason a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh. So they are no longer two, but one flesh. Therefore, what God has joined together, let no one separate.’” Then in the house the disciples asked him again about this matter. He said to them, “Whoever divorces his wife and marries another commits adultery against her; and if she divorces her husband and marries another, she commits adultery.”* We are bound to experience a recap of this scenario in our contemporary christianity because of the end time lawlessness that’s simultaneously making grounds in the church. *”For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear.” 2 Timothy 4:3* This is a clear evidence of what is trending concerning marriage.
Jesus’ moral teaching on marriage was meant to be a reminder of what God intended marriage to be in the first place. *[1 Timothy 3:2]*
*CONCLUSION:*The Bible begins with a wedding [of Adam and Eve] and ends in the book of Revelation with a wedding [of Christ and the church]. Marriage is God’s idea.” Marriage is indeed God’s idea. God overlooked the times of ignorance in the Old Testament. As the New Testament church we have greater clarity on this matter. It is our privilege to proclaim the wisdom of God’s original design: the one flesh union of marriage.
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