Many supposed-to-be Bible-believers mistakenly assert that the Bible's definition of marriage excludes polygamy. A clear study of the story of King David - and all of his wives - proves otherwise. It also exposes how anti-polygamy can be seen as that which Jesus called the "unforgivable sin."
Most Christian Bible-students understand the prophetic Psalms - especially those which foretold of Jesus the Messiah - as being written "by the Spirit of God." David authored those Psalms.
Indeed, from the time when the prophet Samuel anointed the boy David, until the time King David breathed his last breath, the Scripture directly says that the Spirit of God was "on David." The Scriptures also show David being called a prophet "filled with the Spirit." Even in Acts 1 and 2, the Spirit-filled Apostle Peter said that "the prophet" David spoke by the Spirit of God.
Spirit-filled David is undisputedly among the most important heroes of the Bible. He was also very much a polygamist. Biography-wise, the Biblical books of 1st and 2nd Samuel fully detail David’s ever-growing family and power.
A rather young David married his first wife, Michal - the princess daughter of Saul, king of the land of Israel - after accomplishing a God-assisted victory in battle. David's continuing successes and popularity made King Saul feel threatened. When Saul prepared to kill him, David’s wife helped him escape - forcing David to leave her behind. King Saul cruelly "assigned" Michal to another man.
Subsequently, God gave David 400 men, committed to following his command. After more successes, David married two more wives, Abigail and Ahinoam.
Polygamist David continued to grow in political power. God have him 200 more men.
Later, God gave him an entire town, Ziklag; David’s political power kept growing. The Amelekites later attacked his town during David's absence. They also kidnapped David’s two wives. Responding to David, God overtly promised that David would "recover all" - including his two wives. The Lord then gave David victory, recovering all. God helped him rescue Abigail and Ahinoam back home.
While David was battling the Amelekites, King Saul was somewhere else in another battle - and he was killed. David asked God what he should do and God told him to go to Hebron. After David had brought his two wives there, God gave him the entire tribe-land of Judah. Polygamist David was anointed King of Judah. Saul's son, Ishbosheth, ruled the remaining tribe-lands of Israel.
Over the next seven and half years, David married four more wives: Maacah, Haggith, Abital, and Eglah. David, the king of Judah, had six wives with him in Hebron. All six bore him a son. During this time, David also still wanted his first wife Michal back. So, he sent messengers to Ishboseth, requesting her return. Thereby, God brought Michal back to David too.
Eventually, Ishboseth was assassinated. David had had nothing to do with it. God then gave all of the kingdom of Israel to the 38 year old polygamist David with seven known wives and six sons. David moved and subsequently ruled Israel and Judah from Jerusalem.
One night, while standing "on the roof of the king’s house," David had seen Bathsheba bathing. He called for people to bring her to him, even though she was the only wife of one of David’s warriors, Uriah the Hittite.
After she subsequently became pregnant by him, David gave orders for Uriah to be intentionally placed in a dangerous battle situation. As expected, Uriah was killed.
God sent the prophet Nathan to call out David's sin. Through Nathan, God said that He had given David everything, including Israel and all of David’s wives. Indeed, God directly said that He Himself had given David all his wives. In 2 Samuel 12:8, the Lord directly said that if David had wanted more wives, God would have given him even more.
God explained David's two sins: stealing another man's wife and intentionally having the man killed. David quickly repented of those sins.
But his polygamy was not any sin at all. David was neither required to repent of polygamy nor called to abandon his previous seven known wives. Although Bathsheba’s child died, she still became David's eighth known-named wife. She later bore another son for David: the eventual mega-polygamist Solomon.
The Bible further reports that David married ten more wives, too, whose names were not recorded.
The Bible is clear. David’s polygamy is marriage.
Except for those sins that David repented, the Holy Spirit was always "on David." According to 1 Kings 15:5, David did everything right according to God, always doing as God "commanded him all the days of his life, save only in the matter of Uriah the Hittite."
The Spirit-filled David never repented - nor had to repent - of polygamy. Not only did Jesus never call David an unrepented sinner, but in Matthew 25, the sinless Savior metaphorically described Christ Himself as the polygamous bridegroom coming to marry "five wise virgins." Not only did God the Father say that He had given David all his wives before Bathsheba, but in both Jeremiah 3 and Ezekiel 23, the Lord even prophetically described God Himself as polygamously married.
The Bible declares that the Spirit of God was "on David" - as God gave him each political and marital increase. The prophetic Psalms were written "by the Spirit" being "on" polygamist David.
To deny that Spirit-filled David’s polygamy is marriage is to defy God and to accuse David as an unrepented "whoremongerer." That means that Revelation 21:8 condemns David - and even the Holy Ghost - to the hellfires.
In Matthew 12:32 and Mark 3:23, Jesus said that all repented sins would be forgiven - except one sin which would never be forgiven: the sin of "blasphemy against the Holy Ghost." Christ said that those who commit that one unforgivable sin will be in "danger of eternal judgment."
Denying that Spirit-filled David's polygamy is real marriage can be recognized as an example of what Jesus called the "unforgivable sin." Anti-polygamy blasphemes the Holy Ghost.
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Bibliographic URLs:
Comprehensive Scripture Study: How God Blessed David
http://www.truthbearer.org/read-first/david-blessed/
Polygamist David
http://www.biblicalpolygamy.com/polygamists/david/
http://www.biblicalpolygamy.com/exegesis/god-said-he-gave-wives/
Jesus Christ metaphorically self-described as a polygamist
http://www.biblicalpolygamy.com/the-lord/jesus-christ/
God the Father prophetically self-described as a polygamist
http://www.biblicalpolygamy.com/the-lord/god-the-father/
Polygyny is not Adultery
http://www.biblicalpolygamy.com/exegesis/adultery/
[Reviewed for publication - Pro-Polygamy.com Review Board.]
