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My whole world just turned upside down

Expanding this, Yah’s pattern/plan was for every woman to be covered, which is impossible without polygyny.
Please show where the Bible says it is Yah's pattern/plan for every woman to be covered. I'm not saying it isn't, I just ask that you prove this assertion.

Didn't God Himself at least temporary"uncover" the Northern Kingdom of Israel when He divorced her for her adulteries?
 
Last question first, was it ever His will for her to rebel and become uncovered?
 
Honestly @Bartato, I read the first half of your message post and absolutely loved it - you're saying things that I really wish more men would realise. You've just taken it too far towards the end.

I do think that this is a very real problem for many men. They discover polygamy is permissible, and leap from that into pursuing it, hunting for another wife or more under their own strength, regardless of the harm to their existing wife and others in their lives. This can most certainly be an idol - and it's an attractive one, because it involves sex. Idolatry has always been associated with sex - that's why pagan worship involved prostitutes. This is a weakness Satan is very good at exploiting, to turn men away from God and towards their own desires.

But monogamy can be an idol in the same way. How many men pursue woman after woman and get themselves into lots of trouble, without ever once being polygamous? Obviously, far, far more. Most people are susceptible to Satan's wiles and can be easily dragged into a life of lust.

But there are a few men who are really focussed on God. They know this is wrong. They genuinely want to follow Him. They're far harder for Satan to target with loose women - they won't fall for it. He has to be far more cunning - and polygamy can give him the opening he is looking for, to take this desire for lots of sex with different women, which the Godly man resists, and give it a veneer of holiness, allowing him to capture this man in the same net.

Satan is a cunning devil, and both monogamy and polygamy are tools he twists to his own ends. That does not, however, mean that either are inherently idolatrous - just that either can be made into idols.

This may or may not be true. An argument can be made in either direction. I don't think it's a profitable topic to argue over - regardless of whether polygamy was God's original plan or whether it was a result of the fall, we live in a post-fall world and polygamy exists. If polygamy was permitted by God as a result of the fall - then he permitted it because he needed to, because it was necessary in some situations to deal with the results of the fall.

In other words, this would mean it is even more necessary in our world today than if it was the original plan! God's original plan was for a pre-fall, perfect world. And we don't live in such a world.

God's original, ideal plan was for no widows to ever remarry (with no death, there would be no widows), and for no child to ever be adopted (with no death, there would be no orphans). Remarriage and adoption are consequences of the fall. Does that mean that a widow should remain single, and not remarry, because remarriage was not in God's original plan? Does it mean orphans should be abandoned and expected to fend for themselves? Of course not. In the real world of today, death occurs, leaving widows and orphans, and God has given us ways of dealing with them. Far from being told not to do either of these, remarriage and care of orphans is positively encouraged, even mandated in some circumstances.

So even if we assume that God's original plan for a perfect world was monogamy - that is not relevant to today. And if we religiously try to follow an obsolete plan, we may fail to see God's plan for our lives today. We must recognise God's plan for the world today - a fallen, broken world - and be God's lights in that broken world, His hands to heal that world.

We cannot abandon orphans because they didn't exist pre-fall. Nor can we abandon widows because they didn't exist pre-fall.

Should we abandon excess single women, who cannot marry because of the demographics of a fallen world, just because they too did not exist pre-fall?
As usual there is tremendous wisdom in what you write. I understand that in this current age in which we live, the Bible treats polygamy as marriage.

Please graciously allow me to refocus the discussion away from debating polygamy. I would like to focus on the gracious work that Christ has recently worked in my heart.

There was idolatry in my desire for polygamy. My sin against the Lord Jesus Christ also caused me to badly harm my wife. God opened my eyes to these things, and broke my heart.

I'm sure I am not the only man with these issues. I imagine that this is also the case with many other men. At the same time, I cannot assume that all other men operate with the same evil intent that I did. Some do not. That is between each man and Jesus Christ. We should all examine our hearts to see whether we are operating in faith and love.
 
Please show where the Bible says it is Yah's pattern/plan for every woman to be covered. I'm not saying it isn't, I just ask that you prove this assertion.

Didn't God Himself at least temporary"uncover" the Northern Kingdom of Israel when He divorced her for her adulteries?
Bartato, responding to your post that started this thread: thank you for such a thoughtful sharing of what your struggle has been. There is a lot to respect there, and I do!
As for this "covering" stuff, I think you are correct in pushing back. I had this discussion a while back and now looking back at the thread, I kind of just shake my head:

Anyway, I think you are absolutely right to push back against this. If a woman came to me for "covering" I would explain to her that the only covering she needs is the Messiah. The problem with the way I have seen "covering" used often in these forums is that it takes a meaning far beyond the headship relationship required in a marriage (which even includes the submission of the wife/wives "in all things.")

I also want to say I agree with the comment someone else made affirming that monogamy can be turned into an idol just as much as poly. I think a wife in a monogamous relationship should practice a constant acceptance of the possibility of polygyny even if her husband is not interested in or pursuing polygamy.
 
Bartato, responding to your post that started this thread: thank you for such a thoughtful sharing of what your struggle has been. There is a lot to respect there, and I do!
As for this "covering" stuff, I think you are correct in pushing back. I had this discussion a while back and now looking back at the thread, I kind of just shake my head:

Anyway, I think you are absolutely right to push back against this. If a woman came to me for "covering" I would explain to her that the only covering she needs is the Messiah. The problem with the way I have seen "covering" used often in these forums is that it takes a meaning far beyond the headship relationship required in a marriage (which even includes the submission of the wife/wives "in all things.")

I also want to say I agree with the comment someone else made affirming that monogamy can be turned into an idol just as much as poly. I think a wife in a monogamous relationship should practice a constant acceptance of the possibility of polygyny even if her husband is not interested in or pursuing polygamy.
Regarding polygamy, I'm backing off my attack on it. The Bible treats it as marriage.

I prefer to focus on my situation, my heart intentions, my relationship with my Lord Jesus Christ, and my relationship with my wife. I was badly wrong, and was blind to it. Now, I see that.

Regarding the 'women always need to be covered by a man" issue, I know that it is often stated and assumed. I want to see the Biblical evidence for it. Maybe that should be the topic for another and separate discussion.
 
I've got a bunch of memes incoming that express how I feel. If they apply to you, that's good. If they do not apply to you, that is also good. ☺️
 
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Warning:. You guys know I'm a bit of a Lewis and Tolkien fan, so there will be a little of that. 😉
 
There is such a thing as balance.
 
Anyway, I think you are absolutely right to push back against this. If a woman came to me for "covering" I would explain to her that the only covering she needs is the Messiah. The problem with the way I have seen "covering" used often in these forums is that it takes a meaning far beyond the headship relationship required in a marriage (which even includes the submission of the wife/wives "in all things.")
If marriage is to image the Messiah and the Assembly (commonly mistranslated as [Christian] Church) then how is 'submission in ALL things' an incorrect distillation?
 
@Bartato just because polygyny was your idol does not make it everyone else's idol...

Money is not a bad thing, but 'the love of money ' is..

Go and sin no more.
 
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