Saturday, October 1, 2016

The Fruit of Gideon's Bigamy

In reading through Judges, I noticed that Gideon was not only a bad example by his ephod (8:24-27), a trophy of his victories that turned idolatrous, but also by his harem (8:29-31). Notice some very bad fruit of his bigamy: (1) one "second-class" son, Abimelech (8:31), kills all the others except for one (9:5); and (2) three other judges follow his example of bigamy: Jair (10:3-5), Ibzhan (12:8-10), and Abdon (12:13-15). This cycle is repeated among the kings of Judah: Saul (1 Sam. 14:50, 2 Sam. 3:7); David (2 Sam. 3:2-5, 5:13-16); Solomon (1 Kings 11:3); Rehoboam (2 Chron. 11:18-23);  Abijah (2 Chron. 13:21); Joash (2 Chron. 24:3); Josiah (2 Kings 23:31, 36); Jehoiachin (2 Kings 24:15), and Zedekiah (Jer. 38:23). Likely it was also repeated among the kings of Israel, since Ahab had seventy sons (2 Kings 10:1) like Gideon did.

If you feel like living with one woman is difficult at times, think about the far-reaching consequences of these men's decisions to take multiple wives, which was something God never intended for any man, king or otherwise (Deut. 17:17; Mt. 19:3-6) and only allowed in the kingdom program (Mt. 19:7-9), not the mystery age (1 Cor. 7:11; 1 Tim. 3:2, 12; Tit. 1:6)

P.S. Gideon made the ephod from golden earrings (8:24-27), just like Aaron did the golden calf (Ex. 32:2-4). O the power of example! 

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