Whoa!

41 She bowed down with her face to the ground and said, "Here is your maidservant, ready to serve you and wash the feet of my master's servants." 42 Abigail quickly got on a donkey and, attended by her five maids, went with David's messengers and became his wife. 43 David had also married Ahinoam of Jezreel, and they both were his wives. 44 But Saul had given his daughter Michal, David's wife, to Paltiel ^[d] son of Laish, who was from Gallim. 1 Samuel 25:41-44

Whoa, what's up with that? Another wife? #3!

I think he had 7 by the time he was done.

Isn't David supposed to be a man after God's own heart?

I was tempted to just move on to the 26^th chapter and not deal with this, but I won't…let's look at this.

A number of godly men in the Old Testament had more than one wife; some even had women on the side, ever hear the word concubine?

I can't find where God forbid OT men to have more than one wife. Part of "the Law" even has instructions for the man with more than one wife (Deuteronomy 21:15).

There is a verse in (Deut 17:17) which forbid a king not to have "many wives", nor too many horses or money for that matter.

In the New Testament, we find that elders must be "the husband of one wife" (1 Timothy 3:2), I even heard some argue what exactly that means. To me it's pretty simple, I shouldn't have multiple wives!

It seems to me that every time there are multiple wives mentioned in the OT problems arise. If you need an example look at the story of Jacob's two wives and two concubines, and the "family" that results; God corrected Jacob on a lot of things, but not about his wives. The nation Israel actually came from the offspring of the four "wives" (2 wives, 2 concubines) of Jacob.

In the New Testament marriage to one woman is clearly the "ideal". Paul's words in Ephesians chapter 5 make it clear that marriage was intended as a picture of the relationship of Christ to His church, and a multiple wives certainly doesn't seem consistent with that! I would challenge you to read Ephesians 1:9; 1:22; 3:3; 4:15; 5:18; 5:21-33 about marriage and see how far we have drifted anyway from the "ideal".

Here's the deal, the more I know the less I understand, especially when it comes to the OT. Try fitting Lot's offering his two virgin daughters to the men of Sodom and Gomorrah, so that they won't rape his male guests (Genesis 19:8) into our "morale" Christianity today.

I personally think we avoid such subjects in the church today because we have a hard time explaining them, and if we can't explain them then "men" will look down on us. I'm sorry I would rather serve a God who I can't explain that one that I can. Seriously, who am I to try to explain God?

I'm wondering if the church today is more concerned with morality (keeping "the Law") than the heart issue. I think Jesus harshest words were about that.

Having spent a tremendous amount of time looking at the life of David, I can't explain his actions; lying, stealing, killing, infidelity, multiple wives, etc., but you always know where his heart is.

Wow, how far have we drifted from the idea.