“When the day came that Elkanah sacrificed, he would give portions to Peninnah his wife and to all her sons and her daughters; but to Hannah he would give a double portion, for he loved Hannah, but the LORD had closed her womb. Her rival, however, would provoke her bitterly to irritate her, because the LORD had closed her womb.” (1 Sam 1:4-6)
Notice the relationship between Hannah and Peninnah? They are rivals. There is no such thing as “free love” where we roam from one relationship to another without impact or consequence. When God designed marriage, He designed it for one man and one woman wholly committed to each other.
Jesus said, “Have you not read that He who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘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. What therefore God has joined together, let no man separate.”
Polygamy, living together outside of marriage, promiscuity, hooking up, and all other systems defile God’s design of marital harmony. They create rivalry and strife instead of love and honor.
Would Hannah have still been sorrowful that she couldn’t bear children? Certainly. But that sorrow was unnecessarily inflamed with the rivalry of polygamy.
“Let marriage be held in honor among all, and let the marriage bed be undefiled…” (Heb 13:4)
Matt. 4:4 #Biblebites