Believing - and Multiple! - Wives - Genesis 28-29; Psalm 11; Proverbs 3:11-12

In these two chapters, we see Jacob head back to his uncle’s house to find a wife from among his own people. We also see Esau marry a wife (his third) from among his Uncle Ishmael’s daughters to please his parents, who are displeased that he has married Canaanites.

 

Paul later talks about not being “yoked together” with unbelievers (2 Cor. 6:14) (though if a person becomes a believer and has an unbelieving spouse who is willing to stay married, the believer should not seek divorce – 1 Cor. 7:12-17). Paul may not be talking primarily about marriage there, but it would be included. God is forming a new people, an eternal people. All who refuse to give their allegiance to God will not be part of that people.

 

The Canaanites did not believe in the LORD, but Esau married two of their women. It demonstrated that his heart was unfaithful to the LORD, because he aligned himself with the very people God had said would die for their sins. I’m not sure that marrying a third wife was the best solution, but still, you can see that Esau was trying to correct a mistake the best way he knew how.

 

Jacob, on the other hand, intended to marry only one believing wife. But his uncle tricked him, so he ended up marrying two. Struggle is evident in the faith of Leah, but she was depending on the LORD to help her through her pain—something neither of Esau’s Canaanite wives would have done.

 

The multiple wife stuff is strange, and doesn’t even seem to be desired by Jacob. But something that is demonstrated by both Jacob and Esau is that God’s people are to have permanent ties only with God’s people, if they can help it. We know from Paul that when a believer and an unbeliever are married, the believer should be faithful to the spouse. But the consensus is that God’s people will be much better off when they marry God’s people. It doesn’t solve every problem, but at least they’ll have the same God and the same destiny.

 

Father, help believers who have not yet married only to consider marrying believers. Help believers who have married believers to rejoice that You are their mutual Lord and Savior. And help believers who are married to unbelievers to remain faithful to You and to their spouses, too—and to have wisdom in following You when their spouses pull them in other directions. Protect Your people, draw other people into Your household, and bring us all Home.