POLYGAMY - (11) POLYGAMY AND LEVIRATE LAW

POLYGAMY - OBJECTIONS, Q & A (11)

POLYGAMY AND LEVIRATE LAW

According to the Levirate Law, a brother shall take on his dead brother’s wife. Does this still apply naturally, if so, then how do we fulfill Deuteronomy 25:5-10?

This law can be applied spiritually and naturally. The principle here is to preserve a family line and to provide for and to protect a needy widow of a dead brother by taking her as one own wife even though if one is already married. This is especially needed in biblical times when women could hardly feed or protect themselves. This law was meant to benefit the women, thus she was free to go if she so chose as in the case of Ophar in the Bible, when her husband died and she could no longer be taken care of by her impoverished mother-in-law, Naomi. But Ruth, the other daughter-in-law, because of Kingdom-mindedness and close relationship with Naomi chose to stay bound to her to take care of her instead. Thus Naomi introduced Ruth to their next of kin to continue her family line that was left with no son. Because God's principle is unchanging, if such a need arises even in these modern times and if the woman is willing, there is nothing wrong before God should a Jew or a Christian choose to practice this principle in the natural. The underlying principle is to do what is appropriate for the widow and the Kingdom. Yet no man needs to be forced into it, like the immediate next of kin who refused to take up the responsibility to marry Ruth. In which case, even though a dishonor to him, the refusal was not considered a sin. But for this, he became a nobody in God's eye, whose name was not worthy enough to be mentioned in the Bible. He had to be removed of his sandal and be spat in the face! (Deut 25:9)
To apply this principle spiritually today, we are all brothers and next of kin to one another in the Kingdom of God, and with the big ratio difference of men and women believers and with the great lack of spiritual men, we find ourselves very much in the same scenario of needy Ruth and responsible Boaz in the real world of the present Church. We cannot but see this overwhelming need everywhere in the Universal Church. Thus it is appropriate that spiritual men should arise to undertake the task of husbanding (or taking care of) more women who seem "widowed" by this condition. Otherwise due to the big shortage of men, the Church is losing many women and children to the world because they are forced by this condition to marry non-believers, to forsake their dedication and commitment to God and to bear children for the gods of the unbelievers, like in the case of Ophar who disappeared from the Bible from that time onward. The issue of these legitimate needs and the loss of such needy ones is blatantly ignored by the ministers of Universal Church today.

The practice of the Levirate Law by the Kingdom-minded Ruth and Boaz (who was most probably a married man because of his age, wealth and status) became the foundation and great grand-parents of King David and of the Blood Line. The understanding and application of this principle calls for people who can be spiritual and Kingdom-minded enough to pay the price to keep the Kingdom and to be concerned for the plight of many women and children in the Universal Church. Holding dear to the strictly "monogamy-only" theology in the face of the severity of the problem is nothing but embracing the Roman worldview and self-righteous holiness and is being totally blind to the needs of the needy for whom Jesus died and being oblivious to the purpose of the true gospel that should provide genuine solution to life problems. I pray that the servants of God entrusted with the task of tending God's Kingdom will seriously consider this and see how the Kingdom is unscripturally robbed, down-sized and crippled and how God's people are deprived of what is rightful for them. That which was shame and dishonor because of the failure to fulfill the Levirate Law is today considered as spirituality and holiness. Has the unchanging God finally changed? Definitely not!

He (Jesus) said to him, "What is in the law? What is your reading of it?"
(Luke 10:26, NKJ)

Read the scriptures quoted below and be sure you know where you stand before God on this issue of the practice of the Levirate Law in this modern day:

Deut 25:5-10
5    "If brothers dwell together, and one of them dies and has no son, the widow of the dead man shall not be married to a stranger outside the family; her husband's brother shall go in to her, take her as his wife, and perform the duty of a husband's brother to her.
6    "And it shall be that the firstborn son which she bears will succeed to the name of his dead brother, that his name may not be blotted out of Israel.
7    "But if the man does not want to take his brother's wife, then let his brother's wife go up to the gate to the elders, and say, 'My husband's brother refuses to raise up a name to his brother in Israel; he will not perform the duty of my husband's brother.'
8    "Then the elders of his city shall call him and speak to him; and if he stands firm and says, 'I do not want to take her,'
9    "then his brother's wife shall come to him in the presence of the elders, remove his sandal from his foot, spit in his face, and answer and say, 'So shall it be done to the man who will not build up his brother's house.'
10    "And his name shall be called in Israel, 'The house of him who had his sandal removed.'
(NKJ)