(Hey, with all the rivalries that arose with Jacob's household, I'm sure most of the time Jacob didn't "approve" of his 2-wife, 2-sleeping-with-servants arrangement)
Which, btw, strikes me (for the first time): I've had NUMEROUS convos with Mormons on FR thru the years...and some non-Mormons...re Jacob's household arrangements.
The tenor has been (if I was to generic-ize these convos...) that since God worked thru Jacob to establish the tribes of Israel...and since they can't imagine God would sanction that unless He in some way approved of polygamy...that it was somehow God-ordained...and by some extrapolation...so was Mormon polygamy.
So...what now strikes me is that IF polygamy is so...
..."Biblical"...
..."God-ordained" (by implication -- not by any divine mandate in Scripture)...
...and that we can base polygamy as an "institution" upon the foundation of Jacob...
...then, hey...why stop at polygamy based upon Genesis 29?
...I mean, by this logic...
...since Biblical female servants were closer to slaves than mere "household help" {IoW, they had no real rights -- such as the ability to say "no" if their mistress (mistress as in a female "master") told them to sleep with the head of the household}...
...then, hey, you're basically also conveying that the Bilhah and Zilpah accounts in Genesis 30 made it "Biblical" for 19th and 18th-century white American slaveowners to sleep with their black slaves...is that what you're sayin'?
Slaves have no rights as to who they sleep with. God "worked with" Jacob's slave-sleeping arrangements...wallah! (from French viola). The institution of slave bedroom arrangements is now allegedly confirmed by you citing the Bible that it happened!
The institution of slave bedroom arrangements is now allegedly confirmed by you citing the Bible that it happened!
It says so!
Right HERE!!!
THE BROTHER OF NEPHI
25 Wherefore, thus saith the Lord, I have led this people forth out of the land of Jerusalem, by the power of mine arm, that I might raise up unto me a righteous branch from the fruit of the loins of Joseph.
26 Wherefore, I the Lord God will not suffer that this people shall do like unto them of old.
27 Wherefore, my brethren, hear me, and hearken to the word of the Lord: For there shall not any man among you have save it be one wife; and concubines he shall have none;
28 For I, the Lord God, delight in the chastity of women. And whoredoms are an abomination before me; thus saith the Lord of Hosts.
29 Wherefore, this people shall keep my commandments, saith the Lord of Hosts, or cursed be the land for their sakes.
30 For if I will, saith the Lord of Hosts, raise up seed unto me, I will command my people; otherwise they shall hearken unto these things.
31 For behold, I, the Lord, have seen the sorrow, and heard the mourning of the daughters of my people in the land of Jerusalem, yea, and in all the lands of my people, because of the wickedness and abominations of their husbands.
32 And I will not suffer, saith the Lord of Hosts, that the cries of the fair daughters of this people, which I have led out of the land of Jerusalem, shall come up unto me against the men of my people, saith the Lord of Hosts.
1 Timothy 3:2-3
2. Now the overseer must be above reproach, the husband of but one wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach,
3. not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money.
A deacon must be the husband of but one wife and must manage his children and his household well.
An elder must be blameless, the husband of but one wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient.
DOCTRINE AND COVENANTS
OF THE CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST OF LATTER-DAY SAINTS