So you are saying that Sarai(Sarah) was complicit in Abraham’s adulterous affair…Does the reason matter? Is there anything that justifies adultery?
You have evaded the point and spun it out of context. Abraham was not the source or cause of his taking Hagar to bed purely for the purpose of getting children, Sarah was the source and cause for this. As I said, in those times Sarah’s handmaid was essentially her property, to use as she saw fit, and the children thereof rightfully and legally would belong to Sarah and Abraham.
At some point you mention vows, and that’s the difference : we have no reason to believe whatsoever that the vows made by Abraham and Sarah exluded intercourse outside of marriage for the sake of getting children. Joseph Smith’s vows did, and he broke them.
Sounds like Abraham just used Hagar for his own gratification: having a child by her, but when Sarah had a child he tossed Hagar out on her ear.
You have consistently spun Scripture so as to make it seem as if Scripture presents Abraham as the instigator of these things. It was Sarah who instigated these things.
The picture you paint of Abraham and Sarah is dismal indeed. I wonder how God would choose such a man and his wife to make His covenant with.
That is the wonder, that he chose humans to be the vehicles of his promise. The Patriarchs were not impeccable ; in fact, their very faults and frailties, their successes and failures, furnish us with valuable life-lessons on one hand and retain in us a desire for someone perfect ; i.e., the Christ.
Jacob did not divorce his first wife when he married his second.
I repeat : he was tricked into marrying this woman, Leah. He could have abandoned her or called foul, etc., but he knew he was at the mercy of his not-so moral uncle : his object was the one woman ; namely, Rachel (my mistake, Rebecca was his father’s (Isaac’s) wife), from the get-go. That he did not choose to make a harlot of Leah may have been out of his own morality or conscience ; nonetheless, Scripture clearly demonstrates that this complicated and confusing relationship resulted in, not surprisingly, a jealous and split-loyalties household. It was not a good thing ; therefore, we have no reason here to imagine a justification for Joseph Smith’s patent adultery.
Niether did he divorce any wife when he had children with their servants. He just kept accumulating wives.
The servants were not his wives, they were his wive’s servants, whom they gave to him to get children from them. The polygamous relationship bred jealousy, and the woman furiously worked to out-do one another ; one was to conceive by the promise, another conceived and was fruitful by nature, though even still she desired more children by her handmaid. This was a disastrous mess, and once again is no justification for Joseph Smith’s own vow-breaking adulterous relationships. He had a wife and he swore before God to be faithful to her and her alone. Joseph Smith explicitly broke his vow, and it doesn’t matter if he used the (bad) example of the Patriarchs or if he said aliens made him do it,
he still broke his marital vow.
If Jacob were the Patriarch you thought he was, he would have divorced any and all wives before marrying another, and would have married another before having children with them. He didn’t. With the same brush you use on Joseph, paints Jacob in the same vein…using women for his own selfish purposes.
I wonder why God would continue His covenant with such a person.
In order to have Christ come. That God is able to use the failures and evil of men to serve His purpose of Good is no justification for doing evil ourselves. God is able to make this happen ; men are not, and Joseph Smith certainly was not in such a position, and further had no excuse : it being the clear understanding and universal testimony of Christians that we are to have one spouse until death do us part ; furthermore, even if this were not the case, he would still be bound by his vow made in public before God to his wife to love her and to keep her - her and no other - until death did them part. He broke this vow.
You do err in stating the Patriarchs were of the opinioin of having and keeping one wife,
Abraham did have and keep one wife, when he went astray from this it created bitterness and rivalry in his own home and left him having to exclude one of his children from his household. Jacob desired one wife but was deceived by his uncle. He intended for one wife. The resulting polygamous relationship was full of jealousy, rivalry and bitterness that infected even their children.
(cont’d).
eek
