What God Joined Together - Family Radio

So then if, while her husband liveth, she be married to another man, she
shall be called an adulteress: but if her husband be dead, she is free from
that law; so that she is no adulteress, though she be married to another
man.
The wife is an adulteress if she is married to a second husband while her
first husband is still living. She is an adulteress because her first marriage has
become adulterated by her divorce, as well as because she has married a
second husband.
In the Bible, a number of examples are given of men with multiple wives:
Jacob had four wives, David had several wives, and Solomon had 700 wives and
300 concubines, but these were exceptions. The usual example that is given is
of one wife. This was true of Adam, Noah, Isaac, and Moses.
We also consider that never does the Bible instruct a man to divorce all but
the first wife. This is remarkable when we remember that the principle of one
man, one wife, goes all the way back to the beginning. God did not tell Adam
that the three or four or several shall become one flesh. He instructed mankind
in the beginning that the two shall be one flesh (Genesis 2:24). Although in
Genesis 2:24 the number “two” is not used, the verse speaks of a man cleaving
to his wife (not wives), “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother,
and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.” Jesus quotes this
verse in Matthew 19:5 and Mark 10:8. In both of these verses He declares that
the two shall be one flesh.
Therefore, we might expect that God would ask those who have violated
this command by taking multiple wives to divorce their additional wives. Such
an admonition is not given by God.
We must realize that even though God has willed that the proper marriage
is one husband, one wife, He has allowed mankind to break this law by having
multiple wives. Nowhere in the Bible does He ask believers with multiple
wives to divorce the extra wives.
The reason for this probably lies in the fact that even the marriage of a
second wife is still a marriage. Even though it is altogether wrong, for some
reason God still counts it as a marriage. Thus, the second wife becomes bound
to the husband even as the first wife has become bound to the husband. Once
this binding relationship occurs, it cannot be broken. The marriage to the
second wife adulterates the pristine, ideal character of marriage of one
husband, one wife, but the second marriage is a marriage, and therefore, there
can be no divorce.
When a man divorces his first wife, she is still bound to him from God’s
vantage point. Therefore, when he takes a second wife while his first wife is
living, he has two wives bound to him. The act of divorcing his first wife was
grievous sin. Likewise, the act of marrying a second wife was grievous sin. But
the second marriage is still a marriage, and therefore, there cannot be divorce
from the second wife. This is the marriage in which he must continue until
death separates him from this wife.
A second or third marriage under these circumstances is far from ideal.
52 What God hath joined together...