Polygyny as a Tool of Survival
"Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house on the rock. And the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock." (Mat 7:24-25)
In a survival situation, the nuclear family - father mother, 1.5 children - is in quite the pickle. There are two main reasons for this:
Even if the father is a prudent man and and foresaw danger, stocked up the pantry significantly and prepared well in every thinkable manner for the time of collapse, his small family still has a major disadvantage: It is small, and since there is strength in numbers, it will be very difficult for his house to survive either in a well defended house or on the run.
At the same time, he cannot do anything about this major problem because it would be very unwise to team up with other families. We have read it plenty of times, everyone recommends that you team up with others of like mind, but as we know from history and experience, nothing stands as strong as the family, in times of crisis and in times of peace and safety. Why is that so, you ask ? Well, one cannot ever really gauge the likemindness of another when there are two or more "leaders" involved, and even if the other families seem so like minded, when it comes down to it, they want their own to survive, and would become enemies sooner or later. So the father of our nuclear family has to avoid contact with people for his family as best as he can, and thus they remain only a small unit.
The bible has a simple solution for this pickle. Consider these verses:
"Behold, children are a heritage from the LORD, the fruit of the womb a reward. Like arrows in the hand of a warrior are the children of one's youth. Blessed is the man who fills his quiver with them! He shall not be put to shame when he speaks with his enemies in the gate." (Psa 127:3-5)
Now even if if you know nothing about using bow and arrow in a combat situation, it stands to reason that it is a bad thing to run out of arrows. Hence quivers used to be rather big, in fact, they covered the whole back of an archer and held up to 150 arrows. As you can see, the number of children that is indeed called a blessing here is not 5, or even 10 or 15, but many many many more.
So the bible tells you that a big, a really big family, is the solution to the problem outlined above. Now how can a family get this big ? How can it become part of the beautiful and glorious branch that the people of Israel are prophesied to become again after the troublesome times ahead, troublesome times that we see now, and that we read about in Isaiah 3 and Matthew 24, for example ?
"And seven women shall take hold of one man in that day, saying, 'We will eat our own bread and wear our own clothes, only let us be called by your name; take away our reproach.' In that day the branch of the LORD shall be beautiful and glorious, and the fruit of the land shall be the pride and honor of the survivors of Israel." (Isa 4:1-2)
Yes indeed, polygyny is a tool of dominion, and a tool of survival at the same time. With one, only one strong patriarch to lead the whole family according to God's Law Word and Command, the whole family has a much better chance of surviving the coming collapse, of standing tall even when the enemies are numerous. Let me give you a few examples.
You might wish to argue that a big family has many mouths to feed. True enough. But it also has many (adult) hands to grow the food on its own, to process it and thus to feed the larger number easily, and interestingly enough, also cheaper than a smaller family can feed its fewer mouths.
You might wonder how such a large number of people is going to hide properly when the tribulations come. Well, the beauty of a large number is that they can be independent of society much easier than a family with 2 adults only. A man and his, say, seven wives share among themselves a tremendous amount of skills, abilities, and knowledge, so that the services society provides - from the plumber to the midwife - can be provided from within the family, no outside contact needed. So this big family can move to a very remote location with ease.
In short, those seven women Isaiah talks about must have known exactly what was really important when times get rough: protection inside a big, polygynous family, and children to ensure that the family will be multi-generational and can stand and prosper. Polygyny is indeed a tool of survival, and one that has the survival of the generations to come in mind as well as today's well-being and prosperity of the family.
"I will make you exceedingly fruitful, and I will make you into nations, and kings shall come from you. And I will establish my covenant between me and you and your offspring after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your offspring after you." (Gen 17:6-7)
