Anti-polygamy preachers are not aware that after His statement in Genesis 2:24 the Supreme Being did not have multiple-marriage as one of the sinful acts…

Sina Adedipe

As indicated in the tailpiece announcement promoting today’s article in last week’s column, anti – polygamy preachers say Almighty God was instituting monogamy for married men in Genesis 2:24 because of ignorance, poor intelligence and ridiculous reasoning ability. It is for the same reasons that they opine that Jesus Christ was endorsing monogamy when he repeated the statement of the Heavenly Father in Matthew 19: 4 – 6.

READ ALSO: Perspectives on polygamy in Nigeria

Their problem of ignorance arises from the fact that they have not read all the 66 Books in the Bible from Genesis through Revelation and therefore do not know the other things the Ancient of Days said after His statement in Genesis 2:24. And what Jesus said on marriage and man – woman relationship in Matthew 5:27 – 32 before his statement on divorce, not on polygamy or monogamy, fourteen chapters later in Matthew 19:4 – 6.

Consequently, the anti-polygamy preachers are not aware that after His statement in Genesis 2:24 that the Supreme Being did not have multiple-marriage as one of the sinful acts to be avoided in the Ten Commandments in Exodus 20: 1 – 17, as He did with adultery in verse 14 in the chapter. They also do not know that the Lord had nothing against polygamy in His other enactments in Exodus 21:1 – 36; 22:1 – 31 and 23:1 – 13 and in Leviticus Chapters 13: 1 – 59; 18: 1 – 30; 19: 1 – 36 and 27: 1 – 34.

Ditto His laws in Numbers 6:1 – 21; 15: 1 – 41; 30: 1 – 16 and in Deuteronomy Chapters 5, 6, 8, 10, 24, 25, 27 and 28.Theyarealsonot aware that multiple-marriage was not one of the sins the Most High listed for punishment in Leviticus 20: 1 – 27 and also not one of the vices He placed curses on offenders in Deuteronomy 27:11 – 26.

As shown in last week’s column, the anti-polygamy preachers are also ignorant of the fact that the Heavenly Father in Exodus 21: 10 – 11 and Deuteronomy 21:15 – 17 gave rules to husbands with two or more wives on how to run their families for love and peace to reign in their families.

Given this and the fact that He made no laws prohibiting polygamy and did not punish anyone in the Bible for having more than one wife, it is a matter of common sense that the Lord could not have been instituting monogamy with His statement in Genesis 2:24. When He said: “Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife: and they shall be one flesh.”

READ ALSO: The sunnah of monogamy

Since the Supreme Being made no law against polygamy, but instead gave rules to promote goodwill in polygamous homes, it is also certain that He did not create one wife for Adam because He wanted a husband to have one spouse. For those who are puzzled about His action, did He not say in Isaiah 55:8 that His thoughts and ways are different from those of human beings?

As long – time readers have come to know, through some of my pieces published in 2010 through 2016 in which I provided incontestable facts, I have the grace of speaking one-to-one with the Heavenly Father. For the sake of those who are new to my column, I will come up with the evidence again before this series ends.

As reported in this column three months ago, on June 6, I once raised the issue of Genesis 2:24 with the Ancient of Days. And what He told me was that with that statement He was instituting the type of marriage procedure the Israelites were to have, not monogamy.

This was the situation in which a man would leave his parents to live with and serve for seven years the father of the woman he wanted to marry. The Lord made this known through the marriage of Jacob who worked for Laban for 14 years to wed his daughters – Rachel and Leah (Genesis 29:15 – 35).

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Next week: Why the Lord chose the marriage of Jacob and not that of Lamech, the first polygamist, to reveal the seven-year service condition.

READ ALSO: Early marriages dangerous – Josephine Abraham, singer/actress

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Phenomenal matriarch of the Adedipes, Falaes, Ade – Ojos and others (16)

I declined the first invitation of Governor Olabode George of Ondo State for me to be a member of his cabinet in 1987 conveyed by late Mr. Tunde Savage, the Commercial Manager of the Daily Times in the 1980s. Ditto on the second occasion when he sent late Colonel Afolabi David, a mutual friend of ours.

I eventually agreed to travel from my base in Lagos to meet Governor George in Akure when he sent his colleague at St. John’s Primary School, Aroloya on Lagos Island and Ijebu – Ode Grammar School, the late Lt – Colonel Okunola Okuromade who came with Colonel David to my house. Dr. Ralph Akinfeleye of the Department of Mass Communication, University of Lagos, now a professor, was with me at the time they came. Okuromade whose aunt former Miss Adetutu Adesigbin was married to my uncle, Pa John Bankole Adedipe, and I lived with the couple in the 1960s at 18A, Joseph Street on Lagos Island.

Okuromade, David and I travelled to Akure the following day and slept at a guest house within the Governor’s Lodge Complex at Alagbaka. Governor George was to present his administration’s budget the next morning, so we did not meet until about 10pm when he had dinner with us.

He said he had been sending people to me because he was on orders from General Ibrahim Babangida, the Military Head of State and Commander – in – Chief of the Armed Forces, to have me in his cabinet. With that I told him out of respect for his boss I would accept a part-time appointment to be the Chairman of the Board of Directors of a government corporation or agency.

That was how in 1988 when it was the turn of Ondo State to provide the Chairman of the Lagos Airport Hotel, Ikeja owned with Oyo and Ogun State Governments he nominated me. It was a two – year appointment that was on from January 1989 – January 1991.

Anybody can go and find out it was the board that I headed that took the first steps that turned Lagos Airport Hotel from a third – rate hospitality facility to one of the leading four in Lagos, joining Ikoyi Hotel, Federal Palace Hotel and Sheraton Hotel.

• More to come next week

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Ebenezer Babatope, the great (17)

Because of space, I will only correct the mistake in last week’s piece in today’s edition in the series. Eddie Odedina (Eddie Small) was not the drummer of the Soul Assembly. Sunmi Smart – Cole was. Eddie played with the Cyclops band. The error, which no reader detected, was realized after I had sent my script to the editor last Monday, but the correction could not be made before publication.

• To be continued next week