"I accept the theory of polygamy intellectually and biblically but I have problems making it true to my heart," the wife of another patriarch told me yesterday as she bemoaned her inability to get rid of the emotional baggage of the monogamy-only mindframe. I sympathised with her and tried to share the experience of our own family in making that most important of transitions. My advice was to stop looking at the issue of polygamy itself but to focus on the spirit of patriarchy, for once you have that sorted out polygamy normally follows smoothly and slips naturally into place. During this longish discussion my fourth wife was with me interjecting her own remarks now and then, little realising that she was about to become an object lesson herself.
After the discussion was over I indicated to my wife that I was very tired and wanted to close down the computer and go to bed. But she had got into another discussion in a polygamy chat room and was very indignant. I calmly reminded her that she had not done her kitchen duties and that it was very late, way past our bed time, but she dug her feet in and would not yield. Finally, she used the crypto-feministic ploy of saying she would yield if I wanted her to, but very reluctantly and in a highly rebellious spiritual state, and in such a way that was calculated to either make me feel guilty for being a kill-joy or to simply pressure me into yielding because I was so tired and in no mood for a fight. I left her to her own devices and went into the kitchen where the dirty dishes lay stacked up in the sink and round about.
As I walked through the kitchen door the hair on my head stood on end and a shivver ran down the length of my spine to my neck as I saw a demon standing in the room by the kitchen window. As one involved in deliverance I have seen many phenomena like this in my time but I have not usually been taken off my guard nor have I reacted the way I did. Instead of rebuking the demon I was momentarily paralysed. Having regained myself, I rebuked it in the Name of Yah'shua (Jesus) and by His blood cast it out of the house, and it was gone.
I told my fourth wife upon returning what I had seen and she was quite phased by my experience. It did not take her long to put two and two together and realise that her rebellion against my authority had given Satan legal grounds to access our home.
She slept badly during the night and the next morning (today) related to me the nightmarish dream she had had. It was a long involved dream about outlaws and hiding the family for its safety but the key feature of the dream was that in it she was standing with her foot on my neck. This act was making me weaker and weaker but she still continued believing it was in my interests that she did so. Finally she removed her foot and then discovered that what gain she had anticipated from that action was purely imaginary. She supposed that she was saving me from an unpleasant fate - imprisonment by my enemies - though in actual fact, she learned, there had never been any danger of this at all. It had not only been a waste of time on her part but very detrimental physically and spiritually as her action had nearly killed me.
Though she did not realise it until after she had shared the dream, and I had explained to her that the placing of a foot on someone's neck, was an ancient symbolic gesture that appears on military stelae depicting a king's victory over his enemies, she had actually usurped my authority and set herself up as my Head. Without my having to interpret, she realised that she had rebelled against my patriarchal authority on two accounts (refusing to do her kitchen duty and to turn the PC off) and that this had not only allowed a demon access into our home but had actually injured me spiritually.
During her dream she had noticed not only that she behaved very selfishly when it came to others trying to take refuge but that her powers of self-defence were greatly diminished. Our son Alexei in the dream was firing shots at our enemies but the bullets were coming out of the musket as though a film was being played at slow speed. And the bullets just fell harmlessly in front of the gun no more than about a foot away.
I noticed that I had also become spiritually sluggish and was not working at my usual pace. It was as though a kind of 'sleep' had come over me. I had to shake it off in prayer in order to sit down and write this article.
I share this experience to illustrate just how serious a spiritual a matter it is when a wife rebells against the authority of her husband even in so seemingly innocuous things as a domestic duty. The spirit of Jezebel is not named such without a good reason for it is the very self same spirit of witchcraft which to Yahweh is an abomination. When a wife is in rebellion she actually resists her husband's own spirit and prevents him from functioning by inviting in a spirit of oppression. If allowed to remain, it is not usually long before illness and other troubles start besetting a family.
The choice of marriage partners is, in my view, one of the most sober and serious choices that anyone must ever make because once you become one-flesh with a wife, you also start becoming one-spirit too. The covenant of marriage is no different in principle and substance from the covenant which Yahweh caused Israel to enter with Him prior to the invasion of Canaan under Joshua. It took only the sin of one man - Aachan - who robbed some of the consecrated loot from Jericho and hid it under his tent, to cause Israelites to start dying in battle and to experience victory going to the inhabitants of Ai. Not until Aachan and his whole household had been executed was the curse removed from the nation and the conquest of Canaan could proceed in proper fashion and order.
If you are as shocked as I once was by the fate of Aachan then you will hopefully be shocked in coming to a realisation that disobedience has severe spiritual consequences in a marriage relationship. Yahweh will not be mocked. Your average Christian/Messianic accepts the intellectual consequences of Yahweh's Laws but really doesn't take them very seriously when it comes to putting them into practice. And when terrible things start happening in his life, whom does he normally blame?
The Patriarchal Order established by Yahweh is not a matter of democratic rights for either men or women. When Yahweh establishes a spiritual order He does not do so capriciously or on a mere whim. There is love and purpose behind such order. The severity of the punishment for rebellion against it reflects not so much Yahweh's nature (which some wrongly see as indicative that He is cruel and unfeeling) but Satan's because it is Satan who normally executes the punishment. It must be clearly understood that the Devil is constantly prowling around (1 Peter 5:8) looking for Yahweh's servant's in rebellion. When he finds one, he accuses them before the Throne of the Elohim, and Yahweh has no option but to agree to Satan doing his worst because Yahweh is an Elohim (God) of order (otherwise there would be no Justice - and with no Justice, there would be no mercy, forgiveness, or love). Satan's legal rights are always respected - if they weren't, Yahweh would be toppled from His throne of power.
Whatever you personally may consider to be insignificant (the rationale is usually that Yahweh is merciful and forgiving), Satan does not. He is the arch-legalist. If you so much as set one toe down in the wrong place he will be onto you like a ton of bricks in a flash.
No greater curse can befall a man at home or in his ministry than to have a wife in rebellion, because she becomes his adversary without often knowing it. She can open the door to demonic oppression in her family because she is not submitted according to the patriarchal fashion. It makes no difference how much her husband loves her (and I have known some good husbands almost love their wives to death) until she repents and confesses that she has allowed a spirit of witchcraft into her home.
This is why I do not advice a man to ever admit a second wife into his family until his first wife is properly submitted in the biblical way, for if he does, he will reap the whirlwind. Though the fault may well be the first wife's, it is ultimately his responsibility (and therefore 'fault') for not first ensuring that his wife was a true wife. This he cannot, of course, force but must patiently teach from the Word in firmness and love and let Yahweh do the working. I am not saying that he must wait for his first wife to be perfect in every point in her spiritual life, for no woman (or man, for that matter) is. But what I am most definitely saying is that before he enters into polygamy he had better be sure that his first wife at least has the Jezebel bull by the horns and is seen to be winning the victory in Christ. For if she is not, he will soon be whipped to insensibility by the demons.
I have seen, in recent time, one or two polygamous marriages which were literally hell on earth (I've seen plenty of monogamous ones in the same category too, mind you) because the spirit of Jezebel was running riot. The husband had lost complete control and was processing wives one after another, all of whom left bitter and angry. Part of his problem was trying to force his wives into submission which, on the spiritual plane, usually makes things a lot worse. For while it may bring short-term peace, it is merely delaying a catastropic explosion in the future.
If such a 'minor' infraction as my fourth wife's last night can bring so much trouble, what, do you imagine, is the result when more serious sins are committed? As yet, most men do not realise the burden of responsibility that polygamy actually entails. If most could catch a vision of it, I am sure that the vast majority of aspirant patriarchs would flee with their tails between their legs long before Satan actually drives them away with a stick. For the rod of correction in polygamy is a harsh one, and if you are not called into it - or enter it presumptuously by lightly taking Yahweh's Torah (Law) - you are going to get the thrashing of your life.
Click here to read my fourth wife's Account of this incident
Author: SBSK
