Q. Is there any sort of seniority or rank among your wives? How does all of that work out in daily life?

Equal in Marriage, Unequal in Maturity & Giftedness

A. The simple answer to that question is that whilst all sister-wives are equal in marriage, there are obviously going to be differences in physical, emotional and spiritual maturity...in giftedness, in character development, and all the other things that make human beings different from one another. These include differences in degrees of committment, surrenderedness, obedience, faithfulness, lovingness and so forth. Additionally, the longer a wife has been married, the more experienced she is in the ways of her husband and his household. The first wife chronologically is not necessarily the eldest either, though it's more common for the 'wife of a man's youth' to be the eldest. There is not a direct correlation beween physical age and length of time married. In fact, my eighth wife is the second eldest. Nor are the eldest wives necessarily the most mature. Looking at my family as an outsider, with no knowledge of the wives personally, and you would likely get all the markers wrong. Thus aside from physical age and when a wife enters the family - which are obviously fixed and cannot change - everything else is in constant flux, hopefully upwards but sometimes, alas, the reverse.

The HEM Model

Though there may be said to be 'present realities' that are a function of all sorts of different things such as experience and the choices we make, there is an overarching ideal shared by all and taught by myself as husband as the unifying thread of the family: the sum total of all the Torah principles embedded in Holy Echad Marriage. To understand how this model works, we must turn to the teachings of the Saviour. A plural family is, when working correctly according to Yahweh's design, a model for the Messianic Community itself to emulate, with Christ at the head. The greatest shall be the least - and the least, the greatest - is that ideal (Lk.9:48) - or as Moses put it, 'were all of Yahweh's people prophets' like himself (Num.11:29), which obviously they were not. That was the ideal - that all would have the same Spirit and all would have the same prophetic insights. Ideally, every wife should not only have this kind of spirituality in the same way Israel and the Messianic Community should, but she should be steered by the same spirit as her husband and have the same prophetic vision for the family as her husband does, as his helpmeet.

The Twelve Books of Abraham

There has to be a unified family goal, movement and momentum that her husband clearly maps. Every community is a kaleidoscope of human features and characteristics. The attitude of sister-wives rightly related to Christ and to their husband is always one of mutual respect, putting others before self, serving one another, sharing the same collective mission. Wives with different visions, goals and ambitions is a recipe for family failure. The model of plural families in our spiritual Order is the 12 books of Abraham and as such, then, the way my family is organised. Just as in the Gospel we have "one Master, one faith one baptism" (Eph.4:5), so each firstborn plural marriage has "one husband, one rule of faith and one spiritual immersion." And whilst every wife is different with her own character, degree of sanctification and spiritual maturity, and skill-set, all are bound togther in unity (echadness) by one way - their husband's way-in-Christ.

Hierarchies in Flux

As such, then, because we as living beings are dynamic, having energy-signatures (as it were), there are always going to be ever changing 'heirarchies' in mortality based in part on the stewardships assigned by the husband to his several wives. Just as the local congregation has a pastor with a counsellors and a council of elders, so there is a senior wife with general oversight and responsibilities to care for the other wives which is shared with other senior more experienced wives or eldresses within the family. These 'hierarchs' (matriarchs) are not 'queens' lording over the other wives, but are their servants, helping them grow within the order of the family established by their husband so that things are done the way the husband wants. In that regard, they may be said to be Servant-Executives. Such obedience as is required by them is not so that they can establish their own little kingdoms within the family but as proxies for their husband, like a pastor, who cannot be everywhere at the same time.

Wives Learning to Navigate and Contribute to Family Life

But it goes deeper than that - plural marriage is an intimate partnership of all where all can, and do, grow and share in the same spiritual, emotional and mental bounty. All hierarchies eventually dissolve when each has served its constructive and edifying purpose. They do not exist for themselves as in the Babylonian world system. Indeed, wives are at times required to be provisional spiritual mothers of a kind to their sister-wives, just as the husband must be a spiritual father-figure to his wives who are young in the relationship. Such 'hierarchies' (a word that negatively conveys rulership sometimes) are best described as mentorships. Thus the senior plural wife at any one particular time might well be likened to what in the Polish Navy we call the Starszy oficer nawigacyjny or 'Senior Navigation Officer' whose expertise enables less experienced sister-wives to 'navigate family life', conforming to - and being blessed by - its ways which themselves are shaped by the Abrahamic Revelation.

Every Plural Family Must Have a Vision Based on Biblical Tavnith

A family steered by the husband without a vision will be a weak and confused one with wives each trying to 'steer' or 'navigate', causing rifts and fractures in relationships which can dissolve an echad marriage into a multiple-monogamous one as is the case in most polygamous ones in the world. When that happens, then there is little point, for one of the main goals of Holy Echad Marriage is to prepare the Body of Christ for the New Messianic or Millennial Age to Come. The revelation that we have is based on deep insights into the quality of life of the 'Holy City' or New Jerusalem named in Ezekiel 48:35 as Yahweh-shammah ('Yahweh is There') or (as we call it) the 'Garden-City of Eden-Astara' to reflect its two main components that have briefly been present separately in history but never together and integrated as God's Dwelling Place in Heaven actually is. This is the divine template of sacred plural marriage. Anything else is a distortion of the divine image and therefore defective and unstable, a reason most polygamous marriages are compromises and unreflecting of the way the Body of Christ is supposed to look like - a marriage where Yahweh's presence is everywhere in it, suffusing and permeating every part and every soul within it. Therefore God must be there or present for it to work. It is closely tied in what we also call the Final Gathering of the last generation prior to the Second Coming.

Congregational New Testament Leadership as an Illustration

Let's return to the imagery of an ideal New Testament congregation or church to flesh this out a little more. Among the elders or senior members of a congregation properly organised and functioning as it ought to in the Spirit, there is a shared responsibility with the pastor by other mature leaders to take care of a congregation, each with designated tasks:

"It was He who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ" (Eph.4:11-13, NIV).

Every New Wife Has a Sister-Wife Mentor

Likewise there are wives who have parallel tasks. These are not necessarily permanent. When a new wife enters the family, she will normally be assigned a 'senior partner' who will help orient her in the minutae of the family's ways. All the wives, of course, do this to differing degrees but there will be one who will have that initial assignment. She will usually be older and always wiser and obviously more experienced. This is only a temporary assignment, equivalent to a 'teacher' in a local congregation or church with a particular assignment from the pastor. I, as husband, may well assign other wives with different skills various other tasks. As a wife matures she will be assigned different responsibilities, many of which are shared on a rotational basis (such a domestic upkeep).

The Husband as Family 'Pastor'

Everything we do in our family is modelled on the ideal local assembly and its working. It's a lay ministry with everyone called to service and at the very least to be a deacon or deaconess. Once new members have settled in and proven themselves to be loyal, faithful and obedient servants of Christ, so they (both men and women, but in their respective priesthood orders) are assigned responsibilities, first, as deacons and deaconesses, and then later, as they mature, as elders and eldresses. Within these 'orders', there are many, many different callings based on giftedness - in our community we have four orders of deacons in the local assembly (1. pastoral assistants, 2. teachers, 3. sub-administrators, and 4. stewards/servants) and each of these has different ministries under the elders and eldresses. Likewise we have seven orders of elders in our local congregations (1. apostles, 2. evangelists, 3. bishops or metropolitan pastors over groups of congregations, 4. pastors, 5. missioners, 6. teachers and 7. administrators) all of which have their divisions. Each of these offices is renewed, changed or upgraded each year just before the Day of Atonements as every priesthood officer is weighed or gives account to three senior priesthood officers for his or her stewardship. The officers in their turn are also weighed, including the pastor. Pastors in our community must also give account to their overseers in the bishopric [1].

Leadership as Servanthood

Now obviously this sort of congregational organisation is designed to cater for lots and lots of people, up to 144 in a local congregation and much larger numbers if there are multiple congregations) - plural families range in number from 2 upwards where such organisation is completely unnecessary. In my situation, where there are 8 wives (when they're all together), obviously more organisation is needed. I merely cite the local congregation by way of illustration. Because families are much smaller (though if there are many wives with lots of children, the family will start resembling a congregation), there's obviously lots of overlap and many shared responsibilities. In our fellowship we have the saying, 'once a deacon, always a deacon', meaning deacons who become elders don't cease being deacons, because all are servants. We are commanded to love one another, serve one another and be echad or one, under Christ who is not only described as the 'Apostle of Our Faith' (for He is the Messenger of the Father) but as a Servant is very much a 'Head Deacon' too. Please don't get the idea that a plural family is organised like the military with different ranks, each barking orders - there is nothing remotely like that. 'Leadership' is largely invisible when the Spirit is in operation (there are no titles or outward vestments denoting rank), and where there is love, there is mutual submission as scripture teaches (Eph.5:21; 1 Pet.5:5). Humility should always be our motivation for submission to those in authority over us in all relationships.

Submission in Love and Humility

This HEM website contains dozens of examples of how plural families are supposed to work and also how they must never function. I have seen some pretty awful ones in my time where husbands are despots and wives are openly rebellious (Mt.20:25-28; Mk.10:42-45; Lk.22:25-27; 1 Pet.5:3). The scriptural rule is fairly basic: wives are to submit to their husband [in exactly the same way] as believers submit to Christ...in everything ...there is no wriggle-room for disobedience or feminism here (Eph.5:22-24)....and wives are to love one another, not lording it over each other (Gal.3:28; Jn.17:202-23, etc.), as I think you know well, so I won't repeat all of that again here. Likewise, husbands are to rule with love in firmness as Christ rules the Messianic Community or Church. I will, however, now make one or two further observations about reality which hopefully will help flesh this answer out even more clearly.

Patriarchal Marriage is High Priestly Marriage

Plural or Patriarchal Marriage, by virtue of what it is, is best understood as high priestly marriage because Messiah is our High Priest and His sons are the sons of a High Priest. Those who lack the discipline usually acquired from the well functioning deaconate or eldership of a local congregation are most definitely not cut out for this way of life and will bring in a spirit of chaos and destruction, making everyone unhappy. We all know what happens to countries with weak and ineffectual leadership. Plural marriage isn't just a 'hobby' that a man may suddenly 'decide to take up on impulse because certain aspects of that way of life appeal to him. Scripture warns:

"Under three things the earth trembles,
under four it cannot bear up:
a servant who becomes king,
a fool who is full of food,
an unloved woman who is married,
and a maidservant who displaces her mistress"
(Prov.30:21-23, NIV).

Reasons Not to Enter Plural Marriage

Three of these are most definitely destructive to a plural marriage:

• 1. A foolish, carnal husband lacking in leadership and maturity who is full of his own self-importance;
• 2. A wife married not for love but solely for lust or out of charity/pity or for security; and
• 3. An immature and carnal wife wanting to lord it over maturer wives.

The Most Important Things in a Plural Marriage

There are basically two stages of development in a plural marriage that are directly paralleled by the kind of spiritual maturity found in the deaconate and eldership which in some ways resemble the difference between a pilegesh or marriage-without-inheritance rights and a marriage with full inheritance rights as found in Torah. Another comparison would be the difference between a loved servant and a loved friend (Jn.15:15). All wives, like disciples, go through this journey into maturity and leadership within the community of wives - it can't be avoided. And in the same way that Paul admonished Timothy not to appoint leaders among new converts, the same is true in plural marriage. The husband oversees this. For him the most important thing is love, harmony (peace) and loyalty - beauty and skills play no part in the assignment of leadership rôles. If they ever do, a serious instability is introduced that is very destructive. Unless a husband with more than one wife clearly is a leader, he will fail at his job. He must have the equivalent skills of an elder and pastor. He is the family priest or pastor and his wives will look up to him for such leadership, leadership which he shares or delegates to spiritually maturer wives. And if he can't manage more than one woman, he should stick to one wife. Likewise a new wife not willing to submit to her husband and work cooperatively in love and mutual support, without jealousy, should marry monogamously.

Greater Accountability for Husbands

In carnal polygamy, such as may be found in other religions (like Islam) and even, regrettably, in much of so-called 'Christian' (including fundamentalist Mormon) polygamy, there are altogether far too many men who do not have the leadership skills required for this way of life and who are almost certainly not called by God into it. That's not to say they cannot mature - provided they have the potential in the first place, and provided they are willing to work hard - they will be successful even if they get a battering. But they must by called by the Spirit and not driven by their own lusts. There is greater accountability for husbands just as there is for leadership (and especially teachers - Jas.3:1) in the messianic community or church - for though we have female ministers, their priesthood is subordinate to that of their husbands, and not to the local assembly's as they are their husbands' responsibility exclusively. (The Pastor has no jurisdiction over a father's unmarried daughters (or pre-adult sons) or over a husband's wife or wives, each being responsible for them, but the pastor can - and must on occasion - call fathers and husbands to give account where there is a clear need, and in order to take corrective discipline at home. If they won't, then it is the fathers and husbands who must be disciplined in their daughters' or wives' stead).

From Servanthood to Friendship

Yah'shua's (Jesus') own disciples had to mature. They began as Christ's servants but later, once they had matured and demonstrated their loyalty, He redesignated them as 'friends' as we shall now see. Of all passages of scripture, the following one is key - as you read this, substitute Christ for the husband of a plural marriage, the disciples as wives, and the Father as God:

"As the Father has loved Me, so have I loved you. Now remain in My love. If you obey My commands, you will remain in My love, just as I have obeyed My Father's commands and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends if you do what I command. I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. You did not choose Me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in My name. This is My command: Love each other" (John 15:9-17, NIV).

From Servant- to Friend-Wives

I cannot stress enough how critically important this passage is to the right working of plural marriages. It contains the pattern or tavnith for the way plural marriage must work - indeed, it is the only pattern that does work, and any liberal or other mutation of this pattern will fail and likely descend into idolatry somewhere along the way. I think it best answers your question in general terms so let me rephrase it in specifically plural marriage terms:

"As Christ loves me (your husband), so I shall love you (my wives). Now remain in my love. If you obey My commands (do what I tell you in the same way you obey Christ), you will remain in my love and affections, just as I obey Christ's commands to me and remain in His love. I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete in me and in each other. My command is this: Wives, love each other as I love you individually and together. Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. You are my friends (my equals) if you do what I command. I no longer call you servant-wives, because a servant does not know her master's business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from Christ I have made known (taught and exemplified) to you. You did not choose me to be your husband, but Christ chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit-fruit in this marriage that will last forever. Then Christ will give you whatever you ask in my name. This is my command: Wives, love each other".

False Models of Coheadship and Feminism

Because the messianic community or church is a shadow of the marriage relationship, we can take anything and everything to do with it and apply it to a plural marriage situation. Plural marriages are supposed to be models of how congregations function in Christ. Now of course if you take the unbiblical models of congregational life in nearly all the churches you're never going to find a workable pattern for plural marriage that is anything other than unsatisfactory and unfulfilling. Liberalism has destroyed the churches, both with its false teachings about coheadship in marriage and feminism in congregational life. Obviously, coheadship is a picture of monogamy-only and feminism is a picture of the dark matriarchal spirit of Jezebel. There is nothing quite as ugly and repulsive as a feministic woman or pathetic and impotent as an emasculated feminised man. Both of these are satanic distortions. And whilst radical chauvanistic ultra-patriarchy is equally horrible, righteous patriarchy is still the divine model - in holiness, like it or not. It's the only one that works.

Dealing With Legitimate Authorities

Seniority (to borrow your word) in Gospel terms is a function of spirituality and in particular of obedience, something that does not come easily to the carnal man or woman. We are commanded to respect and to defer to age in scripture, especially when it comes to parents (Ex.20:12; Mt.15:4,6; 19:19; Mk.7:10; 10:19; Lk.18:20; Eph.6:2) though as everybody knows there are lots of biological adults who are emotionally immature like children still, especially in our 'woke' times. We often encounter inexperienced and emotionally immature people in positions of leadership, unfortunately, and whilst scripture teaches us to respect their office, respect in all other regards has to be earned. Obedience can be demanded by such only insofar as such obedience does not mean we are forced to disobey God (or in the case of women, their fathers if they are unmarried, or their husbands if they are married, and even then no wife is expected to obey her husband into breaking any commandment of God). So there are limits to our obedience to 'Caesar' who represents all worldly authority of any kind. Worldy rulers have their divinely-appointed spheres of authority in society, to which we are expected to yield (as, for example, in the matter of paying taxes) and show respect (because of their office)...unrighteous government is better than no government at all which is anarchy. So there are boundaries.

Theological Conflicts

But for the purposes of this FAQ, I am speaking only of the authority of a husband in a marriage (which must be absolute within the constraints of Torah) or of senior wives who are acting under assignment from their husband, not forgetting that we are to submit to one another where it comes to the Gospel. So a 'junior' wife has both the right and duty to remind a 'senior' wife of Gospel truth as found in Scripture (and indeed even her husband) provided it is done with respect, decency and a humble attitude. Where it comes to different possible interpretations of Scripture, the husband must decide which is correct as far as it impinges on the life and government of his family. One of my wives once disputed the validity headscarves as a sign of being under authority, but yielded (reluctantly) to our family arrangements. All my wives disagree with me theologically over one issue or another as we are all works in theological progress too. As family priest, the husband nonetheless has the responsibility to teach and to be regaded by his wives as their primary teacher. As various articles on this website show, some disagreements have affected the order of family business which can be disruptive, the worst occurring when my seventh wife, who was highly intellectual, emotionally immature and not very experienced (she was the youngest of the wives), arrived at ill-informed conclusions which caused a major rift. However, this occurred after an act of open rebellion and disobedience domestically concerning family financial management, laying claim as she did to a false personal revelation, which tainted the whole way she started looking at Scripture in other areas as well. And so one thing led to another, a perfect example of the importance of the obedience required of wives in matters not affecting salvation and morality.

Parallel Order & Hierarchy on the Atomic Level

As in the natural world generally, there is order and hierarchy in true plural marriage. The Creator's set-up of atoms, with electrons ('female') in their prescribed orbits and shells, moving precisely around the nucleus ('male'), to the way electricity flows (negatively charged 'female' electrons) moving towards the positive 'male' terminal of any circuit, and so on, as revealed in the great Cosmic Principle Revelation received by our founder, testifying to the necessity of divinely ordained tavnith (pattern) in the home for spiritual, mental, emotional, and physical health. Paul's insistence in Ephesians (5:22,25) that wives submit to their husbands in everything in exactly the same way as believers are supposed to submit to Christ (in that spiritual respect, we are all symbolically 'female', men and women alike), and husbands sacrificially love their wives in the same way Christ loved and died for His allegorical Bride (the Body of Christ or Messianic Community/Church) (Eph.5:25-33) was not a personal opinion or sudden poetic flurry in a uncontrolled emotional outburst, but an immutable divine truth rooted in creation itself, and not subject to modification by human whim as we see in the ever fluctuating morality of cultural movements. Cultures come and go, they are never a default truth foundation, but God's Word is, for Yahweh's laws and definitions of truth are forever.

Spiritual Lessons from the Periodic Table

So from the 'monogamous' hydrogen atom, the chemical foundation of the universe (one 'female' electron and one 'male' proton') to all the complex 'polygamous' atoms in the rest of the Periodic Table - from Beryllium (with 4 electrons, like Jacob's wives), to Boron (with 5 electrons, like the 5 watchful virgins waiting for the Bridegroom), to Nitrogen (with 7 electrons, like David's lawful wives - the biblical number and model of completeness) which occupies 78 percent of the air we breathe, to Oxygen (with 8 electrons, 7+1, the biblical number of newness, eternal life and resurrection) which occupies 21 percent of the air we breathe, to Neon (with 10 electrons) or the Sodium ion so important to cell chemistry - the biblical number of completeness or order) to Magnesium (with 12 electrons - the biblical number of governmental perfection and apostolic rule), we see holy echad plural marriage displayed in the atoms in all its glory and purpose - for all the elements are essential for life on earth, making up the complexity of the material world and the life that dwells in it.

It All Starts With a Pair

Does this mean that monogamous marriage is unimportant? By no means, for we see the first manifestation of marriage represented by the sun (and indeed all stars) which generates light and warmth by burning hydrogen. Yet the full glory of Yahweh was not manifested in the sun alone (which is essential to life) but in the uniqueness of the created earth itself. I speak more on this subject elsewhere on this website, but especially re-read the Cosmic Principle. We are forced to conclude - in considering the created universe, and especially our own world - that the full spectrum of marriage, which is an allegorical type of the relationship believers have with Yah'shua the Messiah (Jesus Christ), is essential for human prospering, and especially for those who love to the full, are true and obedient, the children of the first resurrection, who are the millennial rulers. Plural marriage is therefore essential for righteous government in both the heavenly and earthly realms, which become One Realm at the end of the millennium, which is of benefit to the stable and happy community of everyone - of human life in general.

Qualifications of 'Kings & Priests'

Monogamy or simple one-to-one marriage is reserved for the vast bulk of humanity with plural forms reserved for those maturer, utterly dependable saints in positions of responsibility, who prove their ability to govern as 'kings and priests' on the earth (Rev.1:6; 1 Pet.2:9) by virtue of their successful implementation and management of plural families. Plural marriage, properly lived the holy echad way, is their testing ground as well as their certificate of worthiness to rule. I speak not just of the men but their wives too, properly submitted under the headship of their husbands, for without that they cannot govern anyone as proxies of their husbands, their rôle not being unlike that of the sevenfold Ruach haQodesh (Holy Spirit) who are sent out by the Father to minister to us.

The Sacred 1:7 Ratio & Other Important Numbers

The fullness of human community in the millennium and worlds to come depends very much on plural marriage playing its divine rôle in the cosmic order of our Heavenly Father, the 'Greater Yaheweh'. The Father is in a 1:7 relationsip with the 7 Ruachot (Spirits) and the Son (Yah'shua/Jesus) is a perfect reflection of the Father (as Seth was of Adam - Gen.5:3), and is likewise attended by 7 Ruachot (Spirits) as the 'Lesser Yahweh'. Together these make an Elohimhead (Godhead) of 16, which is the atomic number of Sulphur/Sulfur which has 16 electrons. For those of you who remember some high school chemistry, you will know that the sulphur atom plays a vital rôle in biological life, literally holding the molecues of life together. It is critical for the structure and function of vital biomolecules like amino acids, proteins and vitamins, enabling processes such as DNA repair, energy production and cellular signalling. Scale that up to the level of the universe and its maintenance by God, and you will come to better understand the importance of the number 16 (Father + 7 Ruachot = 8, Son + 7 Ruachot = 8, total 16, 1+6=7), of which 14 (2x7) parts are female, corresponding to the element Silicon which forms the basis of sand, a core component of soil in which plants grow on which we are dependent for both food and oxygen.

How Many People Will Be Living Plural Marriage Overall?

Now whilst we should not take the numbers that follow literally or read too much into them specifically, we can, in a general sense, arrive an important general concept. As you probably know, about 1.3 million earths would fit into the sun. Viewed on one level as the proportion of mankind living plural marriage to those living simple monogamy, you can the scale of the ratio difference...generally speaking. A better index perhaps would be the total number of people who have ever lived, currently estimated to be around 117 billion (that number will, of course, rise considerably by the end of the millennium), and comparing this with the ratio of the size of the earth to the size of the sun, you come to see just how few people will actually be living plural marriage, with diminishing numbers of marriage relationships with many rather than fewer wives. A very rough calculation on my part (and this is largely guesswork) is that of all humanity, no more than about 90,000 families will be living this way in the eternities which, according to the founder, is about one tenth of all the firstborn elect (900,000), meaning that nine-tenths (or 810,000) of the elect will be living monogamous marriages, who are present when Christ returns. Furthermore, we know that the ratio of men to women at the beginning of the millennium will be 1:7 (Is.1:4), meaning that 7 times more women will be saved than men (on average), so the average plural family will probably consist of one husband to seven wives, reflecting the Elohimhead (Godhead). The ratio will change as the gender ratios even out by the end of the Millennium. The important thing, though, is not the numbers themselves (which no man knows - I suggest these simply to give you an idea of scale) but the fact that plural marriage will be a minority practice, reserved for rulers who have proved themselves capable in mortality.

Few Plural Marriages in Mortality Qualify

'Proved themselves' is key because most plural marriages on the earth today are not very successful. The reasons are many and varied but two of them are (a) not all who are living this way are called to plural marriage, and (b) of those genuinely called - both the men and the women - not all are chosen for they fail to live up to the strict divine tavnith or pattern Father has ordained or have failed in discipleship generally: "Many are called, but few are chosen" (Mt.22:14) applies to plural marriage, monogamous marriage (and therefore marriage in general), leadership and even to maintaining salvation. For it is written: "But he that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved" (Mt.24:13, KJV; cp. Rev.21:7). And though our initial choices are not unimportant, what counts is whether ir not you have endured trial and tribulation and overcome.

Conclusion

So we should not be surprised to find many men and women attempting to live plural marriage now were either never called into it or who failed to love fully and submit obediently (to God and to husband-heads). When plural marriage is not lived properly according to divine tavnith (pattern) then 'seniority' rôles get messed up too and what you typically find happening is husbands having 'favourites' (like Jacob with Rachel), first wives becoming de facto matriarchal heads over all the other wives (a less than happy arrangement but sometimes necessary to stop a marriage disintegrating altogether), ungodly husbands divorcing, abandining or dumping wives (and children) for any other reason than adultery (like the Pharisees of Christ's day), and many other sinful reasons. The 'seniority' of which I speak, and which belongs to authentic Holy Echad Marriage, is a dynamic, fluid thing, a servant headship dynamic that is supposed to grow into friendship and greater intimacy that is by appointment of the husband when it is needed for edification. As electrons only flow in one direction...towards the head...so ultimately this is a question of the proper functioning of authority as it matures into genuine oneness where 'authority' as a conscious 'thing' progressively loses meaning. When the Divine Order has become 'natural' through habituation, then paradise has arrived. Then in the highest realms all is echad and the Father is ultimately glorified.

Endnotes

[1] This is a loan word from the Greek episkopos (from which we also get the denominational name 'episcopalian') which was the highest order of government in the early Messianic Community or Church when the apostles died out. This is the way God designed the Christian community to be in the post-apostolic period. Apostles will not be fully restored until the last generation. The nearest Hebrew equivalents would be saref, sar and nasi, like the Greek hegemon, but these have acquired negative connotations over the centuries and are not used by us. In our community a Bishop is sometimes called a Sub-Apostle or Mishneh Shaliah, 'mishneh' meaning 'second' or 'deputy' and 'shaliah' (plural 'shlichim') meaning 'apostle' or 'messenger [of Christ]', one who substitutes for (in their absense), or serves under (when they are present again), an apostle or shaliach which is a special envoy, emissary or 'one who is sent' by the Messiah. Bishops may also be viewed as Senior Metropolitan Pastors.

Author: SBSK