Why do you think God permitted David and Solomon and the other Kings to have so many wives – was it to build the Nation of Israel faster? Why so many wives permitted in the OT and one wife and one husband in the NT? Thanks for any insights or possible answers to this.
I don’t believe God ever officially authorized plural marriage. As early as Genesis 2:25 He spoke of man and wife in the singular and said the two would become one. How does a man become one with multiple wives? And If he wanted to accelerate the population growth, why didn’t He give Adam multiple wives? Or how about Noah and his sons? He missed two great opportunities if that was the goal. I think it’s more likely that polygamy was a practice that emerged from the pagan world and was man’s doing, not God’s.
In the explanation the Lord had Paul give on marriage as a model of the relationship between Christ and the Church (Ephes. 5:25-33), we see His true perspective on the subject.