THE PROBLEMS OF STOLEN WIVES AND STOLEN HUSBANDS
This special book on the family, cannot be complete without an analysis of an age-long problem, which has constituted serious problems in the area of marriage and the family. Most marital problems are traceable to acts of omission or commission on the part of the husband and the wife.
If you are a good student of the Bible, you would have discovered that the law of cause and effect applies to every area of life. In Bible days certain characters made grievous mistakes, which affected their families. We shall examine some of these instances in this chapter.
This message could be referred to as a dark saying. This simply means that it is deep and requires divine assistance to understand it.
There are a lot of problems the enemy has programmed against man, but then, every man’s mountain is that of his ignorance. There are many things that happen to a person, which if he were to find out the origin he might have come out of the woods fast. The Bible says; “God revealeth deep and secret things. He knowth what is in darkness and also the light dwelleth with Him.”
The issue under study has caused the human race deep sorrows. It is very unfortunate that there are not too many churches, ministries, preachers and pastors that have deep understanding of this issue. Again very few have addressed it. This explains why many people are passing through what is referred to as stubborn problems now.
To understand the topic under consideration, we shall examine a practical Bible passage.
Genesis 12:10-13: And there was a famine in the land: and Abram went down into Egypt to sojourn there; for the famine was grievous in the land. And it came to pass, when he was come near to enter into Egypt, that he said unto Sarai his wife, Behold now, I know that thou art a fair woman to look upon: Therefore it shall come to pass, when the Egyptians shall see thee, that they shall say, This is his wife: and they will kill me, but they will save thee alive. Say, I pray thee, thou art my sister: that it may be well with me for thy sake; and my soul shall live because of thee.
Abraham went to Egypt to sojourn there. He arranged with his wife to tell a half truth. He stated that Sarah was not his wife and that she was his sister. Truly, she was his half-sister, but she had become more than that. She had become Abraham’s wife. Abraham was afraid that ungodly Egyptians would kill him for the sake of his pretty wife. Based on this half truth the king of Egypt captured his wife. Though done in ignorance, it was theft all the same.
Genesis 12:14-19: And it came to pass, that, when Abram was come into Egypt, the Egyptians beheld the woman that she was very fair. The princes also of Pharaoh saw her, and commended her before Pharaoh: and the woman was taken into Pharaoh’s house. And he entreated Abram well for her sake: and he had sheep, and oxen, and he asses, and menservants, and maidservants, and she asses, and camels. And the Lord plagued Pharaoh and his house with great plagues because of Sarai Abram’s wife. And Pharaoh called Abram, and said, What is this that thou hast done unto me? why didst thou not tell me that she was thy wife? Why saidst thou, She is my sister? so I might have taken her to me to wife: now therefore behold thy wife, take her, and go thy way.
The king has broken a spiritual law innocently; but he still had to face the repercussions of the spiritual law he had broken. Please note this; since the king stole another man’s wife great plagues came not only on the king but also upon his whole household. That is, a stolen wife could bring trouble upon a family and for all the generational line.
There are certain troubles which we put upon ourselves without considering the repercussions. The Bible tells us that, great plagues fell on Pharaoh and on all his household. The plagues only ceased when the object
of contention was removed. As far as Sarah remained in that household, Pharaoh and his men were in trouble.
Let us consider another eye-opener.
Genesis 20:1-18: And Abraham journeyed from thence toward the south country, and dwelled between Kadesh and Shur, and sojourned in Gerar. And Abraham said of Sarah his wife, She is my sister: and Abimelech king of Gerar sent, and took Sarah. But God came to Abimelech in a dream by night, and said to him, Behold, thou art but a dead man, for the woman which thou hast taken; for she is a man’s wife. But Abimelech had not come near her: and he said, Lord, wilt thou slay also a righteous nation? Said he not unto me, She is my sister? and she, even she herself said, He is my brother: in the integrity of my heart and innocency of my hands have I done this. And God said unto him in a dream, Yea, I know that thou didst this in the integrity of thy heart; for I also withheld thee from sinning against me: therefore suffered I thee not to touch her. Now therefore restore the man his wife; for he is a prophet, and he shall pray for thee, and thou shalt live: and if thou restore her not, know thou that thou shalt surely die, thou, and all that are thine. Therefore Abimelech rose early in the morning, and called all his servants, and told all these things in their ears: and the men were sore afraid. Then Abimelech called Abraham, and said unto him, What hast thou done unto us? and what have I offended thee, that thou hast brought on me and on my kingdom a great sin? thou hast done deeds unto me that ought not to be done. And Abimelech said unto Abraham, What sawest thou, that thou hast done this thing? And Abraham said, Because I thought, Surely the fear of God is not in this place; and they will slay me for my wife’s sake. And yet indeed she is my sister; she is the daughter of my father, but not the daughter of my mother; and she became my wife. And it came to pass, when God caused me to wander from my father’s house, that I said unto her, This is thy kindness which thou shalt shew unto me; at every place whither we shall come, say of me, He is my brother. And Abimelech took sheep, and oxen, and menservants, and womenservants, and gave them unto Abraham, and restored him Sarah his wife. And Abimelech said, Behold, my land is before thee: dwell where it pleaseth thee. And unto Sarah he said, Behold, I have given thy brother a thousand pieces of silver: behold, he is to thee a covering of the eyes, unto all that are with thee, and with all
other: thus she was reproved. So Abraham prayed unto God: and God healed Abimelech, and his wife, and his maidservants; and they bare children. For the Lord had fast closed up all the wombs of the house of Abimelech. because of Sarah Abraham’s wife.
Ignorance is not an excuse for perpetrating any spiritual offence. All kinds of gynaecological problems could come when a wife is stolen.
Note this; Abimelech was still alive but as far as God was concerned, he was already a dead man waiting only for the day of execution. From the moment Abimelech stole a wife, he became a dead man. God also bore him witness that he did it ignorantly but that did not excuse him. His position as the king did not excuse him from being guilty of committing the sin.
It is that when the king committed the offence, great problems came upon him and upon his household. Abraham had to pray for him so that, health would be restored to his household. Apart from the death sentence passed on Abimelech many other things went wrong with the household of Abimelech.
The man procured a death sentence, while the woman bagged serious gynaecological problems. Nobody in the family was getting power to conceive again, everything went upside down. It did not matter what the doctors are saying, but everybody was in trouble, all because a man had acquired a woman that belonged to somebody else.
Moreover, all the men in the household became dead men, although they did not realise this fact. This means that they were no longer going to live beyond a particular age. They were no longer going to live their lives to the full because their father stole a wife. Their hopes and destinies were cut short because somebody stole a wife.
People were mourning their obituaries when their promotions were supposed to be celebrated; all because a wife was stolen. Deliverance ministers seldom touch this aspect of teaching, but it is an aspect that utmost attention should be given.
From the two cases cited in the scriptures, it is very glaring that a stolen wife or husband will always result into serious trouble and that kind of trouble could go round the household. Such troubles could be likened to the leprosy of Naaman that came on Gehazi, which affected the whole household of Gehazi.
The problem of stolen wife raised its ugly head in the life of David too.
2 Samuel 11 :23-27: And the messenger said unto David, Surely the men prevailed against us, and came out unto us into the field, and we were upon them even unto the entering of the gate. And the shooters shot from off the wall upon thy servants; and some of the king’s servants be dead, and thy servant Uriah the Hittite is dead also. Then David said unto the messenger, Thus shalt thou say unto Joab, Let not this thing displease thee, for the sword devoureth one as well as another: make thy battle more strong against the city, and overthrow it: and encourage thou him. And when the wife of Uriah heard that Uriah her husband was dead, she mourned for her husband. And when the mourning was past, David sent and fetched her to his house, and she became his wife, and bare him a son. But the thing that David had done displeased the Lord.
David stole the wife of Uriah and what was the result? Serious troubles. These troubles could be found in 2 Samuel 12:9-14
2 Samuel 12:9-14: Wherefore hast thou despised the commandment of the Lord, to do evil in his sight? thou hast killed Uriah the Hittite with the sword, and hast taken his wife to be thy wife, and hast slain him with the sword of the children of Ammon. Now therefore the sword shall never depart from thine house; because thou hast despised me, and hast taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be thy wife. Thus saith the Lord, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house, and I will take thy wives before thine eyes, and give them unto thy neighbour, and he shall lie with thy wives in the sight of this sun. For thou didst it secretly: but I will do this thing before all Israel, and before the sun. And David said unto Nathan, I have sinned against the Lord. And Nathan said unto David, The Lord also hath put away thy sin; thou shalt not die. Howbeit, because by this deed thou hast given great occasion to the enemies of the Lord to blaspheme, the child also that is born unto thee shall surely die.
God pronounced upon king David a sentence similar to that pronounced on kings Pharaoh and Abimelech. This kind of judgment portrays the type of death sentence meted to men who committed the wicked sin.
Here, the Lord pronounced that several kinds of complications would befall David’s wives.
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