Choice Tidbit from the Book: Page 228
“A single woman may, indeed, lawfully covet, desire and have an already-married man.”
The relevance of the Song of Solomon should be considered here. For there we have described, in the most glowing terms conceivable, the desire of the Shulamite woman for Solomon. As pointed out earlier in this work, the Shulamite woman was about to become the 141st wife of Solomon! It can safely be said, therefore, that Foh’s conclusion in this regard is erroneous. A single woman may, indeed, lawfully covet, desire and have an already-married man.
I was told one time by a very irate person that my views on polygamy represented a “double standard” which is essentially very permissive for men and restrictive for women. The fact of the matter is, however, that there are two sides to this coin. There is a complementarity to the Biblical doctrine of patriarchy that just simply is not appreciated by monogamy-only adherents: the Law severely restricts men’s choice of women exclusively to available single women. All married women are prohibited. But it is very permissive in this regard toward women. A single woman may desire and have any man whether that man is single or married.
It is a simple fact of everyday observation that truly desirable women, whether those traits are in regard to physical beauty or character traits or both, tend to have a lot of competition for their affection and commitment from men. There is a certain truth in the proposition that “all the good ones are taken” in regards to women, as well as in regards to men. In a patriarchal law-order, it is more difficult for a man to find a good woman than it is for a woman to find a good man. The advantage in this regard is clearly in favor of women.
How many times amongst us Christians have we witnessed godly women winding up with unsaved men because “all the good Christian men are taken?” I can think of several examples from amongst Christians I have known, and I have no doubt that everyone reading these words can cite examples of such from their own acquaintances and fellow church members. There are virtually always more women in any given church than men—usually by a wide margin. I think all of the statistics will bear this out uniformly, and it has certainly been true of the churches I have attended. This presents a serious dilemma for Biblically-based congregations who understand that it is against God’s will to marry the unsaved. How are we to counsel single women looking for a husband when their choices of “available” Christian men are so limited and their competition from other Christian women so pervasive?