My heart also, 4Christ...
People who ravage original covenant marraiges under the 'metaphorical guise' that 'God is a divorcee' disregard the fact that God 'put away' Israel to let 'her' suffer the consequences of being out of His presence... longing for the day 'she' realizes her foolishness and returns to full relationship with Him again. Scripture says this will happen... and God will receive 'her', having been faithful.
Duet.24.1-4 says;
Suppose a man enters into marriage with a woman, but she does not please him because he finds something objectionable about her, and so he writes her a certificate of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house; she then leaves his house 2 and goes off to become another mans wife. 3 Then suppose the second man dislikes her, writes her a bill of divorce, puts it in her hand, and sends her out of his house (or the second man who married her dies); 4 her first husband, who sent her away, is not permitted to take her again to be his wife after she has been defiled; for that would be abhorrent to the Lord, and you shall not bring guilt on the land that the Lord your God is giving you as a possession." (NRSV)
http://www.christianforums.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=37066344#_ftnref1
This is the verse where the bill of divorce was legislated under Mosaic Civil Law. The bill of divorce was unique to Israel, no other ancient Near-Eastern country or culture had such. Note that the focus of the passage, the primary purpose of the passage was to stop men from divorcing their wives and then later remarrying them if the ex-wives had subsequently married another man and then were widowed or divorced. This was particularly detestable to the Lord. In fact, the bill of divorce was a side issue and not the focus of this passage. And the reason for the divorces mentioned was even more vaguely mentioned, something shameful on the woman's part or because the 2nd husband "dislikes" or "hated" (KJV) her.
As mentioned in previous posts, the purpose of the bill of divorce, why Moses was inspired to institute it was to stop the common ancient near-eastern cultural practice of men expelling their wives, ceasing provision for them, relegating them to poverty, possibly prostitution, or illegally marrying another man. The first husband could actually reclaim her years later, as David did with Michael. The bill of divorce stopped this practice by legally freeing the woman from the first marriage, and legally freeing her to marry another man. The purpose of the bill of divorce was to mitigate, lessen the oppression of women. The oppression of women was and even still is a serious issue in the Middle East.
Of course, if a man or woman today chooses to divorce their spouse to somehow punish them, and then remain faithful to them hoping that they'll eventually come back - that's fine and commendable. But if the ex-spouse marries another, then they need to drop such hopes of restoration, and move on with their lives. To seek restoration after the ex has married another is, well, adultery - longing after another person's spouse. This is a foundational principle that Jeremiah's audience would have understood and assumed.
The purpose of the bill of divorce was to legally free the expelled wife to marry another if she so chose. As I previously said, the Jerimiah 3 passage has mixed metaphors with the intent of communicating the faithfullness of God's love for his chosen people. It was not meant in any form or fashion to be a doctrinal statement concerning MDR. To attempt to use it to "prove" anything concerning MDR is just not an informed or wise approach to interpreting scripture. One can look at it and see the faithfulness of God, and how God's heart breaks for his unrepentant people, like a man who's wife, even ex-wife, has run off with other lovers. But to use this scripture to prove that marriage is indissoluble is just not correct.
The modern trend of illegal remarriage is a pathetic misrepresentation of God's love to an unregenerate world that, by and large, disregards the 'carnal church' because it has no real truth to offer.
Actually, in the literary context of lawful marriages, illegal seperation, and lawful divorces, the Apostle Paul actually says in 1 Cor.7.27-28a,
"Are you bound to a wife (married)? Do not seek to be loosed (divorced). Are you loosed from a wife (divorced)? Do not seek a wife. But even if you do marry, you have not sinned."
So the assertion that remarriage is illegal is just not correct according to law (civil law or moral principle). I suppose it is against the "religious law" of some churches, but biblically and practically speaking issues concerning MDR are under civil authority, not under ecclesial authority. In Israel God inspired Moses to establish both civil and religious authority structures, and issues concerning MDR were handled by local civil authority, and not the priests.
Divorce breaks the marriage union according to law. Marriages are intended to last until death, but that does not mean that marriages are indissoluble. The biblical and practical reality is that marriages end in divorce; they shouldn't, but they do.
