If you read my other post, Sean, you'll see that one of the reasons why I wrote this thread is because I like to examine topics from different angles.
God gives us a perfect model for marriage. But due to sin and human error, not only is no one capable of following it, but even very few marriages in the Bible could be considered "happy." David had several wives and mistresses; Abraham was willing to hand Sarah over to other men to be abused in order to save his own life (and Isaac proved to follow in his father's footsteps later on with Rebekah); Hosea was told to marry a woman who was so unfaithful that I've read commentaries saying that from the names of their children, it's quite possible at least one was not his; and Jacob had two wives who paid each other off in order to have personal time with him.
One thing that frustrates me with Christianity is that while I know and believe God is perfect and that we are to strive for perfection, people have to know and be prepared to deal with reality as well.
Even following Scripture does not "guarantee" a "successful" pursuit in marriage because, for some reason, people seem to forget that no one is able of perfectly following Scripture.
Sean, I respect the things you have to say in these threads, I really do. But I'm so very curious... I sure hope you'll still be here when you're, say 45, because I'd really love to see your perspective then. God bless.
Firstly, you don't want to see things from different angles, any angle which is contrary to scripture just muddies the water and gets rid of clarity.
And by the way, God did not tell Hosea to marry a unfaithfull wife, in chapter 1 verse 2 he says go take for yourself a wife, the 'of whoredome' is said in a proleptical sense, i.e God was saying that the wife you take will become unfaithfull. He did not tell Hosea which woman to choose, he was just informing him that she would be unfaithfull. The second part of verse 2 tells us the whole land was unfaithfull 'for the land commits great whoredome' so the people were not following gods advice for sex and marriage in the first place.
Secondly scripture was written to a fallen world, it wasn't written before the fall, but after the fall. Thus its commandments were specifically designed to help men get as near to the perfect design of God as possible.
If both parties in a relationship follow scripture it DOES guarantee a successfully marriage (Psalm 18:30), and yes it is true no one can follow it perfectly. But the aim then is to follow it as closely as possible as the closer we follow it, the more blessed our pursuit/marriage willl be. The aim should not be 'to consider different angles' on it.
And by the way, if im here and never been married but without the gift of singleness when im 45 it will be for one reason and one reason alone, being that i did not follow scripture when it speaks to this issue. Romans 3:4- 'Let God be true and every man a liar'. Isaiah 40:8- 'The word of the lord endureth forever'.