After Bob left, in 1991, I was determined to not only never marry again, but to never even talk to a man in any kind of a situation which might even vaguely cause his wife or girlfriend to have even a shadow of the pain I had gone through. I was so careful...
I also figured that it didn't matter if Bob had broken his vows, I was not going to break mine. I was absolutely sure I could not, and therefore would not, marry again.
And when Barry started to get serious, (I was doing some editing for him, as he is a research scientist) I told him "friendships are so nice!" I pushed him away over and over again.
My brother is an elder in his church. He sat me down and did a Bible study with me. It raised a few questions about my decision and its basis, but not enough to change my mind. My best friend's husband who has led Bible studies for years also sat down with me and went over Bible. Interesting.
But I was not going to change my mind.
Barry was also checking around. He had never been married and had not expected to. But here he was, in love with me. And I loved him by now.
And so we both talked, individually, with pastors each of us knew and respected.
My brother had concentrated on Matthew 19. He pointed out that the man in v. 9 DID get re-married, and that there was one circumstance when it was NOT considered adultery -- when the other partner had destroyed the marriage via adultery. Not just once, but a lifestyle of it. He then asked me if it was permissable for a man to remarry for that reason, would it be different for a woman?
I had to answer, "No."
My best friend's husband concentrated on 1 Cor. 7. "if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances...." Not bound to what? The marriage. In that case she or he is free. Free to do what? Free to be really single and have the options single people have, including marrying!
It was God Himself who slammed me with Proverbs 2, as I quoted in my first or second post in this thread.
When I read it, I literally cried out, "No, God, no! He's my HUSBAND!"
Oh, I had prayed for him and for our marriage for so long! I couldn't let it or him go. He had gone and never looked back, but I held on to the ghost as if it were the real thing.
What finally made me start seriously reviewing the arguments in terms of my own life was what a pastor Barry talked to said, and it was what I presented at first -- in the Old Testament, God ordered adulterers stoned to death. This left the widow or widower free to remarry. Our country does not have this law now -- but it might be an intresting method of population control! -- but God's law has never changed. In His sight, at least, the chronic, or habitual, adulterer is toast.
That leaves the innocent party free. And YES there is an innocent party! That is nonsense to say there isn't. That doesn't mean sinless! That means innocent of the crime of killing a marriage via adultery. When a person is judged innocent in a court of law, that does not mean the person is innocent of every wrong doing known, but that the person is innocent of particular crime. I was an innocent party. Not sinless, but in the matter of adultery, innocent.
And I found myself free. My next question was, "Lord, is this your will?" And the ways in which He gave us both answers left no doubt whatsoever.