People outside of Gods will will have to answer for their own transgressions if it wasn't God that joined them together in the first place as usually lust is mistaken for love. I can only speak of those who are in Gods will and follow His word. Gods' grand design was for man to take care of the earth and have dominion over all living things. God did not want man to be alone so He created a helpmate and she was called woman. The two were to multiply and replenish the earth with more helpers to till the land and help take care of Gods creation, Genesis 1, 2. Gods will for woman was to be a helpmate to the man in every way, mentally, spiritually, emotionally, socially and physically. She was also created to bare the generations to come. A woman was not greater or less than the man, but was his equal.
Marriage was officially recognized as a sacrament at the 1184 Council of Verona. Before then, no specific ritual was prescribed for celebrating a marriage. Marriage vows did not have to be exchanged in a church, nor was a priest's presence required. A couple could exchange consent anywhere, anytime. The Council of Trent decreed in 1563 that marriages should be celebrated in the presence of a priest and at least two witnesses. The first marriage licenses was issued in the 14 century in England. 1639 in the state of Massachusetts. They were issued to make sanctions and solidify the obligations that came with marriage.
Does God permit divorce; no he does not for what God has joined together as one flesh let no man separate it, Matthew 19:6. God joined man and woman together before sin entered into the hearts of man and woman, Genesis 2:18. When woman was deceived by the serpent in Genesis 3:1-13 and gave the man to eat of the fruit, man forgot what God told them not to do and they both tried to hide from God, but God knew what they had done and now was sin entered into the hearts of man and woman. This is why we are all now born with a sin nature because of the fall of man. Sin soon was found where no truth of God could be found. Mans hearts were now filled with the lust of the eyes and lust of the heart. Man sought after his own pleasures and soon made gods of their own to worship and bow down to. These gods were a way for man to justify their own pleasures.
1 Corinthians 7:10, Jesus commands the woman not to leave her husband and if she does she should remain unmarried, but in Malachi 2:10-16 the treachery that man commits against a woman which leads him to have an affair outside of the marriage or abuses the wife whether it be physical or emotional gives place to what was said by Moses in Deuteronomy 24:1-4 that if a woman is no longer pleasing to her husband then the husband should give his wife a written bill of divorcement and send her out of the house and this gives the woman the right to marry again, but she can never go back to her former husband if that marriage does not work out or her husband dies for now she is defiled to be with her first husband and this is an abomination to God.
