This thread has me thinking more and more about the concept of God creating one special soulmate for each of us and why it seems to have so many complications.
I understand the story of Isaac and Rebekah -- but to put it bluntly, they also put each other through hell. If theirs was supposed to be a match made in heaven, it certainly didn't play out that way.
And if God really does only create one specific soulmate for each person, what about:
1. The police officer at my childhood church who was shot and killed in the line of duty at age 37. He left behind a wife and 2 young boys (one of them sat behind me in study hall.) It was a huge deal because he was attending the church picnic when he got the call, so our church members were the last ones to see him alive.
If him and his wife were meant to be exclusive soulmates, was she never to marry again?
And what about the following stories in the Bible?
1. King David had 8 wives named in the Bible -- but it also tells us that he had other wives and concubines in addition.
Which one was his specifically God-created and predestined soulmate?
2. Everyone knows about Abraham's wife Sarah, the mother of Isaac. But after Sarah died, Abraham took a second wife, Keturah, and had children with her as well.
Which wife was Abraham's soulmate, Sarah or Keturah?
3. Judah, one of the Jacob's sons (the 12 Tribes of Israel, from which we get the Lion of Judah,) had a firstborn son, Er, whom Judah found a wife for and her name was Tamar.
But the Bible says Er did evil, and God put him to death. So it was the custom that the next brother would marry the widow and have children in his brother's name. From this, we get the infamous story of Onan, which is another discussion in itself. But Onan didn't learn from his brother's example, did evil in the sight of the Lord, and was killed as well.
Long story short, Judah was supposed to give the last brother to Tamar but he refused, and she had to trick him into sleeping with her before he would let the last brother marry her.
Which of the three brothers would have then been Tamar's soulmate?
4. Likewise, out of all the thousand+ women Solomon had, which one would have been his designated soulmate, and how would he have known?
The Bible seems to have more stories like these than that of Adam and Eve or Isaac and Rebekah.
Again, I'm not ruling out the possibility of soulmates, but it seems that instances like this were either extremely rare, or else many Biblical figures got things wrong by either adding in numbers to their God-given soulmate, or they never found that person because they were too busy marrying just about everyone else instead.