Dating is defined as the time at which an event occurs; a statement of the time of execution or making, the period of time to which something belongs, an appointment to meet at a specified time, a social engagement between two persons that often has a romantic character, a person with whom one has a usual romantic date.

Things to note about dating:

• Have you ever wondered why when God does not authorize divorce, He required a legal divorce to break an engagement under the Mosaic Law?
• Could it have been to discourage the current idea of dating in order to protect us from being scarred by broken relationships?
• Many who are spiritually mature with strong convictions against sexual immorality still participate somewhat in the dating rituals that even the church has conformed to.  Trying to balance hormones, peer acceptance and The Holy Spirit is a tough task. The church has become more like the world in thinking that multiple dating experiences are a healthy preparation for future marital stability.

Additionally:

• It was God's Will that the children accept Him as King, but they wanted someone visible and human to fight their wars even though with God fighting for them they had not lost a battle.
• Christ was rejected by Israel because they were still looking for a Savior to defeat the Romans and deliver them bodily rather than soulfully.
• The Bible tells us in 1 Samuel 9 about the attractiveness of Saul.  He was the son of a mighty man of power (vs.1). Saul was a choice young man and taller that the rest.  And so by rejecting this worldly attraction, Israel rejected the King of Kings.

God has an order:

From Adam, god took living flesh and fashioned Eve specifically and uniquely for Adam.  God gave Eve to Adam as a sign of Adam's authority in marriage.  The marriage relation was ordained to be the greatest of all relations.  See Genesis 2:24. Mankind is commanded to leave mother and father when there were no mothers and fathers.  The message from God is that there should be no greater priority that the marriage relationship.  as the first divine institution, nothing is to supercede it.  To that effect, we can understand that Eve was deceived first and Adam chose to disobey.  Had Adam taken of the fruit first, Eve, being in subjection to her husband would not have been in rebellion but in submission to the authority placed above her.