The Word of the Lord came to me: "You shall not take a wife, nor shall you have sons or daughters in this place." (Jer 16:1-2)
Was God telling Jeremiah to do something unnatural?
There is no doubt that marriage was the norm for most notable Old Testament figures. King Solomon, for example, took 1,000 women for his sexual pleasure and was never castigated for it. And on the general question of asceticism, the biblical message is clearly that some are called to it while others are not. Remember that Jesus was criticized for drinking wine and attending feasts, while The Baptist ate locusts.