Choose One Galatians 4:21-31
Last week I mentioned Galatians 4 where Paul refers to two women from the Old Testament and how they represented the two covenants with God; Sarah, Abraham’s wife and Hagar, the slave woman.
We need to go back to Genesis to see the story of these three people. Normally I say when a person is not named it’s so they can represent all of humanity in scripture but today Abraham is named and he does represent all humanity.
Genesis 12:1-2, “The Lord said to Abram, ‘Go from your country, your people and your father’s household to the land I will show you, I will make you a great nation…’” Abram was told to leave his home and his family but in Genesis 12 it says, “So Abram went as the Lord had told him, and Lot went with him.” Lot was his nephew, the son of Abram’s brother Haran. Abram did what God told him to do, almost. He was told to leave his father’s family behind but he didn’t, he brought his nephew with him. Why did he do this? Scripture doesn’t say, perhaps he felt sorry for Lot, maybe Lot didn’t have good prospects where he was living. Maybe Abram wanted to everything God told him too but he was afraid to leave everything behind.
As our representative Abram shows us ourselves. God may tell us to do something or not to do something; and then human emotion, human doubt, human fear enters into the equation. We try to do what God tells us but we don’t do it exactly.
Later, when Abram gets to Egypt in chapter 12 he says in verses 12and 13,“he says to his wife, ‘When the Egyptians see you they will say “This is his wife.’ Then they will kill me…say you are my sister…and my life will be spared.’” As I read this the first thing that came into my mind was that if I had said this to Jen, the Egyptians would have been the last thing I needed to worry about. Then later when Abraham meets Abimelek he does the same thing. Genesis 20:2, “and there Abraham said of his wife Sarah, ‘She is my sister.’”
Abraham is a sinful man. Maybe we never tried to pass our wives off as our sister but we all sin. We all do things that go against God. Ecclesiastes 7:20, “Indeed there is is no one on earth who is righteous, no one who …never sins.”
Genesis 15:9, “Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.” Abraham represents us all as sinful people and he represents us all as righteous in God’s eyes. Believe in God, accept Jesus as your savior, and God will see you the same as if you never sinned; righteous and holy.
God promises Abraham a son, God promises all of us peace in him, rest by him, blessings through him and life everlasting with him. Scripture says God made this promise of a son when Abraham and Sarah were elderly so they decided to help God out through an affair with Hagar, and the result was Ishmael.
Fourteen years later Sarah became pregnant and gave birth to the promised child, Isaac. Why did God wait until Sarah was in her 90’s? God waited to give Abraham an heir until it was humanly impossible so all Abraham could do was rely on God’s promise. Again this shows us humanities situation through Abraham. It is impossible for us to enter heaven by human means, all we can do is rely on God’s promise. And through the promise of God it is possible.
I think I’ve gotten off point so let’s go back to our reading. Galatians 4:22, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.
Let’s look at Hagar. Verse 23, “His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh…” Abraham and Hagar tried to get God’s promise by their own actions and strength without waiting for God to act. Similarly we see this same thing happen at Mt Sinai. Israel had just been led out of slavery, seen the miracle at the Red Sea; and instead of recognizing God’s power and grace, instead of humbling themselves before God, Israel says confidently and prideful in Exodus 24:3 ”Everything the Lord says, we will do.” Deuteronomy 5:27 records it this way, “Then tell us whatever the Lord our God tells you. We will listen and obey all his commandments.” The problem is that Israel did not have the heart for this and God knew this for right after this in Deuteronomy 5:29 God says, “Oh that their hearts would be inclined to love me and keep all my commandments always,”
So Israel, just like Abraham and Hagar, relied and depended on their own recourses and actions. Ishmael was born according to the flesh because God’s promise was not held in the heart of Abraham. The Law God gives; the Ten Commandments were not received in the hearts of men. The spirit of the Law didn’t reside in the hearts of men because as it says in Romans 8:3, “…it was weakened by the flesh.”
All Abraham and Hagar produced on their own was a son who would not be the heir. All Israel produced by trying to keep the law on their own was a legalistic system which would not inherit the promise of God.
Our readings verse 24, “One covenant is from Mt Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves. This is Hagar.” Since Ishmael was not accepted as the heir he was in no better a position than his mother; Ishmael was a slave. When the Israelites took the law upon themselves and removed God’s spirit from it, they became slaves. By removing the heart from the law they were slaves because they have no freedom to do the law with mercy. They were slaves because their lack of trust in God locks them into a life of disobedience and it excludes them from the inheritance.
Then in verse 25 Paul writes, “Now Hagar stands for Mt Sinai and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.” This is a direct attack by Paul on those who preach the Gospel but demand adherence to the law and rituals of Jerusalem for that keeps followers in slavery. Paul warns us to beware teachers of the law for with them you will be an Ishmael not an Isaac. You will be a slave and not an heir.
But now in verse 26 Paul turns his attention to the covenant of grace by faith by looking at Sarah and Isaac. Verse 26, “But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.” He is contrasting the present Jerusalem of verse 25 with a Jerusalem “above.”
To explain this Jerusalem “above” we need to look at Colossians 3:1-2. “Since you have been raised with Christ, set your hearts on things above, where Christ is, seated at the right of God. Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things.” “Jerusalem above” represents the dwelling place of God. Our life, our freedom, and our existence flow down from there and as believers our name is already in the book of life held within that place.
Sarah represents this city because she gave birth to Isaac not by relying on herself but by relying on the work of God and his fulfillment of his promise. Through her faith and Isaac’s birth, Sarah spiritually is the mother of all Christians. She is the spiritual mother of all people whose lives have turned from human effort to the reliance on the work and power of God.
Verse 28, “Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” Our life is not like Ishmael’s, founded on the work of man. Our life is founded on the work of God and his promise fulfilled in us. God tells us in Hebrews 8:10, “I will put my laws in their minds and write them on their hearts. I will be their God and they will be my people.”
Verse 29, “At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of God. It is the same now.” In Paul’s day those who did not know Christ persecuted those who followed him; indeed, at one time Paul was one of the persecutors.
The verse says “it is the same now.” That can describe today. We can see a societal dismissal of Christ and those who follow him. Those who speak of God are told they are fools, this has happened to me more than a few times. Our country was founded on Judeo-Christian ideals, God is mentioned in every one of the documents that created this country and yet now there seems to be an effort to remove God completely from our country and society. This can be disheartening for us. But Paul ends his discussion of Hagar and Sarah on a positive note for us. Verse 30, “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.” Our hope is in the promise of God, our reassurance and encouragement comes from the Holy Spirit within us.
1 Corinthians 1:18,“For the message of the cross is foolishness to those who are perishing, but to us who are being saved it is the power of God.”
Every person born on earth has two directions he or she can turn. We can follow the path set by Hagar. We can rely on the work of men to try and fulfill the promise of God; or we can follow Sarah and wait and rely on God to fulfill his promise at the time it brings satisfaction to us and glory and honor to God.
And know that if people call us foolish for our faith we are in good company. Our lives are free by the power of the cross. Our salvation is secure by the promise of God manifested at the cross and by our faith in the work of Christ.
God bless you.