Galatians 4:21-28 (NIV)
Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a promise.
These things may be taken figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. For it is written: “Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband.”
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.
Paul reminds the Galatians that the law, the first five books of our Bibles, Genesis through Deuteronomy, written by God through Moses, contain far more than commandments and rituals. They are historical records, containing the history of God’s actions and His interactions with people through the ages. And that history is powerfully instructive.
Part of that history is God’s interaction with Abraham. God had promised him a son to whom God’s covenant would be passed, and through whom would spring the nation of Israel. But Abraham took matters into his own hands and had a son, Ishmael, by Hagar, Sarah’s slave. That son, though the firstborn, did not inherit the covenant, because he was not the son of the promise.
More than 13 years later, Abraham had another son, Isaac, by Sarah, then 90 years old. Isaac was miraculously conceived by God’s power to fulfill His promise. He was the son of the promise, was elevated above his older half-brother, and received the covenant promise.
Paul uses this historical event to teach a spiritual lesson, interpreting the two sons and their mothers as two covenants. Hagar and Ishmael represent the Old Covenant, a covenant born out of slavery. This was appropriate because, even though the Jewish people are not descendants of Ishmael, God did give the Old Covenant to the descendants of Isaac when He delivered them from their slavery in Egypt. And even though He set them free, they never truly broke out of their slavery mindset, always longing to go back to Egypt. And even after being brought into the Promised Land, they enslaved themselves repeatedly to foreign gods.
Sarah and Isaac represent the New Covenant, a covenant born out of a promise received by faith. Abraham had believed God when He promised him a son from Sarah, even though they were both quite old. And God counted that belief as righteousness on his behalf (Genesis 15:6).
The Galatians had initially received salvation by faith, making themselves children of the New Covenant, a covenant of freedom. But now they were in danger of being persuaded to turn away from that freedom and to take on the yoke of the Old Covenant instead, a covenant of slavery, turning back to Egypt instead of pushing forward into the Promised Land.
Father, as Paul points out just a few verses later (Galatians 5:1), it is for freedom that Christ has set us free. But to live in that freedom takes intentionality on our part. We have a tendency, if we let down our guard, to slide back into the bondage of rule-keeping instead of the plain obedience to Your will that is born out of love and relationship. Help us, lord, to keep our eyes focused on You at all times, not on people and contrived methodologies that are supposed to help us to earn our salvation and work our way to heaven. Amen.