Listen for God’s word to you from Galatians 4:21-31…
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 according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.
These things are being taken figuratively: 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, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
shout for joy and cry aloud,
you who were never in labor;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.”
Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now. But what does Scripture say? “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.” Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Once again, we see an excellent example in this passage of Paul teaching like a Rabbi. To illustrate how the way of grace is superior to the way of the law, Paul retells a story from the Old Testament. It is the story of Abraham, his wife Sarah, and their servant Hagar.
Now, to understand what Paul is saying we must first understand that for the ancient Rabbis, Scripture had four meanings.
- Peshat, the simple or literal meaning of Scripture.
- Remaz, the suggested meaning of Scripture.
- Derush, the meaning deduced by investigation.
- Sod, the allegorical meaning.
The first letter of each of these words produces the acronym: PRDS, which forms the consonants of the word Paradise. The Rabbis thought that when a person succeeded in penetrating these four different meanings, they would reach the joy of paradise.
The most valued of all these meanings to the ancient Rabbis was the allegorical. This being the case, the Rabbis would often take a historical narrative from the Old Testament and read into it, inner meanings that to us seem incredible. However, these hidden meanings were very believable to the Rabbis of old. Paul was a trained Rabbi, and here we see an example of him coming up with his own allegorical interpretation of the old story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar. The word translated as “figuratively” in verse 24 is ἀλληγορούμενα, from which we get our English word “allegory”. Paul allegorizes this Old Testament story to illustrate his point that the way of grace is superior to the way of the law.
Before we examine Paul’s main point, let’s revisit the story of Abraham, Sarah, and Hagar…
Old Story
The story of Abram (Abraham) and Sarai (Sarah) is told beginning in Genesis 12. God called Abram to leave the land of his forefathers in Mesopotamia and go to a land that he would show him. Abram trusted God and obeyed, taking his whole family with him. Eventually they settled in the land of Canaan which the Lord promised to give to Abram along with many descendants. We revisited the story from Genesis 15 last week of God taking Abram out under the night sky and telling him that his descendants would number more than the stars in the heavens.
In Genesis 16, we continue to read about Abram and Sarai, who are getting along in years. Abram is nearing 85 and Sarai is 75. So, Sarai figures she better help God out in fulfilling his promise. Sarai has a slave named Hagar and so she gives Hagar to Abram and suggests that he sleep with her. Abram agrees. He sleeps with Hagar, and she becomes pregnant.
Now this is where the story gets ugly. When Hagar knows she is pregnant we read that she “began to despise her mistress.” Then Sarai blames Abram: “You are responsible for the wrong I am suffering. I put my servant in your arms, and now that she knows she is pregnant, she despises me. May the Lord judge between you and me.”
Now, Abram, being a wise man, says to his wife Sarai: “Do with Hagar whatever you like!” And so, Sarai mistreats Hagar and Hagar flees from her.
But then an angel appears to Hagar out in the desert, and they have a conversation. The angel encourages Hagar and says, “Go back to your mistress and submit to her. I will so increase your descendants that they will be too numerous to count.” Furthermore, the angel tells Hagar to name her son Ishmael, and the angel foretells that Ishmael will be a “wild donkey of a man” who will live in hostility toward all his brothers.
Despite all of this, God continues to work with Abram and Sarai. In Genesis 17, God gives Abram and Sarai new names: Abraham and Sarah. And God gives them the covenant of circumcision. Abraham is circumcised at 99 years old and Ishmael at the age of 13. Neither proposition sounds too good to me. But Abraham trusts and obeys God, so the deed is done.
In Genesis 18, God continues to reiterate his promise to Abraham and Sarah that he will give them a child. In fact, now God says it is going to happen within a year. Sarah is listening in on God’s conversation with Abraham and she laughs at the idea. After all, Abraham is 99 and she is 89. Nonetheless, God is true to his promise, and we read in Genesis 21 that Sarah conceives and gives birth to a son, and Abraham and Sarah name their son Isaac which means “he laughs”.
Now, if the story ended there, it would be a happy ending indeed. But when Isaac is weaned, Sarah sees Ishmael mocking, and so she says to Abraham, “Get rid of that slave woman and her son, for that slave woman’s son will never share in the inheritance with my son Isaac.”
The whole matter distresses Abraham, but after consulting the Lord, Abraham complies with Sarah’s wish, and he sends Hagar and Ishmael away with some provisions. And God continues to care for Hagar and Ishmael in the wilderness. We read later in Genesis about the descendants of Hagar and Ishmael, but this is the gist of the story that Paul uses as an allegory in Galatians 4.
New Meaning
So now let’s examine the new meaning that Paul gives to this old story. And to understand that new meaning I would like to relate a story that Tom Wright tells in his commentary on this passage. He writes…
Not long ago, there was an international rugby match played in pouring rain. The pitch became muddier and muddier, and the players got dirtier and dirtier. The spectators couldn’t tell which side was which. Then the referee discovered that even he could no longer recognize who was on which side. Finally, the players themselves couldn’t tell the difference between their own side and the opposition.
So, the referee offered them the chance to go and change into clean kit. One side refused: they were proud of their national jerseys, and didn’t want to look like cowards, changing out of wet clothes into dry ones. The other side were delighted, and went off to change into warm, dry kit. When they came out again, not only could everyone tell the difference between the two sides; the side in the clean kit felt so much better that they went on to win the match.
By this point in Galatians Paul realizes that there are so many interlocking issues on the table that it’s time to sort out what’s what. The different elements of the argument have become quite muddy in the debate between himself and his opponents, with the Galatians trying to make sense of it all in between. So, he decides on a plan that will make it clear to all concerned just who is on which side.[1]
So, in this passage, Paul identifies two teams. He says, “Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman.” Then Paul proceeds to provide ten points of comparison between these two teams.
| Let’s work our way through these points of comparison one by one. So, we have Abraham with two sons: Isaac and Ishmael. Ishmael is never named. I suppose that’s because there are certain things in this passage that Paul expects his readers to know. Paul expects us to know the back story of Abraham, Sarah, Hagar, Ishmael, and Isaac, so that he doesn’t have to explain everything. | |||
Anyway, these two sons come from two different mothers: Hagar and Sarah. Sarah is never named but Hagar is. Hagar, as we have already seen is a slave. Sarah is free.
Then Paul tells us that Ishmael is born according to the flesh whereas Isaac is born according to promise. Obviously, according to the story, both boys are born in the normal human fashion. What Paul sees as important is that one son, Isaac, came in answer to a promise God made, whereas the other son, Ishmael, did not.
All of this we could discern for ourselves by reading the story in Genesis. But at this point, Paul begins to develop his own allegorical reading of the text that we could not have come up with on our own. Paul tells us that Hagar and Sarah represent two covenants.
Now this is interesting because up to this point in Genesis we have heard about only two covenants: the one with Noah and now one that God establishes with Abraham. This raises the question: what covenant could Hagar possibly represent?
Paul tells us that Hagar represents the Sinai covenant. Amazing! The Sinai covenant has not even happened yet. It is the covenant that God makes with Israel through Moses. And with the Sinai covenant comes the law.
Obviously, from a historical standpoint, Hagar does not have anything to do with the Sinai covenant. Nor does she have anything to do with the earthly city of Jerusalem which did not even exist in her time. Nonetheless, Paul identifies Hagar allegorically with both the Sinai covenant and the earthly Jerusalem.
To make things more complicated, Paul never spells out what covenant Sarah is supposed to represent. Is it the Abrahamic covenant? Or perhaps she represents the New Covenant that Jeremiah talks about. We read the following in Jeremiah 31:31-34…
“The days are coming,” declares the Lord,
“when I will make a new covenant
with the people of Israel
and with the people of Judah.
It will not be like the covenant
I made with their ancestors
when I took them by the hand
to lead them out of Egypt,
because they broke my covenant,
though I was a husband to them,”
declares the Lord.
“This is the covenant I will make with the people of Israel
after that time,” declares the Lord.
“I will put my law in their minds
and write it on their hearts.
I will be their God,
and they will be my people.
No longer will they teach their neighbor,
or say to one another, ‘Know the Lord,’
because they will all know me,
from the least of them to the greatest,”
declares the Lord.
“For I will forgive their wickedness
and will remember their sins no more.”
I think this is the covenant Paul is thinking about which he says Sarah represents. He says that Sarah also represents the New Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is above. This is the first time in the New Testament that we encounter this idea that there is a Jerusalem in heaven after which the Jerusalem on earth is fashioned. This idea is developed even further at the end of Revelation where the New Jerusalem comes down out of heaven to earth, thus joining earth and heaven.
Paul goes on to spell out that Sarah is going to have more children than Hagar, even though in Genesis both are promised children without number. I think Paul is thinking of the church as descendants of Abraham and Sarah through faith. And certainly, from a statistical standpoint Paul has been proven correct. There are many more Christians than Jews in the world in the world today… billions more.
Next, Paul cites Isaiah 54:1 in support of his view that Sarah will have more descendants than Hagar. However, it should be noted that Paul is reading Isaiah in an allegorical fashion as well. Isaiah 54 was addressed to the Jews coming out of exile. Isaiah does not mention Sarah or Hagar at all.
So, Paul has started with a historical reading of Genesis, then he has moved to an allegorical reading, and now, beginning in verse 28, he begins to apply his reading of Genesis to the Galatians. He says, “Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.” Paul wants the Galatians to identify with Sarah and not with Hagar. Remember, looming in the background we have the Judaizers who want to force the Galatian Gentiles to obey all the Jewish law, including circumcision. Paul is saying, “No, I want you to identify with Sarah, not Hagar. I want you to be people of freedom, not slavery.”
“Yes,” Paul admits, “There is going to be persecution.” Just as Paul has been persecuted by the Judaizers, he expects the Galatians to be persecuted as well. But the important thing is for the Galatians to follow the Spirit, not the flesh. If they do, they will be inheritors of the promise, rather than being like slaves cast out of the house.
All of this may seem very strange to us. Paul’s way of reading Scripture may seem very odd to us indeed. But this much we can understand of what Paul is saying… There are two teams. And the key question is: which team do we want to be on?
There are many people in the world who want to be on the team that plays according to the rule book. There are some people who even think this is what Christianity is all about. But it isn’t what Christianity is about.
No, what we are called to is not the life of following a rule book. We are called to follow a person… Jesus Christ. And that is much more difficult. The rule book way of life is comfortable in a way. You always know where you stand. Following Jesus by the power of the Spirit is much more difficult. Why? Because you must listen more. You must be sensitive. There will be days when you don’t know where you stand, and you are not quite sure what direction to go. But when you ask for wisdom and seek it with all your heart… “Whether you turn to the right or to the left, your ears will hear a voice behind you, saying, ‘This is the way; walk in it.’” (Isaiah 30:21)
[1] Tom Wright, Paul for Everyone: Galatians and Thessalonians, Louisville: WJK Press, 2004, pp. 56-57.
Comments