An Overview of Galatians
By Joe Guagliardo
Galatians 4:21-31
“The Galatians, You and Me, are Children of God’s Promise.”
June 28, 2023
In my devotion, dated June 21, on the book of Galatians, I spoke of the challenging time I had distinguishing between when Jesus was telling a Simile, Parable, or Metaphor.
In today’s story from Galatians, Paul tells an allegory.
“A parable takes a common, everyday incident or occurrence that presents a general truth and puts generic people into it. And uses it to illustrate (is like) a spiritual truth the teacher wants to explain.”
“People’s Bible Commentary, Ephesians, Pp. 81.”
“The word “allegory” comes from the Latin “allegoria,” meaning speaking to imply something else. An allegory is a simple story that represents a larger point about society or human nature, whose different characters may represent real-life figures.”
https://www.grammarly.com/blog/allegory
In today’s verses, Paul uses the story of Isaac and Ishmael to get his point across.
“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.” 4:27 Isaiah 54:1
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.” 4:30 Gen. 21:10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.”
Galatians 4:21-31
You probably understand Paul’s point if you have read the above passages. But let’s take a few moments and unpack a few items.
In the Old Testament, the commandments are often referred to as the law. God expected His people, the Israelites, to follow them implicitly. Although, He knew that it would be impossible for people to follow them strictly. That is why, in the Old Testament, we find the promise of a Savior who would wipe away our sins. Jesus was and is that Savior.
In the above verses, Paul uses Isaac and Ishmael as an example. Abraham had two sons, Isaac and Ishmael. One, Ishmael was born of a servant/slave woman, Hagar. Isaac was born of Sarah, Abraham’s wife.
Why two children by different women? God promised Abraham and Sarah a child and that Abraham’s decedents would be more plentiful than the stars in the sky. But, as they were very old, Sarah told Abraham to sleep with her slave girl Hagar. Then, after Hagar had Ishmael, Sarah gave birth to Isaac. (Like most of us, they were impatient people.)
Eventually, Sarah had Abraham put Sarah and Ishmael out. There’s a lot more to it, but as a believer, I can see this was the beginning of Christianity (Isaac) and Islam (Ishmael). Between the two, there would forever be friction.
Read the entire story in Genesis 15-19.
The point is that Isaac was a child of promise by God. Ishmael was the son of a slave, not a free woman like Sarah.
So, this is what Paul writes to the Galatians:
“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.” 4:30 Gen. 21:10 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.”
The Galatians, like you and me, are children of the promise. Like Isaac, the Galatians, as well as you and I, are not children of slavery (to the law); instead, we are children of God’s promise through Jesus Christ. He died for our sins and freed us from the law so we might be saved by faith alone.
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