Slices
Prepare
Praise God that you are a child of promise, fulfilling God’s commitment made to Abraham and Sarah centuries ago.
Bible passage
Hagar and Sarah
21 Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. 23 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.
24 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. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written:
‘Be glad, barren woman,
you who never bore a child;
break forth and cry aloud,
you who were never in labour;
because more are the children of the desolate woman
than of her who has a husband.’
28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 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. 30 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.’ 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.
Explore
The details of today’s reading may seem complicated,* but Paul’s Jewish readers would have known the history. God had promised Abraham a son with his wife, Sarah, but his relationship with his wife’s slave woman (Hagar) resulted in the birth of a son, Ishmael (Genesis 16,21). Later God’s promise was fulfilled in Isaac. So began the ideas of being a child of promise (Sarah) or a child of slavery (Hagar) (vs 22,23).
Paul picks out some other details from the Old Testament story. Mount Sinai (v 24) brings to mind the Law of Moses. In the light of Christ, we understand that we have been hopelessly enslaved by its rules. The city of Jerusalem (v 25) figuratively embodies people’s subservience to the old covenant. Now, in Christ, we look to the Jerusalem above (v 26).
The words of verse 27 refer to the exile of God’s people (Isaiah 54:1). It felt as if they had been abandoned, but God brought them back to the Promised Land – and now, in Christ, his children, born of the Spirit, are beyond number. Like Isaac, we are children of the promise. Don’t hang on to the shackles of slavery, says Paul. That will bring contention (vs 29,30). The old ways have been superseded. Now we are to live as children of the free woman (v 31).
*See John RW Stott, The Message of Galatians, IVP, 2021, p124–126, for further help with today’s Bible passage
Respond
Thank God for all he has done in your life through the power of his Spirit (v 29).
Bible in a year
Read the Bible in a year: Leviticus 17,18; Matthew 10
Pray for Scripture Union
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