To truly understand today’s passage, you need to first know the story Paul uses as the foundation for what he’s teaching.  So, to get us started, let’s flip the pages of our Bible back to Genesis 11:27-32.

27 Now these are the generations of Terah. Terah fathered Abram, Nahor, and Haran; and Haran fathered Lot. 28 Haran died in the presence of his father Terah in the land of his kindred, in Ur of the Chaldeans. 29 And Abram and Nahor took wives. The name of Abram's wife was Sarai, and the name of Nahor's wife, Milcah, the daughter of Haran the father of Milcah and Iscah. 30 Now Sarai was barren; she had no child. 31 Terah took Abram his son and Lot the son of Haran, his grandson, and Sarai his daughter-in-law, his son Abram's wife, and they went forth together from Ur of the Chaldeans to go into the land of Canaan, but when they came to Haran, they settled there. 32 The days of Terah were 205 years, and Terah died in Haran. (Genesis 11:27-32)

 The key to our purpose today is to see that Abram’s wife, Sarai, is barren. Not only did they not have children, but being barren means there was no evidence that Sarai was capable of having a child in the future. This is massively important to the story.

1 Now the LORD said to Abram, "Go from your country and your kindred and your father's house to the land that I will show you. 2 And I will make of you a great nation, and I will bless you and make your name great, so that you will be a blessing. 3 I will bless those who bless you, and him who dishonors you I will curse, and in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed."4 So Abram went, as the LORD had told him, and Lot went with him. Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran. 5 And Abram took Sarai his wife, and Lot his brother's son, and all their possessions that they had gathered, and the people that they had acquired in Haran, and they set out to go to the land of Canaan. When they came to the land of Canaan, 6 Abram passed through the land to the place at Shechem, to the oak of Moreh. At that time the Canaanites were in the land. 7 Then the LORD appeared to Abram and said, "To your offspring I will give this land." So he built there an altar to the LORD, who had appeared to him. 8 From there he moved to the hill country on the east of Bethel and pitched his tent, with Bethel on the west and Ai on the east. And there he built an altar to the LORD and called upon the name of the LORD. 9 And Abram journeyed on, still going toward the Negeb. (Genesis 12:1-9)

In chapter twelve, we have this huge promise from God that ALL the families of the earth are going to be blessed through Abram.  Abram (Abraham) had no way of knowing the measure of what God was promising in Christ, but it was clear to Abram that God was going to bless him with descendants and land in a very substantial way; and as such, we now have a problem!  God committed to make a nation out of the descendants of Abram, who is married to a woman who demonstrates no evidence of an ability to have children!

If you continue in Genesis, you will see Abram, Sarai, and their entire crew end up in Egypt, where Abram deceives Pharaoh into believing Sarai is not his wife out of fear that Pharaoh would kill him to take Sarai as his wife.  As a result, Pharaoh, without hesitation, takes Sarai as a wife, but God strikes Pharaoh’s house with a plague that leads Pharaoh to find out that Sarai is actually Abram’s wife.  Out of the fear of the Lord, Pharaoh banishes Abram, Sarai, and all their people and possessions from Egypt.

Eventually Abram, who was considered wealthy at this point (Genesis 13:2), ended up back in Canaan.  However, there was a territorial dispute between his employees and the employees of his nephew Lot, which ended with Abram giving Lot the first choice of where he wanted to live.  Lot chose the green pastures and thriving cities in the Jordan Valley, specifically settling in one called Sodom (Genesis 13).

Ironically, in Genesis 14, war breaks out, and the Jordan Valley is conquered, including Sodom.  In the process, Lot and his household are captured, but Abram organizes his army and defeats the ones who conquered the Kings of the Valley, freeing his nephew Lot and his household.  In addition, he gets back all the invaders took from the King of Sodom, gives a tithe of all of it to Melchizedek (Priest of the God Most High and King of Salem), and then gives everything left to the king of Sodom, making it real clear Abram didn’t want anybody to give the King of Sodom credit for his wealth.

All that drama led to some serious anxiety with Abram.  He’s putting his life and the lives of all his employees in harm’s way for what?  He’s followed God’s instructions and moved to Canaan, but nothing’s really changed in that he still has no offspring. It all led up to this conversation between God and Abram in Genesis 15,

1 After these things the word of the LORD came to Abram in a vision: "Fear not, Abram, I am your shield; your reward shall be very great."  2 But Abram said, "O Lord GOD, what will you give me, for I continue childless, and the heir of my house is Eliezer of Damascus?"  3 And Abram said, "Behold, you have given me no offspring, and a member of my household will be my heir."  4 And behold, the word of the LORD came to him: "This man shall not be your heir; your very own son shall be your heir."  5 And he brought him outside and said, "Look toward heaven, and number the stars, if you are able to number them." Then he said to him, "So shall your offspring be." 6 And he believed the LORD, and he counted it to him as righteousness. (Genesis 15:1-6)

If you continue reading chapter 15, you will find out that Abram quickly doubted God, but God once again assured Him of His plans.  God even told Abram of what we now know to be the Egyptian captivity and all that God was going to do through Moses and Joshua for the people to return and take the land God promised them.  The point, however, is that God is making it real clear that HE will do this.  It’s not something Abram or any other man will get credit for doing, but rather God alone will do it in a way that He alone gets credit.  However, Abram either didn’t fully understand that God was going to do it, or he was struggling to believe it, or both; either way, it led to him and Sarai coming up with a plan of their own.  In Genesis 16, we read,

1 Now Sarai, Abram's wife, had borne him no children. She had a female Egyptian servant whose name was Hagar. 2 And Sarai said to Abram, "Behold now, the LORD has prevented me from bearing children. Go in to my servant; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 

Their plan worked: Hagar and Abram conceived a child, but the results were disastrous because it was their plan, not God’s!  Watch what happened,

3 So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her servant, and gave her to Abram her husband as a wife. 4 And he went in to Hagar, and she conceived. And when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5 And Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my servant to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!"

Talk about a mess!  Abram did what Sarai suggested, but now she’s jealous and bitter because her servant, whom she gave to Abram, now looks at Sarai with disdain and envy.  Hagar, who is likely much younger, now sees herself as deserving of being wife number one; that is, she sees herself as better than Sarai because she could do what Sarai could not for Abram.  In this way, Hagar viewed her works as more righteous, that is, more deserving of the right to be Abram’s wife, and thus there was a disdain for Sarai, who was actually Abram’s wife.  Even though Sarai gave Hagar to Abram as a wife, that doesn’t mean she still wasn’t a servant, that is a slave to Sarai, and Sarai wasn’t about to be mocked by somebody who was, in the end, serving her.  All that led to this,

6 But Abram said to Sarai, "Behold, your servant is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she fled from her. 7 The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8 And he said, "Hagar, servant of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am fleeing from my mistress Sarai." 9 The angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress and submit to her."  10 The angel of the LORD also said to her, "I will surely multiply your offspring so that they cannot be numbered for multitude."  11 And the angel of the LORD said to her, "Behold, you are pregnant and shall bear a son. You shall call his name Ishmael, because the LORD has listened to your affliction.  12 He shall be a wild donkey of a man, his hand against everyone and everyone's hand against him, and he shall dwell over against all his kinsmen."  13 So she called the name of the LORD who spoke to her, "You are a God of seeing," for she said, "Truly here I have seen him who looks after me." 14 Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.  15 And Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram called the name of his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.  16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore Ishmael to Abram. (Genesis 16:1-16)

So, what we have is a child whose descendants are going to be constantly in conflict with the descendants of Abram, but Abram doesn’t know this yet because he’s still not putting together that Ishmael is not the promised child.  However, thirteen years later, God came to Abram and made it clear that Ishmael was not the son He had promised, and therefore not the heir to the promise God had made with Abram.  In doing so, God changed Abram’s name to Abraham, Sarai’s name to Sarah, and God made it real clear that the promise was for Abraham and his wife Sarah, not Abraham and his wife’s servant Hagar.  Despite what Sarah was trying to do in giving Hagar to Abraham as a wife, God never acknowledged it because God didn’t have anything to do with it!  Hagar was Sarah and Abraham’s plan, not God’s!   But God graciously cleared it all up in Genesis 17,

15 And God said to Abraham, "As for Sarai your wife, you shall not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall be her name. 16 I will bless her, and moreover, I will give you a son by her. I will bless her, and she shall become nations; kings of peoples shall come from her." 17 Then Abraham fell on his face and laughed and said to himself, "Shall a child be born to a man who is a hundred years old? Shall Sarah, who is ninety years old, bear a child?" 18 And Abraham said to God, "Oh that Ishmael might live before you!"19 God said, "No, but Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Isaac. I will establish my covenant with him as an everlasting covenant for his offspring after him. 20 As for Ishmael, I have heard you; behold, I have blessed him and will make him fruitful and multiply him greatly. He shall father twelve princes, and I will make him into a great nation. 21 But I will establish my covenant with Isaac, whom Sarah shall bear to you at this time next year." 22 When he had finished talking with him, God went up from Abraham. (Genesis 17:15-22)

Let’s fast forward to Genesis 21 and see how this all went down,

 1 The LORD visited Sarah as he had said, and the LORD did to Sarah as he had promised. 2 And Sarah conceived and bore Abraham a son in his old age at the time of which God had spoken to him. 3 Abraham called the name of his son who was born to him, whom Sarah bore him, Isaac. … 8 And the child grew and was weaned. And Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9 But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, laughing. 10 So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son, for the son of this slave woman shall not be heir with my son Isaac." 11 And the thing was very displeasing to Abraham on account of his son. 12 But God said to Abraham, "Be not displeased because of the boy and because of your slave woman. Whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for through Isaac shall your offspring be named. 13 And I will make a nation of the son of the slave woman also, because he is your offspring." 14 So Abraham rose early in the morning and took bread and a skin of water and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. (Genesis 21:1-3, 8-14)

Notice that in Genesis, even though Sarah had given Hagar to Abraham as a wife, she was still considered a slave.  Her status in the home was never more than that of a slave who served Abraham as a wife, so she was never treated as a wife.  Furthermore, Ishmael mocked Isaac at the feast to celebrate the fact that Isaac had survived the most vulnerable years of a child’s life and was ready to be weaned from his mother’s milk.  Instead of celebrating the life of his brother, he despised his brother.  Hagar's disdain for Sarah had already been handed down to Ishmael about Isaac before Isaac was even old enough to know it or do anything about it.  This again is key to understanding what we are getting ready to read in Galatians.

There’s a lot more we can talk about in the life of Abraham, but I want to end this part of our discussion with what happened in the mountains of Moriah.  At some point when Isaac was old enough to intelligently interact with adults on matters, likely a teenager, God told Abraham to take Isaac to a mountain in the land of Moriah and offer him as a sacrifice.  As crazy as it sounded, Abraham obeyed, but did so at this point with the faith that Isaac was the promised son and therefore, no matter how things went down, somehow Isaac was going to survive.  When they arrived at the mountain, the Bible records,

5 Then Abraham said to his young men, "Stay here with the donkey; I and the boy will go over there and worship and come again to you." (Genesis 22:5)

The Gospel picture of what God did in Genesis 22 is unmistakable.  God provides a substitute for Isaac!  However, the point Paul makes in Galatians 4 about Genesis 22 concerns Abraham’s faith.  Abraham had expressed to his son in Genesis 22:8, "God will provide for himself the lamb for a burnt offering, my son," and that’s precisely what God did!  Abraham totally believed that Isaac was the son God had promised, not because Abraham wished it or spoke it into existence, but because God Himself had very clearly said it, and as such made it happen!  Abraham believed God was both capable and trustworthy!

Abraham’s actions in Genesis 22 are therefore a testimony of his absolute faith that God was doing exactly what He said He would do, and to what I imagine was the exuberant relief of both Abraham and Isaac, God did it!  God provided a ram, so Abraham took Isaac off the altar and sacrificed the ram instead.  Once again, this is key to understanding the allegory Paul is about to make with the story of Abraham in his letter to the Galatians.  I know we have read a lot of stuff to you so far, but let me read this passage to you in its entirety, and then I’ll go back through it and explain the comparisons Paul is making in it and what they have to do with us.

21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband." 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

In Galatians 4:21-31, Paul uses the story of Sarah and Hagar to illustrate two key comparisons between the Old and New Covenants.

The first comparison highlights the superiority of the New Covenant.

 The Old Covenant is enslavement and spiritual poverty, while the New Covenant is freedom and spiritual prosperity.

 21 Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. 23 But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. 

 Paul starts this illustration by challenging those who want to live under the Mosaic Law to reflect on the two sons of Abraham and the significant difference between the two.Both sons were from Abraham, but the child Hagar, Sarah’s slave, bore with Abraham, which was a product of the faithless effort of Abraham and Sarah to accomplish God’s will for Him (born according to the flesh).  Therefore, because Hagar was a slave, and her child was the product of a faithless act to try and accomplish God’s will for Him, that child was, in essence, born into slavery.

On the other hand, Sarah was free, and thus her child was born into freedom.Furthermore, the sexual relationship that produced that son was an act of participating in the promises of God, and as such, that child was born through the promise (born by grace through faith!).  Both required a sexual relationship, but one was a religious act to try and accomplish God’s will for Him, while the other was an act of faith in the promise God made that He was going to give Abraham a child through his barren wife, Sarah!

Paul then explains the point he’s making about the Old and New Covenants in bringing this up.All that was involved with Hagar and her son represents the Old Covenant and Mosaic Law, while the son of Sarah and everything involved with him represents the New Covenant God made with us through Christ and His death and resurrection. Paul writes,

 24 Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

 Paul says that what we learn about Hagar and Ishmael points us to the Old Covenant and Law God gave to Israel through Moses at Mount Sinai, to the extent that those who still live under it are living as slaves, just as Hagar was a slave.

 Remember why God gave the law in the first place; it was because of the faithlessness of the Hebrew people after God freed them from slavery in Egypt.Rather than trust God and follow Him into the Land and the prosperity that He had promised them, they built a Golden Calf, worshiped it, and kept insisting on returning to Egypt.  In this way, the people earned the burdensome and harsh Law of Moses!  Their rejection of the opportunity to live by faith caused God to enslave them to the promise through the Law.  Everything about the Law that God gave Moses was the result of their sinful works, and thus Paul wrote,

19 Why then the law? It was added because of transgressions, until the offspring should come to whom the promise had been made. (Galatians 3:19)

 Bringing that forward to this passage.Those who reject the New Covenant and, as such, continue to live under the Law and the Old Covenant are not trusting God.  They are living faithless lives trying to earn God’s love and favor instead of trusting God to do what He said He would do, and in this case, already did in Christ!

 Paul then adds a level of severity to the choice of the Old Covenant and Law when he says they are enslaved!A slave is not an heir.  A slave doesn’t have rights and privileges.  A slave has no power or even true individuality.  Paul says those who live according to the Mosaic Law, or any other religious system, are functionally one and the same with Ishmael’s condition.  Ishmael was born to a slave and thus in the end was treated as such in the context of the promise God had made to Abraham.  Currently, then, all those who were living according to the Law of Moses, or any other religion, were functionally living as slaves to sin, and as such, outside of the promise of eternal life.

 26 But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother. 27 For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband."

 Surprisingly, Paul leaves the illustration of Sarah and instead takes us to an entirely different period in the history of Israel.Verse 27 isn’t from the story of Abraham.  Verse 27 is a quote of Isaiah 54:1, which is a prophecy intended to encourage the people of Israel who were going to end up in Babylonian captivity.  In the despair of seeing Jerusalem decimated and desolate, they had a promise from God that He would restore the city, the temple, and the Jewish people back to it.  It is a promise that, even though at that time Babylon seemed to be the city of blessing, God was going to restore His glory back to Jerusalem.  Paul, however, lays hold of the immediate context of Isaiah 54:1, which is the restoration of Jerusalem and the prosperity of the Jewish people, in order to illustrate the broader point in verses 24 through 26.

In mixing metaphors, he underscores the point of the significance of living by faith in the promise of God.God’s fulfillment of the promise to Abraham to give him Isaac, as well as the promise to the Jewish people to bring them out of captivity and back to Jerusalem, is just like our salvation; it’s all God’s doing! In both metaphors, faith isn’t us accomplishing anything, it’s living our lives with the confidence He will! It’s acting on what we know He alone can do.  Abraham believed in God and acted on that faith, both in impregnating Sarah and later when he obediently placed the son of that promised pregnancy (Isaac) on the altar.  The same God who miraculously made Sarah conceive and bear a son was the one who also provided a substitute for that son.

This is why the New Covenant is compared to the Jerusalem that was freed from Babylonian rule and restored to all its glory. The Law was enslavement to failure and its consequences, and it led to God using the Babylonians to punish the Israelites and decimate Jerusalem.But the New Covenant in Christ is God's promise to save us and produce His eternal life in us! The writer of Hebrews states,

22 But you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and to innumerable angels in festal gathering, 23 and to the assembly of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven, and to God, the judge of all, and to the spirits of the righteous made perfect, 24 and to Jesus, the mediator of a new covenant, and to the sprinkled blood that speaks a better word than the blood of Abel. (Hebrews 12:22-24)

 The Old Covenant is enslavement and spiritual poverty, while the New Covenant is freedom and spiritual prosperity.

 The second comparison highlights the superiority of the New Covenant.

As Ishmael had to be cast out because he could not live compatibly with Isaac, his brother, the Old Covenant is incompatible with the New and must also be cast out. 

 Just as you cannot mix oil and water, you cannot mix religion with the New Covenant!

 28 Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now. 30 But what does the Scripture say? "Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman." 31 So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.

 In Genesis 21, Ishmael laughed at Isaac during the celebration of him being old enough to wean off his mother’s milk.There was a deep disdain of Hagar for Sarah, and it seems that disdain had transferred to Ishmael for Isaac.  As such, God told Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away.  They were not compatible.  There would never be peace in Abraham’s house as long as they were both in it.

This is precisely what was going on with the Jewish Christians who believed you had to live according to the Mosaic Law to experience spiritual blessings, and more importantly, to truly honor God.They felt totally justified in their disdain for the Gentiles, but especially Jews like Paul, who had no intention of living their life according to the Mosaic Law!  When they saw Jews who had converted to faith in Christ not celebrating the Passover, not holding to the laws of the Sabbath, eating non-kosher meat, and even enjoying festivals that were oriented with their pagan societies rather than the Jewish ones oriented in the Law of Moses, they absolutely lost their minds.

However, Paul’s point is not to run religious-minded people off the way Abraham had to run off Hagar and Ishmael, but he is saying the Old Covenant itself is not at all compatible or has any place or value with the New.The New is not a way to live out the old.  The New is not a better version of the Old; it replaces the Old with something entirely different in every way.  They are nothing alike in any way, fashion, shape, or form! And as such, the effort to remake the Old Covenant, whether in part or in whole, into the New is not only irrational, it’s detrimental, so cast it out like Abraham did with Hagar and Ishmael!  They are not compatible!

It doesn’t matter that the Old Covenant has some moral similarities; the two Covenants are totally different.One is a covenant to receive land, protection, and prosperity if the laws and traditions are kept, while the other is an invitation to know the Father and fellowship with Him, not based on our works or performance at all, but entirely on Christ!

Therefore, what Paul wants us to see here is that when we let religious thinking and practices creep into our lives, we allow the very disdain for life in Christ to become part of our lives; we allow that which opposed the New Covenant to have a place in our hearts.By religious thinking and practices, I mean that thinking that there are religious rituals and traditions, as well as rules, that we can follow that make us more loved by God, more worthy of His name, more able to receive and experience His grace, more able to overcome sin, more connected with His power, and more able to do things that bring Him glory; and on the contrary, by not performing these things, or by not following all the rules, I am less loved by God, less worthy of His name, less able to overcome sin, less connected with His power, and less able to bring Him glory!

When we let that kind of thinking and practice have a place in our lives, we allow that which mocks the Gospel of Jesus Christ into our lives!We are letting that which ultimately seeks to eradicate what Christ did for us into our lives.  We are not just letting something incompatible with the New Covenant exist in our lives, but we are also opposed to the New Covenant.  Therefore, Paul says that just as Abraham had to send Hagar and Ishmael out, you and I must do the same thing with the Mosaic Law and the Old Covenant.  We cannot, under any circumstances, allow our hearts to agree with or practice religion of any kind, including the one God gave to the Jewish people!

 Challenge

What do your actions and motives say about your faith?  Is it based on God’s Word and works, or yours?  Are you trying to accomplish His will or live in it?

 Do you worship God to get Him on your side or because He is?

Do you study God’s Word for a way to get God’s blessing and protection, or because you are blessed with His eternal blessings and protection?

No matter how glorious you think the thing is you’re going to do for God, please understand the moment you set off to do it, you have in that moment submitted yourself to the yoke of slavery.  The moment you and I trust in our actions, in our religious practice of any kind, in our feelings about morality and justice and ethics, in our ability to enact God’s will, in our ability to do anything or determine anything that God alone has said is entirely up to Him; it is in that moment we have joined our life with the work of Abraham and Hagar that led to the situation with Ishmael, instead of the life that is only made possible by Christ!

Discussion Guide for this sermon