Part CI on Galatians Study

Genesis 21:4
"And Abraham circumcised his son Isaac being eight days old, as God had commanded him. And Abraham was an hundred years old, when his son Isaac was born unto him. And Sarah said, God hath made me to laugh, so that all that hear will laugh with me. And she said, Who would have said unto Abraham, that Sarah should have given children suck? for I have born him a son in his old age. and the child grew, and was weaned: and Abraham made a great feast the same day that Isaac was weaned."
Now we like to make a point that chronologically now Isaac has to be 5 years old when he's weaned, and that of course makes Ishmael about 18 or 19.


Galatians 4:22-24
"For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman. But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; (remember God had nothing to do with that birth) but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar."
Paul is going to use this allegory now in this Age of Grace so keep all this in mind as we go back now to Genesis and pick up the account in chapter 21. First we have the conception of the boy Ishmael by the slave girl Hagar and his birth. And we found that Hagar taunts Sarai because she was with child and Sarai wasn't, and we found that Sarai just literally kicks her out, whereupon the Lord sent her back. Why does God send her back? Because we know 18 years later she's going to go back to that same desert. But you see God's always got the big picture in mind. God doesn't look at the here and now necessarily, but He can leap thousands of years in Scripture as though it were a day, and that's exactly what He did here. 


We think this whole scenario in the episode of these two sons, one by the slave girl and the son of promise was programmed by God so that Paul could use it as a tremendous lesson for us today. Now that's the way we look at Scripture. None of this comes by accident. All right, as we carry on, we find Isaac is 5 years old and is weaned, and Ishmael is about 18 and again that same attitude of rebellion and taunt come in and now we find in verse 9 of chapter 21-


Genesis 21:9
"And Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking."
In other words Ishmael was simply teasing that little 5 year old Isaac. And you know what teenagers can do with little `tail-enders,' that's what we call them. Ishmael was just making life miserable for little Isaac, and of course Sarah, who by then was 95, just couldn't take it, and says -


Genesis 21:10
"Wherefore she said unto Abraham, Cast out this bondwoman and her son: for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son, even with Isaac."
Have you got the picture? Get him out of here. Now does she say move them next door? Does she say "send them down the trail a half mile?" No sir, but rather, "out of sight, out of mind." Now we know in reality that Isaac and Ishmael did come back together for the funeral of Abraham. But spiritually and naturally speaking we know that there was no union between them, just as there isn't today, they remain factions (The Saudi Arabians with its twelve tribes have very little to do with Israel.) Isaac of course continues on in the spiritual line, and gets a wife from the relatives up in Syria. Ishmael on the other hand marries an Egyptian, just a total diversion of the genealogy of these two young men. But the part that we really want all to see is back here in chapter 21 is what the Scripture says -

Genesis 21:10b
"...Cast out this bondwoman and her son for the son of this bondwoman shall not be heir with my son even with Isaac."
Now remember this is more than just the thought of a mother or a woman, this is now the Word of God. "Cast out this bondwoman." Now we're ready to go back to Galatians chapter 4, and put the whole allegory into common sense interpretation. Why did all this happen? Well of course there is more than one reason. But one of which was so that Paul could use this very typical setting in that Middle Eastern desert economy of these families, and now he can bring it to such a lesson for us today. Now let's come back again to verse 24 of Galatians chapter 4. These two boys, one born after the flesh, the other born as a result of promise -


Galatians 4:24
"Which things are an allegory: for these (2 young men) are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar."
So in reality what is spoken here as bondage. The Law! In fact come on over to chapter 5 for a moment. We'll be there later-


Galatians 5:1b
"...and be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage."