Galatians 4 -- Not An Heir

Paul is so astounded at how this group of Christians has veered off the path they were on when he left!  He now feels like he's got to help them see what the false teachers have done to them.

My commentary says he first explains their adoption:  "It has to do with our standing in the family of God."  They hadn't been adopted as children, the way my boys were, but "as adult sons with all of the privileges of sonship."  (Remember, women didn't have those privileges back then.)  They had been children of bondage to sin and now they were sons and heirs.

He then tackles their regression, it says.  They had "abandoned liberty for bondage" to the law.  Paul then uses that Old Testament craving they have to show them a hidden meaning in the story of Isaac that the holy Spirit had revealed to him.  Abraham and Sarah hadn't been able to have children, even though God had promised they would.  So Sarah offered her slave girl, Hagar, and Abraham and Hagar soon had Ishmael.  He's believed to have been the start of the Muslim people.

"For 14 years, Ishmael has been his father's only son, very dear to his heart."  Then comes Isaac through Sarah.  At the weaning ceremony when he turned three, "Ishmael begins to mock Isaac and to create trouble in the home.  There is only one solution to the problem, and a costly one at that:  Hagar and her son have to go.  With a broken heart, Abraham sends his son away, because this is what the Lord tells him to do."

My commentary shows that Hagar vs. Sarah = law vs. grace, and Ishmael vs. Isaac = flesh vs. Spirit.  "You cannot separate these four factors.  The Judaizers taught that law made the believer more spiritual, but Paul made it clear that law only releases the opposition of the flesh and a conflict within the believer ensues."

"Isaac was born Abraham's heir, but Ishmael could not share in this inheritance.  The Judaizers were trying to make Hagar a mother again ... No amount of religion or legislation can give the dead sinner life.  Only Christ can do that through the gospel."

Father, help me not to substitute for Your perfect will for my life.  Keep me on the path You've got planned out for me for the rest of this life.  Don't let me try to overthink it like Abraham and Sarah did.

 

Your Brother In Christ,
Gary Ford