There is much that is typical in, the Bible story and the thoughtful student may often discern far-reaching principles and applications beneath the surface of the simple narratives. But it is only where scripture itself points out or corroborates such hidden deeper meanings that we can be perfectly assured of their truth and authority. There are sects and cults whose doctrines are based on fanciful allegorizings and "spiritualizings" of God's simple word. Such teachings are to be avoided. The allegory of Sarah and Hagar in Gal. 4:21-31 is given under the endorsement of the Holy Spirit. It pictures, on the basis of the record in Gen. 16 and 21, the relative character of the Covenant of the Law and the Covenant of Promise.

      "Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law? For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, one by the handmaid, and one by the freewoman. Howbeit the son by the handmaid is born after the flesh; but the son by the freewoman is born through promise. Which things contain an allegory: for these two women are two covenants; one from mount Sinai, bearing children unto bondage, which is Hagar. Now this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to the Jerusalem that now is: for she is in bondage with her children. But the Jerusalem that is above is free, which is our mother. For it is written,

Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; Break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: For more are the children of the desolate than of her that hath the husband.

Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are children of promise. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, so also it is now. Howbeit what saith the scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son: for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman. Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman.

      The correspondences and contrasts of the allegory may be tabulated as follows:

      The promise to Abraham was that of a son to be born to Sarah. But many years passed without the least prospect of a fulfilment. Then, in accordance with the strange custom of those times, Sarah gave her handmaid, Hagar, to Abraham, hoping thus to "help God fulfil His promise." It was a foolish and unauthorized step. (That feature of it, however, does not enter into the present lesson.) Hagar then became the mother of a son, Ishmael, who was born, not in the energy of the Divine promise, but in the power of nature ("of the will of the flesh," and "of the will of man," John 1:13). Later Sarah's own son, Isaac, the child of promise, was born. Now these [27] two women, Paul tells us, are two covenants--Hagar, the covenant of Sinai--the bondwoman bearing children unto bondage--and the result and outcome of this covenant was seen in the earthly Jerusalem, who was in bondage with her children. But Sarah represents the New Covenant, which is pictured by the Jerusalem which is above, "which is our mother," whose children are free-born. The apostle quotes from Isaiah (54:1). Sarah--the Covenant of Promise--so long hopelessly barren, is to rejoice in many more children than were ever born under the Covenant of Bondage, the Law-covenant of Mount Sinai.

      Another feature is brought forward now. There is, and always was, an irreconcilable antagonism between those who were born of the flesh and those born after the Spirit. This was exemplified in Ishmael's "mocking" (the word doubtless covered more than its bare meaning indicates). The final outcome of it all was that the handmaid and her son were cast out "for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman." But we who are Christ's are not children of a handmaid but of the freewoman, sons of the New Covenant, the covenant of promise.

      The force of this argument backed as it was by the proven apostolic authority of Paul (which the Galatians could not deny nor repudiate) must have been all-powerful and decisive. It branded the Judaizers with their fleshly religion as children of Hagar doomed to be cast out; but sets forth the believers of the free gospel of Jesus Christ as God's own children, born of the Spirit, in accordance with God's gracious promise. The argument holds good to this day. There are sects and denominations today also, whose great aim seems to be to bring their adherents under the yoke of the Law. But Christ redeemed those who once were under the law, that they might receive the adoption of sons (Gal. 4:4). The argument concludes with the exhortation of Gal. 5:1--"For freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore, and be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage." [28]

[PLG 27-28]