Two Types of People

We are very good at dividing people into groups.

We divide people based on heritage: English, Irish, Scottish

We divide by race: White, black, Asian (thought here is only 1 race)

We divide by fandoms: Marvel vs DC, Starwars vs Startreck, Cleveland vs The World

This natural desire to divide can be both harmless and harmful, depending on the situation

The truth is, every way we divide people is incorrect and nothing more than a cheap knock off of the way God has already divided us

In this passage we will see that God divides humanity into two people group.

1.The Slave and the Free

Galatians 4:21-23

Paul begins his argument by using a rhetorical device.

By asking “do you not listen to the law” he is asking, do you not know what the law says.

He’s telling the judaizers to look at the Law and recognize that even the law points to justification by faith

Essentially what he is saying is, “You want to be under the law, look at it and see that the law can do nothing but condemn.”

This is the introduction to the example of Isaac and Ishmael

These two boys are the sons of Abraham but they are also examples of the two types of people in the world

One born of a slave woman into slavery, and one born of a free woman into freedom

For those that don’t know, the events around the birth of Abraham’s son’s are vital to our understanding of the Gospel

Abraham, the recipient of the covenant we’ve spent so much time discussing, was promised he would have a son

To most that would not be too hard of a promise to believe, but when the promise was given to Abraham he was already beyond normal parenting age

Not only was Abraham beyond normal parenting age, his wife, Sarah, was beyond child bearing years

As time went on, Sarah began to doubt and had Abraham impregnate her slave

But the story doesn’t end there, about 17 years later God gives Sarah a son

So what Abraham ends up with are two sons, as Paul puts it, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman

Ishmael, the son of Hagar the slave and Isaac, the son of Sarah the free woman

Not only did he divide these two sons by their birth status, he also divides them by the way in which they were conceived

Ishmael is described as being born according to the flesh

I see two ways Ishmael is born by the flesh:

He was born normally. His mother was of childbearing age

It was no more miraculous than any other pregnancy

This is how the flesh works

The second way he was born according to the flesh is tied to Abraham’s decision to impregnate Hagar.

It was a decision made by the flesh, not the spirit

it was a decision made due to the weakness of Abraham’s faith, the weakness of the flesh

This is compared to Isaac’s birth which was through promise

Isaac was born to a woman too old to have children

There was no way to Sarah to birth a child without the miraculous intervention of God

It was only through promise that Isaac was born

The Son’s are a Picture of the Covenants

Galatians 4:24-27

Paul explains that this story is not simply a retelling of an historical event but also can be interpreted as an allegory

Allegory is common story telling tool

It’s where you take story and use the story to teach a truth

For example, the boy who cried wolf

The idea of allegory within scripture has fallen out of favor in recent centuries, but Paul is telling us allegory is used in the Old Testament

Since the mid 1800’s the idea of literal interpretation has taken over, to the detriment of the depth of Biblical truth

Often referred to as “types”, the Old Testament is loaded with allegorical examples of Christian truth

Sometimes you’ll hear the term “typography”, this is the use of types in scripture

What Paul is showing us is that these two boys, born to two women, by two circumstances and born into to status’ are an allegory of the two covenants

The first covenant is from Mount Sinai

Mt Sinai is the location where Moses received the law

Mt Sinai and the old covenant are symbolized by Hagar

She was a slave and had a child that is a slave, likewise Mt Sinai gave the law and thus placed Israel in slavery to the law

To a Jew this would be a highly controversial statement, but Paul goes on

“She,” Hagar “corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children”

If, up to this point, Paul had been flirting with blasphemy, he is now in it’s full embrace

Up to this point he has spoken against the law, against Moses, against Abraham, and now the Holy City Jerusalem.

Obviously I am speaking of the perspective a jew would have

To claim Jerusalem is symbolic of slavery and comparing to Ishmael

To a Jew this would be blasphemy

So many times the Jewish people would refer back to being the children of “Abraham, Isaac and Jacob”, to now claim they are really the children of Ishmael would be inconceivable

Paul then rounds out the allegory by explain to us that it is the church that is free.

His statement is “the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother” is to explain to us that the true descendents of Abraham are the church

Which is exactly what he has been trying to teach through this letter

that the benefits of the promise, what he refers to here as being free, are given to the church and not Israel

Two things to notice about the phrase “the Jerusalem above”

Jerusalem is not speaking simply of the city, but of the Nation of Israel

Much like we would speak of Washington to reference our Nation, he is saying Jerusalem to reference the Nation of Israel

He doesn't say “The Jerusalem to come”

While this seems to allude to the New Jerusalem we see in Revelation, he is not stressing the future state of the church but the current state

He is showing us that the Kingdom of Christ is current, it’s not just a thing to come

Paul next transitions to a quote from Isaiah 54

He shows us another allegory, but in this one Isaiah is speaking of the nation of Israel during the Babylonian captivity

Isaiah refers to Israel as “O barren one” because during this time, Israel was not being blessed

The nation was barren of blessings

The rest of the nations were referred to as “desolate” but are prophesied to have more children than Israel

Israel being the one who has a husband

While Isaiah was speaking to a future time when Israel would not receive blessing and the nations around them would,

But he was also speaking of a time when Israel would no longer be in covenant with God, but that more children of Abraham would come from the nations of the world.

This is today.

Today there are more believers in Christ from the nations than from Israel

Whenever there are Divisions, there Will Be Hatred

Galatians 4:28-31

The allegory continues in the fall out

When we make decision in the flesh, we have fallouts

Abraham’s decision to impregnate Hagar, is still being felt today

Many Arabic people claim to be the descendent of Ishmael and to this day, the siblings are still fighting

but what the allegory is to teach us is that those born of the flesh will always persecute those born of the Spirit

When Isaac was weened, Abraham through a party

At the party, Ishmael was seen mocking Isaac leading to Ishmael and Hagar being kicked out of the camp

Likewise, there will be a day that those born of the slave women, not just the Arabs but all that deny Christ will be kicked out

That will be the day when God’s final judgement is cast on the earth

In the end, God will divide the people, just like the sheep and goats

He will separate the true children of Abraham from the true children of Hagar

At which point the promise that those in Christ will reign with Him forever will be fulfilled

Sadly, at the same time those that deny Christ will be cast into the lake of fire

Closing: the straight and narrow, the sheep and the goats, depart from me…workers of iniquity