Hagar

The angel of the Lord found Hagar beside a spring of water in the wilderness, along the road to Shur.

8 The angel said to her, “Hagar, Sarai’s servant, where have you come from, and where are you going?”

“I’m running away from my mistress, Sarai,” she replied.

9 The angel of the Lord said to her, “Return to your mistress, and submit to her authority.”

10 Then he added, “I will give you more descendants than you can count.”

11 And the angel also said, “You are now pregnant and will give birth to a son. You are to name him Ishmael (which means ‘God hears’), for the Lord has heard your cry of distress.

12 This son of yours will be a wild man, as untamed as a wild donkey! He will raise his fist against everyone, and everyone will be against him. Yes, he will live in open hostility against all his relatives.”

13 Thereafter, Hagar used another name to refer to the Lord, who had spoken to her. She said, “You are the God who sees me.”* She also said, “Have I truly seen the One who sees me?”

14 So that well was named Beer-lahai-roi (which means “well of the Living One who sees me”). It can still be found between Kadesh and Bered.

15 So Hagar gave Abram a son, and Abram named him Ishmael.

16 Abram was eighty-six years old when Ishmael was born.

“Ishmael” means “God hears” (see 16:11). Although it was Ishmael’s misbehavior that led to the expulsion from Abraham’s household, God reaffirms his promise: “I will make him into a great nation” (21:18).

Paul’s use of this account is marvelous (; see comments there). Ishmael was born by the flesh through “the slave woman” (). Isaac was born by the promise and was the heir. One represented bondage at Sinai, the other freedom when the promise finally came. When Christ, the seed, came, the old was done away. Now that the promise has come, believers are co-heirs with the promised Seed by adoption through God’s grace. To go back under the Law would be to undo the fulfillment of God’s promise. Those adopted by the Seed become seeds and are set free from the bondage of the Law (). Just as Ishmael and Isaac were in conflict (), so the flesh and the Spirit do not harmonize. The flesh struggles against the Spirit, often mocking it (). Therefore believers are to “get rid of the slave woman and her son” (), that is, to remove the threat of the flesh and “live by the Spirit” ().

Living by the Spirit’s Power

16 So I say, let the Holy Spirit guide your lives. Then you won’t be doing what your sinful nature craves.

17 The sinful nature wants to do evil, which is just the opposite of what the Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are the opposite of what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, so you are not free to carry out your good intentions.

18 But when you are directed by the Spirit, you are not under obligation to the law of Moses.

Key Ideas*

Sarah and Hagar

Hagar

Sarah

Ishmael, the son of slavery

Isaac, the son of freedom

Birth “according to the flesh”

Birth “through the promise”

Old Covenant

New Covenant

Mount Sinai

Mount Zion

Present Jerusalem

Heavenly Jerusalem

Spurgeon Commentary: Galatians Exposition

Yet one of them inherited the covenant blessing, and the other was simply a prosperous man of the world

Galatians, Philippians, Colossians: A Bible Commentary in the Wesleyan Tradition 1. Two Sons of Abraham 4:21–27

KEY IDEAS*

SARAH AND HAGAR

HAGAR

SARAH

Ishmael, the son of slavery

Isaac, the son of freedom

Birth “according to the flesh”

Birth “through the promise”

Old Covenant

New Covenant

Mount Sinai

Mount Zion

Present Jerusalem

Heavenly Jerusalem

Spurgeon Commentary: Galatians Exposition

The difference of the covenants rests here. The one was made with man, the other with Christ.

25 Hagar is Mount Sinai Notice Hagar was not intended to be a wife. She never ought to have been anything but a handmaid to Sarah. The law was never intended to save; it was only designed to be a handmaid to the covenant of grace. When God delivered the law on Sinai, it was apart from His ideas that any man would ever be saved by it. He never conceived that man would attain perfection by it.

 The promise is the absolute opposite of flesh, since it is a word from God that will be fulfilled by God

those who are attempting to be justified on the basis of keeping the law will be cast out of God’s presence forever

25 Hagar is Mount Sinai Notice Hagar was not intended to be a wife. She never ought to have been anything but a handmaid to Sarah. The law was never intended to save; it was only designed to be a handmaid to the covenant of grace. When God delivered the law on Sinai, it was apart from His ideas that any man would ever be saved by it. He never conceived that man would attain perfection by it.

The entire analogy involves five sets of twos: two mothers, two sons, two covenants, two mountains (Mount Sinai and Mount Zion), and two cities (the present Jerusalem and the heavenly one).

The two sons had different mothers—one slave, one free—and the sons were born in different ways. The son of the slave woman was born in the ordinary way (4:23), that is, according to the flesh and by the normal means of procreation. The son of the free woman was born as the result of a promise, directly fulfilling God’s word to Abraham. Luther observed that the principal difference was the absence of the word of God in the birth of Ishmael:

Paul reminded his readers that Abraham had two sons (those born later are not important to his illustration), and that they should consider which of the two they were most like. One son, Isaac, was born of Sarah, the free woman; the other, Ishmael, was born of Hagar, the slave woman. According to ancient law and custom the status of a mother

those who are attempting to be justified on the basis of keeping the law will be cast out of God’s presence forever

The entire analogy involves five sets of twos: two mothers, two sons, two covenants, two mountains (Mount Sinai and Mount Zion), and two cities (the present Jerusalem and the heavenly one).

In conclusion, Paul affirmed that he and the Galatian believers were not children of the slave woman who was driven away and was denied a share in the inheritance. Rather all believers are children of the free woman, “heirs of God and co-heirs with Christ” (Ro