Down an Unfamiliar Road

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLIV)

It appears that this same oddity of converts to Christianity being persecuted by their own people also happened in Thessalonica. Paul remembers when they were just like the congregations in Judea. They were treated badly by their own people the Gentiles, just as those Jewish believers in Jesus the Anointed One were mistreated by other Jews. It was the same Jews who killed the Lord Jesus and the prophets. And they forced the believing Jews to leave their country. They are not pleasing to God because they are against everything and everyone else.^[1] And the writer of Hebrews mentioned that those among his readers sometimes heard people say hateful things to them and mistreated them in public. And occasionally they helped others being treated that same way. In fact, they visited those in prison and shared in their suffering. Yet they were still happy when everything they owned was taken away from them. They continued to be happy because they knew that there awaited them something much better – something that would last forever.^[2] One question is whether we should expect to be treated any better by today’s world? But an even greater question is, how will we react?

British preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), continues his thoughts on the idea of spiritual heritage through the Promised Son, Isaac, instead of through the produced son, Ishmael: My brothers and sisters, says Spurgeon, you are children who were born because of God’s promise, just as Isaac was. But the other son of Abraham, who was born in a natural way, just as Ishmael was, caused trouble for the one who was born by the power of the Holy Spirit. It remains the same today, Spurgeon says, when siblings differ as greatly as Ishmael and Isaac, it is not surprising if they had a falling out, and indulge in unkind words and feelings. Ishmael was older than Isaac, and as they began to play with each other, Sarah, saw the older son of the bond-woman mocking her child, as older ones often do. This may serve us as an indication of what we might expect if we possess the God-given life, and are heirs according to the promise. Those who are under the bondage of the Law cannot love those who are free-born by the Gospel, and in some way or another, will soon display their hostility. While we may not witness the same Hebrew against Heathen confrontations in our lifetime, we can certainly see the similarity in the Godly and ungodly, the heavenly and the earthly members of society.

But Spurgeon sees another level of this kind of jeering and poking fun at Christians. Sometimes the world mocks Christians because they see them as uninformed and backward in their ways, more like children than adults. So, are believers really such weak-minded people that it excites the derision of those who think themselves strong-minded? No! Of course not! The world makes more of this than what really exists. If they laugh at our weaknesses, it’s because they don’t see the strength, we acquired to resist temptation and stay on the straight and narrow way. They may also discriminate against Christians because of what they see as their insignificance and imperfection by worldly standards. What they don’t realize is that we are children of the King and part of His Kingdom that is in us now and soon may be seen in its beauty with a New Jerusalem. Then, we will judge them instead of them judging us.^[3]

Would it be too much of a stretch to also compare this same prejudice to how church-born Christians once treated born again believers? It was not too long ago that members of established nominal churches looked down on Evangelicals and Pentecostals. They also were thought of as coming from the less refined part of town and consider uneducated by the more elite members of society. The houses they lived in, the cars, if they had any, they drove were used models of the lower economic class. And even their jobs were at the minimum wage level. Yet, while the sophisticated stood somber and polite during worship services, the born again stood with arms raised as tears of joy flooded their eyes as they magnified their Redeemer with songs of praise and worship and prayers inspired by the Holy Spirit dwelling in them. But on resurrection day, those who prided themselves on being conformist to church rules, regulations, and ceremonies will remain silent in their graves while the saints go marching into God’s presence to live there forevermore. Thank God that such bigotry is now part of the past.

Alfred Edersheim (1825-1889) examines what Paul says here in verses twenty-eight and twenty-nine to the Jewish converts in Galatia to help them understand their status with God and Abraham. He told them, you are children who were born because of God’s promise, just as Isaac was. But the other son of Abraham, who was born in a natural way, caused trouble for the one who was born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same today. On this ground, says Edersheim, it was out of jealousy that Sarah demanded the bondwoman and her son be thrown out.

But Abraham, who possibly misunderstood her motives, was reluctant to comply because of his fatherly affection for a son, which is quite natural. It was only after God expressly directed Abram to let the woman go that he told her, “goodbye.” The expulsion of Ishmael became necessary, not only because of his illegitimacy due to his mother being a heathen, but in order to keep the heir of the promise unmixed with others, but also for the sake of Abraham himself, whose faith must be trained to give up his own intentions in order to be obedient to his Divine calling, everything – even his natural paternal affection for Ishmael.

And in His tender mercy notes Edersheim, God once more made the trial easier, by granting a special promise that Ishmael will become “a nation” on his own. Therefore, although Hagar and her son were literally thrown out with the barest of necessities – water and bread – for the journey was intended chiefly to try Abraham’s faith since God planned that their poverty would be temporary. Out of His mercy, we read afterward in Scripture that before his death, Abraham enriched his sons (by Hagar and Keturah) with “gifts,”^[4] and at his burial, Ishmael appears, as an acknowledged son, by the side of Isaac, to perform the last rites of love to their father.^{[5] [6]}

4:30-31 Nevertheless, let’s see what the Scripture says about that: “Get rid of the slave-wife and her son, for the son of the slave-wife will never share the family inheritance with the legitimate wife’s son.” So, it’s clear, my brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave-wife, Hagar, but of the legitimate wife, Sarah. 

Paul hopes the Galatians will see the truth through this illustration. If they insist on connecting with God through the religious rituals and regulations – many of which they invented themselves – they enjoy no more chance to be included in God’s promise to Abraham than Ishmael. He was conceived outside of God’s will. Why were they suddenly so blind? Their acceptance of Jesus the Anointed One brought them into the will and the promises of God. Why give that up? What could they gain? That’s why Paul quotes Sarah’s famous line when she saw how Hagar and Ishmael were seen making fun of Isaac, telling Abraham to get rid of Hagar and Ishmael. Sarah did not want Ishmael to divide Isaac’s inheritance with him; she wanted Isaac to get it all.

As he usually does, Paul finds that the Scriptures are his best friend when it comes to any argument involving Faith verse Works. So, what can Abraham, the father of Jewish people, say about faith? First of all, if Abraham was made right with God by the things he did, that gave him plenty of reasons to think highly of himself. But both he and God knew differently. That’s why the Scriptures say, “Abraham believed God, and because of this, he was accepted as one who is right with God.”^{[7] [8]} So, the descendants of Abraham were not given the enviable position of being the children of God by anything they did. In fact, says Paul, God chose the Israelites to be His people before they were even born.^[9]

Therefore, any estrangement between God and the people of Israel was entirely their fault. God was not about to take those He gave His name to before they were born and then later throw them out of the house just because they didn’t turn out to be precisely what He wanted them to be. So, this is what happened: The people of Israel wanted God’s blessing, but not all of them received it. The people He chose did get His blessing, but the others became hardheaded and refused to listen to Him. As the Scriptures say, “God caused the people to fall asleep.”^[10] “God closed their eyes, making it impossible for them to see, and he closed their ears, making it impossible for them to hear. This continues until now.”^[11] And David says, “Let those people be caught and trapped at their own feasts. Let them fall and be punished. Let their eyes be closed so that they cannot see. And let them be troubled forever.”^[12] So I ask: When the Jews fell, did that fall destroy them? No! But their mistake brought salvation to those who were not Jews. The purpose of this was to make the Jews jealous.^[13]

So, what made the Israelites, and now the Galatians, do such a stupid thing? Paul says that it all depends on what spirit controls our life. The Spirit that true believers receive is not a spirit that makes them slaves again to the Law and causes them to fear the coming judgment. The Spirit that dwells in believers makes them God’s chosen children. And with that Spirit, they cry out, “Abba, Father.” And the Spirit Himself speaks to their spirits and makes them sure that they are God’s children. Therefore, if they truly are God’s children, they will get the blessings God promised for His people. He will give them all that He gave to the Anointed One. But still, they must suffer as the Anointed One suffered. Then they will be able to share His glory.^[14] So it should be easy for the Galatians to figure out what spirit they allowed to take over their lives.

Was Paul doing something new going back to the First Covenant and pulling out Scriptures just to back-up his argument for believers under the Final Covenant? No! It was common for Rabbi’s to point out where Scriptures help them make their point. For instance, some Rabbis were talking about prayers (Hebrew, “Tefillah”), and benedictions where they inserted Scriptures into these prayers. And one of them said that David’s words, “Let the words of my mouth, and the meditation of my heart, be acceptable in thy sight, O Lord, my strength, and my redeemer,”^[15] fit in nicely at either the beginning or end of any prayer, no matter how short or long.^[16]

[1] 1 Thessalonians 2:14-15

[2] Hebrews 10:33-34

[3] Charles H. Spurgeon, On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., According to Promise, Persecution Consequent on the Promise, pp, 18-21

[4] Genesis 25:6

[5] Ibid. 25:9

[6] Alfred Edersheim: Bible History, Old Testament, Vol. 1, Ch. 14, p. 91

[7] Genesis 15:6

[8] Romans 4:1-3

[9] Ibid. 2:2a

[10] Deuteronomy 29:3; Isaiah 29:10

[11] Psalm 69:23-24

[12] Deuteronomy 32:21

[13] Romans 11:7-11

[14] Ibid. 8:15-17

[15] Psalm 19:14

[16] Babylonian Talmud: Seder Zera’im, Masekhet Berakoth, folio 19b

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLIII)

4:27 Isaiah talked about this incident when he wrote: “Rejoice, O childless woman! Break forth into loud and joyful song even though you never gave birth to a child. For the woman who could bear no children now has more than all the other women!”^[1]

But there is more to this story than what Paul quotes here. It involved an expression of the LORD’S love for Israel. The LORD goes on to tell Israel that they are to make their tent bigger. To open their doors wide. Not to think small! Put up a large tent that is strong because they will grow in all directions. Their children will become leaders in many nations and live in cities that were once destroyed. They are not to be afraid! They will not be disappointed!^[2]

Now, remember, Paul says this right after declaring that the New Jerusalem is for the habitation of the Jews descendant through the line of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So, Jerusalem represents their Mother, Sarah. That means, when they see the earthly city of Jerusalem destroyed, not to lose hope, another Jerusalem is coming. So, call in as many people as possible to become part of spiritual Israel, so when she moves in, they will be able to move in with her. These other people include Gentiles, not just Jews. But according to what the Galatians are doing now, they are not only forfeiting that privilege for themselves, but for all the Gentiles they might reach out to for inclusion.

Similarly, in Hannah’s prayer, we find a revelation concerning this situation. She prayed that people with plenty of food in the past must now work to get food. But those who were hungry in the past now grow fat on food. The woman who was not able to bear children is no longer childless. But the woman with many children is sad because all her children are gone.^[3] The point here is that before Yeshua the Messiah came, the Jews enjoyed all the blessing of God and the wonders He performed for them. They grew as a nation into a world player. But after they rejected the Messiah, God’s blessing began to flow to the Gentiles who before were given no stake in spiritual Israel’s future. They started to grow in record numbers in the church while the Jewish members declined. Even the Psalmist picks up this theme by saying God gives children to the woman whose home is empty. He makes her a happy mother. Praise the Lord!^[4] Oh, if the Galatians only saw what group they were siding with, they would run back to the Lord in droves.

Probably no woman in the Bible represents this more than Ruth the Moabitess. Because of a terrible famine in Judea, a man named Elimelech from Bethlehem moved his wife Naomi and two sons to Moab. There, his sons found no Jewish women to marry, so they married Moabite women. Eventually, Elimelech and his two sons died, leaving the three women all by themselves. Then Naomi heard that things were going better back in Judea, so she decided to return back home. At first, both of her daughters-in-law decided to go with her. But Naomi knew that as non-Jews, they would not be welcomed back in Bethlehem. So, she told them to stay, remarry, and make a life for themselves and their family in their homeland and their gods.

Oprah, one of the daughters-in-law, kissed Naomi and decided to stay. But the other, Ruth, said: “No, I’m going with you.” Even though Naomi insisted that she remain behind because Judea was under the God of Jacob and she may find that hard to accept, Ruth spoke those immortal words, “Wherever you go, I will go; and wherever you stay, I will stay. Your people will be my people, and your God will be my God.”^[5] We know the rest of the story. Ruth found a new husband in Boaz, and it was through her children that King David came, and the Messiah was promised. So, for the Galatians, here was a woman willing to give up her country and her gods for Yahweh, and He rewarded her with a unique place in the history of His people. So why were they who met Yeshua, the son of Yahweh, now turning away from Him to join those who rejected Him?

To help explain what Paul is saying here, Chrysostom likens the church to a woman with a husband. Their marriage is not the type found in the Legalistic Synagogue where one is married to the Law. The Gentile’s marriage is found in Grace Chapel. For years the one married in the synagogue produced dozens and dozens of children, whereas the one married in Grace Chapel was at first barren. But now, her children outnumber the other woman’s. That’s because the synagogue consists of only one family while the children of Grace Chapel filled Greece, Africa, land, sea, and the whole inhabited world. Do we see as the Apostle Paul did how Sarah foreshadowed our future in deeds and the vision about her in the words of the prophets?^[6]

Scottish theologian and Biblical critic John Eadie (1810-1876) pens an interesting commentary on what Paul says here in verse twenty-seven about Israel’s estrangement from God as represented by Paul when quoting the words of the prophet Isaiah concerning a childless woman whose husband forsook her but ending up giving birth to more children than the fertile woman with whom her husband now lives. Eadie puts it rather poetically as he relates that Isaiah was addressing ancient Israel, not Jerusalem, simply because no children were born there during their exile in Babylon. Her desolate condition is to be succeeded by the blessings of prosperity. Zion in her youth was espoused by Yahweh, but the nuptial covenant was broken, and she was repudiated and suffered the reproach of widowhood, “forsaken and grieved in spirit.”

But fear not! A reunion is promised on the part of the divine Husband by the sending of a fellow Kinsman to be known as her Redeemer, and with a new and significant title, “God of the whole earth.” In a gush of wrath, He hid His face for a moment, but in everlasting kindness, would He have mercy on her.^[7] The result will be numerous offspring. Just what precise historic reference this prophecy is pointing to need not be questioned. It refers to the destruction of Jerusalem and the scattering of the Jews that would last until their Redeemer came to bring them into a New Jerusalem.

Isaiah is using a very ordinary figure of speech so common among the prophets, in which it promises that after a dark and sterile period, increased spiritual blessings will come, and suddenly there will be enlarged numbers to enjoy them, as chapter fifty-five in Isaiah so vividly describes. But in the Apostle Paul’s use of Isaiah in accordance with the context, Abraham’s two wives are used for the two women in Isaiah’s prophecy. Hagar (unlawful wife) becomes the symbol of the First Covenant, the church of legalism with its children in bondage rites, rituals, and regulations. Then Sarah (the legal wife) is the symbol of the Final Covenant church, composed of both Jews and Gentiles. Hagar is tied to the old Jerusalem below, and Sarah has links to the New Jerusalem above.

Eadie believes that this prophecy borrowed from Isaiah and used by Paul was intended to prove and illustrate a marital relationship between believers and God. Eadie says that some of the early church fathers took a different view of this prophecy. The Roman Catholic Church Writers Clement, Origen, Chrysostom, and many others, suppose she “that bears not, the barren one,” is the Gentile church as opposed to the Jewish church or synagogue; but this is against the scope and language of the allegory. The Jerusalem that existed here below up until Paul’s time was the Jewish dispensation, the children of the bond-maid Hagar; the New Jerusalem above, which prior to the advent was sterile and childless is now a fruitful mother, her children greatly more numerous than those of her rival, for all believers like her son Isaac are the seed of Abraham, children of promise.^[8]

4:28-29 Don’t you get it; my dear children in Galatia, God’s true children are those of promise, just like Isaac.  But just like back then, the same is happening now, those who are children of the flesh want to persecute those who are children of the spirit.

Now Paul turns his attention to Isaac and the true spiritual children of Abraham. It’s important to note that after Peter and John healed the crippled man who was sitting the gate “Beautiful” in Jerusalem through the power of the Anointed One, just as people gathered for prayer, the man was now leaping for joy. So, Peter took the opportunity to preach to them. And one of the things he says was that beginning with the prophet Samuel and all the prophets who followed spoke for God by telling us this time would come. And what those prophets talked about is for you. You received the agreement that God made with your forefathers. God said to your father, Abraham, “Every nation on earth will be blessed through your descendants.”^[9] So, God sent His special servant Yeshua. He sent Him to you Jews first. He sent Him to bless you by causing each of you to turn away from your evil ways.^[10]

This is how Paul explained it to the Romans when he told them that this means that not all who call Abraham their father are God’s true children. Abraham’s true children are those who become God’s children because of the promise He made to Abraham. And that promise was hinged upon the fact that since Sarah was unable to give birth to a child in the normal way of procreation, He planned to give her a miracle child to be the recipient of all the promises He made to Abraham. That Promised Son was Isaac, and through him, the Promised Messiah came into the world.^[11] Couldn’t the Galatians see that by turning away from the Promised Messiah, they were forfeiting all the promises God gave to Him? No wonder Paul earlier called them “stupid.”

So, in effect, the Jews who persecuted Yeshua were descendants of the Promised Son Isaac, who was the forebearer of the Promised Son Yeshua. How odd is that? Paul went on to tell the Romans that believers must not be ruled by their sinful tendencies. They must not live the way their immoral inclinations wanted them to. If they use your lives to do what their corrupt passions tell them to do, they will die spiritually. But if they use the Spirit’s help to stop doing wrong things with their bodies, they will develop a real, true Christian lifestyle.^[12] This may not have resonated right away with the Galatians, but as soon as they put themselves under the authority of the Law, their sinful tendencies will spring up like grass after a fresh rain. This was not only true then, but it is true today. If we try to earn salvation by obeying church laws and requirements, our sinful nature will keep it from happening. Only surrendering to God’s grace will make it possible, because we cannot save ourselves, only He can save us.

[1] Isaiah 54:1

[2] Ibid 54:2-5

[3] 1 Samuel 2:5

[4] Psalm 113:9

[5] Ruth 1:16

[6] Edwards, M. J. (Ed.). On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 70

[7] Isaiah 54:4-5, Cf. 51:2

[8] John Eadie: Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit, pp.370-371

[9] Genesis 22:18; 26:5

[10] Acts of the Apostles 3:25; See Romans 4:13-18

[11] Romans 9:8-9

[12] Ibid. 8:12-13

byusing ourNEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLII)

Now, says Haimo of Auxerre (820-885 AD), not only were the transgressors subject to physical punishment, but they were even subject to the curse contained within the Law itself: “Cursed is everyone who does not remain subject to all these laws.”^[1] As long as a person is bound by commandments of this sort, they are servants in some fashion. However, the freewoman, Sarah, who gave birth to the free son, signifies the grace of the Final Covenant that gave birth to Christians who are liberated not only from the original and actual sins but from every form of legal servitude. This is the inheritance of the Anointed One and His Promised Land they will inherit.^[2]

Early medieval commentator Bruno the Carthusian (1030-1101 AD) shares his opinion about the literal understanding of this metaphor concerning two women – Hagar and Sarah, and two men – Ishmael and Isaac. When using our spiritual understanding, Hagar, the handmaid who gave birth to her son while bearing the yoke of bondage, signifies the Law that gave birth and held the Jewish people under the yoke of bondage. So, what conscious awareness was the Jewish people servants? They were servants in the sense that they were compelled to serve the Law and observe circumcision, offer legalistic sacrifices, and preserve countless other rituals that they must not violate for fear of punishment.

In reference to the “curse,” renowned Jewish Rabbi Avraham Saba quotes from his Hebrew edition of the Torah which reads: “Cursed be whoever does not uphold the terms of this Torah to observe them.”^[3] He goes on to say: “This verse contains allusions to honoring Torah in thought, speech, and deed. It is up to each one of us to preserve the divine image of the Torah by continually planning how best to do so. He who does not attempt to do so is subject to the Torah’s curse.”^[4] The word “curse” here should be understood as “consequences.” For instance, if one sees a sign that says: “Electric Fence,” and then ignores the warning, the consequence will be a numbing shock. The same is true of God’s Word and His commandments.

Bruno goes on to say that he believes Paul regards these two individuals as representative of the two testaments. “Testament” takes its name from the word “witnesses.”  The First Covenant produced many witnesses, among whom were the angels, Moses, and the other prophets. But in the Final Covenant, witnesses are the one most true Lord Jesus the Anointed One and the Apostles by whose ministry it was spread abroad to the four corners of the earth. When Paul speaks of the First Covenant,^[5] he is referring to the testament that was given on Mount Sinai, birthing the Jewish people into servitude. This testament, which is Hagar, refers to what is signified by Hagar herself, namely, the Law that was given through the teachers of the synagogue and was birthing a people into bondage itself.”^[6]

Later medieval commentator Robert of Melun (1100-1167) gives us his understanding of the allegories. For him, the Holy Scriptures have a fourfold sense. The historical sense is signified “through the words,” and the mystical sense is understood through those things that are signified by those words. The mystical sense is, in itself, threefold. By the moral sense, we understand what we “are to do.” The allegorical sense designates what we “are to believe,” and the analogical sense signifies what we “must hope for” in heaven.  One can observe these senses in the name “Jerusalem.”  When it is taken in the literal sense, it signifies the “capital city” of the Jews; in the moral sense, the “faithful soul;” in the allegorical sense the “suffering Church;” and in the analogical sense the “triumphant Church.”^[7]

In his historic classical work, “Pilgrim’s Progress,” John Bunyan describes a scene that comes right out of verses twenty-one through twenty-seven here in Galatians four. In looking for the pathway to heaven and everlasting life, Pilgrim Christian walks by himself and encounters another traveler coming on a trail through a field to a place where their paths happened to intersect. The other wanderer introduced himself as Mr. Worldly Wiseman, who lived in the town of “Carnal Policy,” a large town that Pilgrim Christian passed along his way. However, Mr. Worldly Wiseman seemed to know Pilgrim Christian, since by now, his fame spread far and wide as having escaped the “City of Destruction.” Once they met and shook hands, Mr. Worldly Wiseman engaged Pilgrim Christian in a conversation.

The first question he asked was if Pilgrim Christian was married with children? Pilgrim replied that he was and did have a family, but he was so busy trying to find the way to heaven and everlasting life that he wasn’t able to spend as much time with them as he wanted to. Pilgrim Christian said Mr. Worldly Wiseman’s question was almost as though he has no family at all. Mr. Worldly Wiseman asked if he might offer some good advice? Then Pilgrim Christian said if it was good guidance, he was ready to accept anything that helped. Mr. Worldly Wiseman advised Pilgrim Christian to get rid of any obligations to his family since constant worry about them would take his mind off of the benefits of the blessings God held waiting for him down the road.

Just then, Pilgrim Christian saw an Evangelist coming toward the intersection. This embarrassed Pilgrim Christian for even considering the option given to him by Mr. Worldly Wiseman, who earlier left the house of Mr. Legality, where he had asked for advice. The Evangelist asked Pilgrim Christian if he was the man who was found crying outside the walls of the “City of Destruction?” Pilgrim Christian admitted he was the one. “Don’t you remember when I directed you on how to find the gate to heaven and everlasting life,” ask the Evangelist? With head bowed and eyes to the ground, Pilgrim Christian said he remembered. So, asked the Evangelist, why is it you so quickly got off track and are now going the wrong way? Then Pilgrim Christian explained that just as he finished navigating through the swamp of despondency, he met someone who advised him how to unburden himself with what bothered him.

You shouldn’t listen to any of them, said the Evangelist, “Mr. Worldly Wiseman is an alien, and  Mr. Legality is a cheat; and for his son Civility, despite his smirking look, he is but a hypocrite and cannot help you” Believe me, there is nothing in all their chatter that you’ve heard from such mixed-up people. Their only design is to talk you out of your salvation by turning you away from the way in which I sent you. After this, the Evangelist cried out to heaven for confirmation of what he just said: and with that, there came words and fire out of the mountain under which poor Pilgrim Christian stood, that made the hair of arms and neck stand up. Here is what they heard: “People who depend on following the Law to make them right are under a curse.”^[8] Now, Pilgrim Christian began to cry, even regretting every meeting Mr. Worldly Wiseman. Once he collected himself, Pilgrim Christian committed himself again to follow the advice of the Evangelist.^[9] In the same way, the Apostle Paul was the Evangelist to the believers in Galatia who lost their way due to bad advice from Mr. Judaizing Wiseman and Mr. Torah Legality.

Twentieth-century commentator Ernest DeWitt Burton gives us his insight. For him, the participle “bearing” is an adjective in force and is timeless. When applied to Hagar, the phrase designates her as one who, being a slave woman, bears children who share her status of slavery. As applied to the Sinai covenant, it refers to the fact that they who came under this covenant were in the position of slaves as being in bondage to the law.^[10] We can then say that the one promised miracle child was borne by Sarah, who, being a free-woman, will then share in her status of freedom. Of course, Paul makes it clear that Hagar is a metaphor for the first covenant, and Sarah is a figure of speech representing the final covenant.

When it comes to Mt. Sinai and Mt. Horeb in the Arabian desert, Jewish Rabbi Eliezer gives us some information. He tells us that from the day when the heavens and the earth were created, the name of the mountain was Horeb.^[11] When the Holy One, (blessed be He), was revealed to Moses out of the thorn-bush, because of the word for the thorn-bush (“S’neh”) it was called Sinai, but it was still Mt. Horeb. And how do we know that Israel accepted the Torah at Mount Horeb? Because it is written: “The day you stood before Adonai your God at Horeb, when Adonai said to me, “Gather the people to me, and I will make them hear my very words so that they will learn to hold me in awe as long as they live on earth, and so that they will teach their children.”^{[12] [13]}

Also, Paul’s mention of Mt. Zion and Jerusalem in the feminine sense, was very much part of Jewish thinking and writing as well.  For instance, in one Aramaic version of the Song of Solomon, it reads: “Who is this coming up from the wilderness leaning on her beloved?  Beneath the apple tree I awakened you; There your mother was in labor with you, there she was in labor and gave you birth.” This is paraphrased to read: “Zion, the mother of Israel, shall bring forth her sons, and Jerusalem shall receive the children of the captivity.”^[14]

We can hear Paul asking the Galatians, “what are you going to do?” Are you going to keep on living like the illegitimate children of Hagar with no promises for the future, or do you want to live like the legitimate children of Sarah with all God’s promises including eternal life? Do you want to tie your hopes to religious rituals and regulations that are now obsolete, or do you want to put your faith in God’s new covenant that goes to all Abraham’s spiritual descendants who pledge allegiance to Him? For heaven’s sake, make up your minds!

[1] Deuteronomy 27:26

[2] Bruno the Carthusian, op. cit., loc. cit.

[3] Deuteronomy, ibid

[4] Tzror Hamor, Rabbi Abraham Saba, loc, cit., p. 2031

[5] Galatians 4:12

[6] Bruno the Carthusian: on Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[7] Robert of Melun: Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[8] Galatians 3:10

[9] John Bunyan’s Works: Vol. 9, Pilgrim’s Progress, In the Similitude of a Dream, The First Stage, pp. 62-68

[10] Ernest De Witt Burton, A Critical and Exegetical Commentary on the Epistle to the Galatians, op. cit., p. 258

[11] See Exodus 3:1; 33:6; cf. I Kings 8:9: Rabbi Abraham Saba tells us in his Tzror Hamor that the term “Horeb” is rendered “Chorev” in Hebrew, and came to be known among the Jews as the Mountain of God. (p. 863).

[12] Deuteronomy 4:10

[13] Pirķê de Rabbi Eliezer, Translated by Gerald Friedlander, Published by Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co. Ltd. London, 1916, p. 321

[14] The Targum to Canticles by Raphael Hai Melamed, Philadelphia, 1921, Ch 8:5, p. 105

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XLI)

As Paul says here, this true story of Hagar and Sarah paints a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and His people.  Those who continue living in sin while trying to become children of God through good works and moral codes, as represented by Mount Sinai, are like the son of Hagar. But those who accept God’s grace and offer of salvation through Jesus the Anointed One as represented by Mount Calvary are like the son of Sarah, who by that new birth becomes heirs and joint-heirs with the Anointed One.  Therefore, we should not wait for Good Friday each year to thank God and His Son for Calvary’s blessings, but we should do so every day that we live as a child of the Living God.

Paul now picks up the narrative by expounding on what happened to Moses at the end of his life. He gives a stirring account of what it was like to be up on the mountain there in the wilderness and how it touched him deeply. He told those listening, “The Lord came from Sinai, like a light shining at dawn over Seir, like a light shining from Mount Paran. He came with 10,000 holy ones. God’s mighty soldiers were by his side.”^[1] And in Deborah’s Song, she too shares what was told to all those who were not there, “The mountains shook before the Lord. Mount Sinai shook before the Lord, the God of Israel.”^[2]

Even King David expressed his admiration of what happened there at Mount Sinai, “The ground shook, and rain poured from the sky when God, the God of Israel, came to Sinai… With His millions of chariots, the LORD came from Sinai into the holy of holies in the Tabernacle.”^[3] So it is evident that in the minds of the Israelites that the event in the Sinai wilderness around Mount Horeb was etched deeply in the minds of God’s people. If it could only be true that what occurred on Mount Calvary is etched just as deeply in the mind and conscious of every Christian that it would cause them to tell others of what happened there with the same burning fire of the Holy Spirit.

Then Paul’s attention turns to Jerusalem and Sarah. I’m not sure if everyone understands the real meaning of the name “Jerusalem” and what it holds for Jews around the world. Not only is it the Capital of Israel, but it is a Holy City. In one of his Psalms, Korah said this: Wonderful things are said about you, O City of God. God says, “Some of my people are living in Egypt and Babylon. Some of them were born in Philistia, Tyre, and even Ethiopia.” But about Zion, He says, “I know the names of each and every person born there.” It is the city built by the Most-High God. The Lord keeps a list of all His people, and He knows where each of them was born.^[4] Nothing like this is said about any other city in the world.

And the prophet Isaiah saw a vision of Jerusalem: In the last days, the mountain of the Lord’s Temple will be the highest of all mountains. It will be raised higher than the hills. There will be a steady stream of people from all nations going there. People from many places will go there and say, “Come, let’s go up to the mountain of the Lord, to the Temple of the God of Jacob. Then God will teach us His way of living, and we will follow Him.” His teaching, the Lord’s message, will begin in Jerusalem on Mount Zion and will go out to all the world.^[5]

This sounds very much like the same Jerusalem the Apostle John saw in his vision when he wrote why Jesus revealed to him: “Those who win the victory will be pillars in the Temple of my God. I will make that happen for them. They will never again have to leave God’s Temple. I will write on them the name of my God and the name of the city of my God. That city is the new Jerusalem.”^[6] John then tells what he saw when this prophecy came true in his vision: Then I saw a re-formed heaven and a re-formed earth. The first heaven and the first earth disappeared from sight. There no longer existed any oceans or seas. Then I saw the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God. It was prepared like a bride dressed for her groom.^[7]

John then goes on to describe this New Jerusalem, whose height certainly fits Isaiah’s description because it was built on twelve foundations, each one named after one of the original Apostles, with high walls, but John said the walls were as clear as crystal.  It looked something like a jewel set on a very, very expensive ring. With twelve gates, and as John describes them as three on the east, three on the north, three on the south, and three on the west, and each one is given the name of one of the tribes of Israel, and twelve angels at each gate. The whole square complex measured 1,400 miles long and 1,400 miles wide. Each wall was constructed using precious jewels – Jasper, Sapphire, Chalcedony (a colored marble), emerald, onyx, carnelian (an orange marble), quartz, beryl (a pale green, blue, or yellow crystal), opaz (topaz), chrysoprase (an apple-green marble), jacinth (a reddish-orange crystal) and amethyst (a purple crystal). And each of the twelve gates was covered with mother-of-pearl, and the streets were paved with pure gold.^[8] Who wouldn’t be impressed with such a city?

But Isaiah is not finished with what he said earlier, he goes on to exclaim, “I love Zion, so I will continue to speak of her. I love Jerusalem, so I will not stop talking about her. I will talk until goodness shines in her like a bright light until salvation burns bright like a flame inside her walls. Then all nations will see your goodness, oh Jerusalem. All kings will see your honor. Then you will receive a new name that the Lord Himself will give you. You will be like a beautiful crown that the Lord holds up, like a king’s crown in the hand of your God.”^[9] So the Lord tells them to rejoice and be glad over what He will end up making. It will be a city full of joy with only happy people inside.^[10]

The Prophet Joel then tells us that the Lord announced that He would be their God and live in the holy city of Jerusalem on Mt. Zion, His holy mountain. And from that day forward, it will be a gated enclave where only bonafide residents may enter.^[11] And the Prophet Micah was getting the same message because he prophesied that in the last days that Mount Zion would be the tallest of all mountains, it will be elevated higher than any other peaks, People from all over the world will be streaming in through its gates because they want to learn more about the God of Israel. Micah then says this will happen when there is world-wide peace. People will be turning their weapons of war into farming machinery because there’ll be no more wars.^[12]

In a Jewish Targum (interpretive paraphrase) we read this prophecy: Solomon the prophet said, “When the dead come to life, the Mount of Olives will be split, and all the dead of Israel will come forth from beneath it; and even the righteous who died in exile will come from under the earth by way of tombs and will come out from under the Mount of Olives. And the wicked who died and are buried in the land of Israel will shoot up like a stone propelled from a slingshot. Then all the inhabitants of the earth will say, “What merit do these people deserve who came up from the earth, myriads upon myriads, as on the day when they appeared beneath Mount Sinai to receive the Law?” At that hour, Zion, mother of Israel, will give birth to her children, and Jerusalem will welcome her exiled children.^[13]

The Apostle Paul also catches a glimpse of this coming event when he told the Philippians that God’s government rules us from heaven, and we are waiting for our Savior, the Lord Jesus the Anointed One, to come from there.^[14] And the writer of Hebrews notes that all those who maintain their faith in God through the Anointed One will be rewarded for their steadfastness. When they arrive, it won’t be like the children of Israel’s experience when they reached Mt. Horeb in Sinai. They considered it so holy that animals were not allowed to graze on its slopes for fear they’d die instantly. No, they will be told, but you are on Mount Zion, the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem. You are in a place where thousands of angels gathered to celebrate.^[15] That sounds very much like the New Jerusalem that John saw in his revelation.^[16]

Paul tells the Galatians that they are headed for the lifeless mountain of Horeb in the burning desert of Sinai, representing Hagar, who was turned out into the wilderness of Paran because they turned away from this beautiful New Jerusalem. This city is home to the children of the freewoman, Sarah, through Isaac and Jacob. So, since Abraham is their father, then Sarah, not Hagar, will be their mother. In other words, it was their choice. It was their decision to remain as part of the spiritual family of Abraham as brothers and sisters in the Anointed One. Or, they could keep going the way they were and become part of the physical family of Abraham as brothers and sisters with Ishmael and Esau. One would make their pilgrimage to the New Jerusalem, and the other a pilgrimage to Mecca.

This idea of a New Jerusalem was not started by Paul; it was already a part of Jewish teachings. One day Rabbi Nahman was talking to Rabbi Isaac and asked, what is the meaning of the scriptural verse, “The Holy One is in your midst, and I will not come into the city?”^[17] It certainly cannot mean that because He is God, not a human being, the Holy One among us, that He will not come into the city. Then Rabbi Johanan spoke up and said, the Holy One, (blessed be He), was saying that He refused to enter the heavenly Jerusalem until He entered the earthly Jerusalem. So, is there then a heavenly Jerusalem? Yes, of course, for it is written, Jerusalem, you are built as a city that is compact together.^{[18] [19]}

Roman monk and theologian John Cassian (360-432 AD), author of the twelve Books on the Institutes of the Cœnobia meant to train monks in monasteries, and the Conferences Works, which are purporting to relay the teachings of the Egyptian monastic fathers on the nature of the spiritual life which were highly influential in the development of Western monasticism.^[20] On the subject of the New Jerusalem, he states that this can be understood in a fourfold way: historically as the city of the Jews, allegorically as the church of the Anointed One, analogically as the heavenly city of God, which is the mother of all, and a figure of speech as the human soul, which is often put down or praised in the name of the Lord^[21]

[1] Deuteronomy 33:2

[2] Judges 5:5 – New Life Version

[3] Psalm 68:8, 17

[4] Ibid. 87:3-6

[5] Isaiah 2:2-3; See Ezekiel chapters 40-42

[6] Revelation 3:12-13

[7] Ibid. 21:1-2

[8] Ibid. 21:11-21

[9] Isaiah 62:1-3

[10] Ibid. 65:18; See 66:10

[11] Joel 3:17

[12] Micah 4:1-4

[13] Aramaic Targum to Song of Songs, Translation by Jay C. Treat, Ch. 8:5

[14] Philippians 3:20

[15] Hebrews 12:22

[16] Revelation 3:12; 21:2, 10-27

[17] Hosea 11:9

[18] Psalm 122:3

[19] Babylonian Talmud, Seder Mo’ed, Masekhet Ta’anith, folio 5a

[20] Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture: On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., p. 489

[21] Edwards, M. J. (Ed.). On Galatians, pp. 69–70

Goodness and Kindness are often treated as synonyms, but there is a big difference. Goodness is expressed in the heart; kindness is expressed in the hands. Seldom do you hear of “acts of goodness,” but “acts of kindness” are commonplace. Yet, the effect of being kind to a person are similar to those that come from being good. So, we might say: Goodness is attitude while Kindness is action.

Full-time health and fitness blogger, Maile Proctor, tells us there are several science-backed ways that being kind can affect your health. She says it all starts with the Golden Rule: Do to others as you would want them to do to you. She also points out that Goodness is sympathy, while Kindness is empathy. Every time we do something nice for someone else, it makes us feel better because it releases positive acting hormones, as well as boosting our serotonin, the neurotransmitter responsible for feelings of satisfaction and well-being.

When this happens, being kind eases anxiety so that sudden mild nervousness or even severe panic moods are avoided. She points out in a study on happiness from the University of British Columbia found that social anxiety is associated with low positive factors that can significantly affect psychological well-being and adaptive functioning. Positive affect refers to an individual’s experience of positive moods such as joy, interest, and alertness. So, the next time you feel a little nervous, look for an opportunity to be kind to someone.

Maile then tells us that Kindness releases the hormone oxytocin. According to Dr. David Hamilton, “oxytocin causes the release of a chemical called nitric oxide in blood vessels, which dilates (expands) the blood vessels. This reduces blood pressure, and therefore oxytocin is known as a ‘cardioprotective’ hormone because it protects the heart (by lowering blood pressure).” Therefore, Kindness strengthens your heart physically and emotionally. Maybe that’s why they say nice, caring people have really big hearts?

Furthermore, helping others lets you get outside of yourself and take a break from the stressors in your own life, and this behavior can also make you better equipped to handle stressful situations.

Affiliative behavior is any behavior that builds your relationships with others. According to a study on the effects of prosocial behavior on stress, “affiliative behavior may be an important component of coping with stress and indicate that engaging in prosocial behavior (action intended to help others) might be an effective strategy for reducing the impact of stress on emotional functioning.”

And finally, inflammation in the body is associated with all sorts of health problems such as diabetes, cancer, chronic pain, obesity, and migraines. According to a study of adults aged 57-85, “volunteering manifested the strongest association with lower levels of inflammation.” Oxytocin also reduces inflammation, and even little acts of kindness can trigger oxytocin’s release. So, Kindness may be the secret tonic to a healthy, happy life.

Also, David R. Hamilton, who has a Ph.D. in organic chemistry and spent four years in the pharmaceutical industry, developing drugs for cardiovascular disease and cancer. Inspired by the placebo effect, he left the industry to write books and educate people on how they can harness their minds and emotions to improve their health informs us that when we’re kind we inspire others to be kind. And studies show that it actually creates a ripple effect that spreads outwards to our friends and their friends and their friends – to 3-degrees of separation. Just as a pebble creates waves when it is dropped in a pond, so acts of kindness ripple outwards, touching others’ lives and inspiring kindness everywhere the wave goes.

But the Bible is our main source of understanding kindness. Again, keep in mind that Kindness is the action of our hands inspired by the Goodness in your heart. The prophet Zechariah was anointed by the LORD of hosts to say, “Render true judgments, show kindness and mercy to one another, do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart” (Zechariah 7:9-10).

Then the Apostle Paul has several things to say. For instance, “Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you” (Ephesians 4:32). And the Apostle Peter wrote that we should make every effort to supplement our faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, and godliness with brotherly kindness, and brotherly kindness with love (2 Peter 1:5-7). Also, the Apostle John adds to what Peter says about kindness with love, by pointing out that if anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen. And this commandment we have from him: whoever loves God must also love his brother (1 John 4:20-21).

Someone has proposed an acronym for Kindness: ARK – “Acts of Random Kindness.” Remember, it was on the Ark of the Covenant where the Mercy Seat of God was located. So, check your heart to see if you have that mercy seat where the kindness of God abides. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

A RAGGED LIFE FULL OF HOLES

A gentleman had a dream that he faced his Maker at the last judgment. He knelt before the Lord, along with all the other souls. Before each of them, their lives laid out like the squares of a quilt in many piles; an angel sat before each of them sewing their quilt squares together into a tapestry that was their life.

But as his angel took each piece of cloth off the pile, he noticed how ragged and empty each of his quilt squares were. They were filled with giant holes. Each quilt square was labeled with the stories of his life that had been difficult, the challenges and temptations he was faced with in everyday life. He saw hardships that he endured, which were the largest quilt holes of all.

He glanced around. Nobody else had such squares. Other than a tiny hole here and there, the other quilt tapestries were filled with vibrant colors and the bright hues of worldly fortune. He gazed at his own life and was very disheartened. His angel was sewing the ragged pieces of cloth together, threadbare and empty, like sawing air bubbles together.

Finally, the time came when each life was to be displayed, held up to the light, which is the scrutiny of truth. The others rose, each in turn, holding up their tapestries. The story of each of their lives had been so filled. His angel looked at him and nodded for him to rise.

His gaze dropped to the ground in shame. Quilt holes! He hadn’t had all the earthly fortunes of the others. He had love in his life and laughter. But there had also been trials of illness and wealth, and false accusations that took away his world from him, as he knew it. He had to start over many times. He often struggled with the holes, the temptation to quit, only to somehow gain strength to pick up and begin again.

He had spent many hours on his knees in prayer, asking for help and guidance in his life. He had often been held up to ridicule, which he endured painfully, each time offering it up to the Father in hopes that he would not melt within his skin beneath the judgmental gaze of those who unfairly judged him. And now, he had to face the truth: The story of his life was what it was, and he had to accept it.

He rose and slowly lifted the combined quilt squares of his life, with the holes, to the light. An awesome gasp filled the air. He gazed around at the others who stared at him with wide eyes. Then, he looked at the quilt tapestry before him. Light flooded the many holes, creating an image: the face of Jesus. Then the Lord stood before him, with warmth and love in His eyes.  He said, “Every time you gave your life over to Me, it became My life, My hardships, and My struggles. Each point of light in your life is when you stepped aside and let Me shine through until there was more of Me than there was of you.”

Not only do we have this man’s dream to teach us a valuable lesson, but the Word of God also has something to say. The Apostle James gives us encouragement because every person is blessed who remains steadfast under trial, for when they have stood the test, they will receive the crown of life, which God promised to those who love Him (James 1:12).

Then the Apostle Peter states that after we have suffered a little while, the God of all grace, who has called us to His eternal glory in the Anointed One, will Himself restore, confirm, strengthen, and establish us (1 Peter 5:10). Also, the Apostle Paul tells us to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, be constant in prayer (Romans 12:12). In addition, Paul also lets us know that no temptation has overtaken us that is not common to everyone. God is faithful, and He will not let us to be tempted beyond our ability, but with the temptation, He will also provide the way of escape, that we may be able to endure it (1 Corinthians 10:13).

But most of all, we have the words of our Lord Jesus who said, I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world, you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33). So, no matter how ragged your life may seem to be, as long as you allow Jesus to shine through, you will continue to be a light to this dark world. – Dr. Robert R Seyda

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XL)

Renown British independent Baptist preacher, Charles H. Spurgeon (1834-1892), in his lecture on verses twenty-two and twenty-three, where Paul reiterates about Abraham’s two sons. But what really caught Spurgeon’s attention was that another two brothers, Esau and Jacob, were born of the same mother, at the same birth, yet is it written, “I love Jacob, but I hate Esau.”^[1] One became precious, and the other became profane. How much closer can two children come together than as twins, and yet end up so far apart? It was surely possible that the two were placed together in one crib, and the one is chosen, and the other forgotten; but two that came into the world at the same moment, and yet one of them will receive his inheritance from God because the other was willing to sell his birthright to him for a scrap of meat and a bowl of oatmeal.

Likewise, says Spurgeon, we may be in the same church, baptized in the same water, seated at the same communion table, singing the same psalm, and offering the same prayer. Yet, we may be products of two different genealogies.^[2] So in Spurgeon’s mind, it’s not what you claim to be, but to whom you trace your spiritual lineage. The Jews traced theirs back to Abraham through Moses, Jacob, and Isaac, The Christians traced theirs back to Abraham through Jesus, Jacob, and Isaac. One with an earthly inheritance and the other with a heavenly inheritance. So which one are you? The one who believes they will inherit eternal life through the Church, or the one who believes they will inherit eternal life through Christ – the Anointed One?

Then, in one of his sermons, Spurgeon tells us that in his mind, there cannot be a more significant difference in the world between two ideologies than there is between Law and Grace. And yet, as strange as it may seem, while these things are diametrically opposed and essentially different from each other, the human mind is so depraved, and the intellect so degenerated, even when blessed by the Spirit, they become so alienated from making right decisions. One of the most difficult things in the religious world is to discriminate properly between Law and Grace. He sees a lesson in what the Apostle Paul says here in verse twenty-four about there being two covenants between God and humankind.

Spurgeon wonders why someone who knows the difference and often recalls the essential difference between Law and Grace – has not grasped the connective tissue between Divinity and Grace. They are not far from understanding the Gospel theme in all its simplicity and complexity, its gifts, and its graces, and able to accurately tell the difference between Law and Grace. There is always in scientific research some factor that is very simple and easy after it is learned, but at first glance seemed to stand like a huge obstacle blocking the way.

However, says Spurgeon, the first difficulty in attempting to learn the Gospel is this: Between Law and Grace, there is a difference plain enough for every Christian to see, and especially to every enlightened and instructed individual. Nevertheless, even the most enlightened and instructed have a tendency to get the two mixed up. And yet, they are as opposite as light and darkness and cannot be combined any more than fire and water. Still, mankind will be perpetually striving to make them two-in-one. This is often done in ignorance, and sometimes willfully. They seek to blend the two when God positively and purposely kept them apart.^[3]

Arthur W. Pink (1886-1952) points out that there are many significant scriptures that declare their divine authorship. For instance, in Psalms, we read, “Here I am! I’m coming! In the scroll it is written about me,”^[4] and in the book of Hebrews, it is said that when the Messiah came into the world, He announced: “Here I am – it is written about me in the scroll,”^[5] which is confirmed by Jesus Himself who said to the Jewish religious leaders, “You study the scriptures thoroughly because you think in them you possess eternal life, and it is these same scriptures that testify about me.”^[6] Many fail to discern the contemporary importance of the First Covenant scriptures, which are dismissed by so many readers of the Bible, and the Final Covenant. To put it another way, what we find in the First Covenant is a blueprint of what is constructed in the Final Covenant.

In addition to these declarations of the Final Covenant quoted above, there are a number of additional passages that also teach the same thing. John the Baptizer hailed our Savior as “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,”^[7] that is, as the great Representation of the Sacrificial Lambs of a First Covenant ritual. In His discourse with Nicodemus, our Lord alluded to the lifting up of the Brazen Serpent in the wilderness as a type of His own lifting up on the Cross.^[8] Writing to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul said, “The Anointed One is our Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for us,”^[9] thereby signifying that the lamb down in Egypt pointed forward to the Lord Jesus.^[10] Writing to the Galatians, the Apostle Paul again makes mention here in verse twenty-four of the history of Abraham, his wives, and his children and then states, “which things are an allegory.”

Now, says Pink, there are many brethren who will accept the characteristic significance of these things but who refuse to acknowledge that anything else in the First Covenant except those which are expressly interpreted in the Final Covenant. But this is a great mistake and places a limit on the scope and value of the Word of God itself. We must ask ourselves, are there no more prophecies in the First Covenant than those which, in the Final Covenant, are said to be “fulfilled?” For sure! So, let us admit the same concern for those types yet to be fulfilled, many of which are a part of prophecy.^[11]

I like the way modern British commentator N. T. Wright gives his summary of what was going on here in Galatia. He sees Paul’s opponents claiming they are blessed with the whole Jewish Law backing them up. That Paul, on his part, failed to tell the Galatians the full story. If they want to become proper children of Abraham, part of God’s true people, then they must follow the Law, plain and simple. This includes getting circumcised, something the Gentiles must be convinced to agree to. But Paul contemplated other ideas. He’s not going to let them get away with the suggestion that he doesn’t know, or follow, the Law; the Law itself, the first five books of the Bible – the Torah, that tells a story which brings a lot of weight to Paul’s side of the argument. And to make his point, Paul picks out on the least happy episodes in the Book of Genesis: the story of Abraham’s wife and Abraham’s concubine, and the sons that each of them bore. And he uses this as a picture of what’s going on in his own day.^[12]

4:25-26 Therefore, Hagar symbolizes Mount Sinai in Arabia (which I now compare to Jerusalem’s mountain where all her children live in slavery under Mosaic Law). But Sarah, the legitimate wife, represents the new Jerusalem above. She’s the one who is the real mother of those who live in freedom.

Paul now continues his story: God is the Father, and Jesus the Anointed One is His Son. Likewise, Abram and his wife Sarah are loyal subjects, and their legitimate son is Isaac. But Abraham has an illegitimate son named Ishmael by his slave-mistress, Hagar. All of Isaac’s descendants are Jews, and all the descendants of Ismael are Gentiles. So, says Paul, by not accepting Jesus the Anointed One as the one true Son of God who completed all the tasks and fulfilled all the laws His father required, and by rejecting Him they not only disqualified themselves from becoming heirs and joint-heirs with the Anointed One but became no better than the descendants of Hagar’s illegitimate son Ishmael.

This type of allegorical treatment of Sarah and Hagar was not new with Paul. In fact, Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria made a similar comparison years earlier. After reading a work by Philo, we see where he identifies Hagar as representing lower and secular education, while Sarah is portrayed as the symbol of higher spiritual philosophy. In one place, Philo notes that by observing Hagar’s behavior, we see how an illustration becomes a form of instruction based on repeating a phrase. Twice she fled, the first time without being banished. While Sarah remained a symbol of all the great virtues. But Hagar then returned by way of the same road she used to get away from Sarah. By the time she got back, she was informed about her master being visited by angels. So once again, she was forced to leave, only this time she is actually thrown out of the house and told to leave and never come back again.^[13] In other words, Hagar represents learning by being instructed while Sarah symbolizes learning by revelation.

Dutch protestant jurist and writer Hugo Grotius (1583-1645) says that Sinai is called Hagar, or Agar, as a figure of speech because in that mountain, there was a city named “Hagar.” In fact, Greek historian, Diodorus of Sicily 90-30 BC, called it “Agara,” and its inhabitants were named Hagarenes.^[14] Then Pliny the Elder (23-79 AD) calls it “Agra,” and Arminian priest Daniel Whitby 1638-1726) thinks the allusion is taken from the meaning of the word Hagar, which, in the Hebrew signifies “a rock.” English Methodist minister Joseph Benson (1749-1821) follows by making an interesting note on Hagar and the mountain in Sinai that is part of Paul’s narrative. He says that the whole mountainous ridge in Arabia Petræa, of which Sinai was a part, was called Horeb, probably on account of its excessive dryness. It was called by Moses, the Mountain of God^[15], because on it, God gave the Law to the Israelites.

According to legend, Hagar fled toward the wilderness just before Sinai to the desert of Paran.^[16] This is where she settled and got an Egyptian woman to be the wife of Ishmael. There’s no evidence that she married or gave birth to other children. But those of Ishmael are typically thought of as being Muslims (Arabs). Oddly enough, we read that Esau went to the land where Ishmael was and took two of his daughters to be his wives, Mahalath[17] and her sister Nebaioth.^[18] We see a reference to them in the Muslim holy book the Qu’ran, where it says: “And you do not resent us except because we believed in the signs of our Lord when they came to us. Our Lord, pour upon us patience and let us die as Muslims [in submission to You.]”^[19]

[1] Malachi 1:2-3

[2] Charles H. Spurgeon: According to Promise, The Two Seeds, pp. 6-10

[3] The Spurgeon Sermon Collection: Vol. 1, The Allegories of Sarah and Hagar, Sermon No. 69, Delivered on Sunday Morning, March 2, 1856, at New Park Street Chapel, Southwark, London, p. 398

[4] Psalm 40:8

[5] Hebrews 10:5

[6] John 5:39

[7] Ibid. 1:29

[8] John 3:14

[9] 1 Corinthians 5:7

[10] Exodus 12:7ff

[11] Arthur W. Pink: The Divine Inspiration of the Bible, Ch. 6, pp. 31-32

[12] Wright, N.T., Paul for Everyone: Galatians, loc. cit., p. 57

[13] Philo of Alexandria, On the Cherubim, Part 1.I

[14] Psalm 83:6

[15] Exodus 3:1

[16] Genesis 21:21

[17] Genesis 28:9; also called Bashermath in Genesis 36:3. “Mahalath” means “stringed instrument,” such as a lyre.

[18] Ibid. 28:9; Nebaioth (Nebajoth) means “fruitfulness.” See Isaiah 60:7

[19] Qu’ran: Ch. 7:126

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XXXIX)

Theodore of Mopsuestia also notes that the Apostle does not deny the history or pick apart the events of the distant past but states them as they happened at the time while using for his own purpose the interpretation of these events to point out an even more profound mystery contained in those Scriptures. After all, that’s what Jesus did to make His teachings more intellectually visible. But in both cases, neither our Lord or the Apostle Paul keep any light from shining in their theology. In fact, they added more light. In this case, Paul would not say in verse twenty-three that the “son by the bondwoman was born” without believing that person really existed. There cannot be any true figure of speech if one takes away the historical reality itself.^[1]

Late medieval writer Bruno the Carthusian (1030-1101 AD) also makes the point that just as God promised, He brought it to pass that through His power a child was delivered by the elderly and barren Sarah. This applies, says Bruno, to the people of faith who were from the free woman, meaning that they were born by faith, which is free through love, not like those born from the handmaid through fear. These people were born as a result of the promise because God mercifully assured, He would save them through faith. It was through the promise because these people do not serve God out of any desire for fleshly things, which are visible, but rather out of an affection for spiritual things, which are invisible. They trust that they will obtain these things by faith based upon God’s promise alone.^[2]

Reformer John Calvin (1509-1564) was not so complimentary in how some early Catholic scholars treated Paul’s use of allegory to explain a more profound. He writes that Origen, and many others along with him, seized the occasion of twisting Scripture in every possible way, drawing it away from its true meaning. These people concluded that the literal sense is too simple and inarticulate, and that, hiding under the shadow of the literal sense, there lurked deeper mysteries that cannot be extracted but by explaining it in forms of imaginary supposition. And this they found no difficulty in accomplishing for the preferred speculations which appear to be ingenious, and will always be preferred by the world over solid doctrine.^[3] How clearly this applies to churches within Christendom who try to create children of God through ceremonies, rituals, and sacraments, instead of being created through conviction by the Holy Spirit, repentance, and being born again in union with the Anointed One.

Then this great Reformer goes on to say something that in our own day and age proves to be true. He states that if we approve such a loose system of interpretation, it will lead to people using the Scriptures to justify what amuses them and not fear any condemnation. But even more, they’ll spread their personal assumptions to great applause. For many centuries all those who were considered bright and imaginative used their skill and daring to morph their favorite Scriptures into a variety of curious of spiritual philosophies and positive thinking.

In the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), we find one of the questions to be answered reads as follows: “Are we then so corrupt that we are wholly incapable of doing any good, and inclined to all wickedness?” The answer is, indeed, we are, unless we are regenerated by the Spirit of God. The answer is based on what the Scriptures say in the Torah,^[4] and here in Galatians, People who depend on following the Law to make them right will end up being punished because they failed in perfect obedience.^[5]

This is exactly what Satan was so good at. He even tried to get Jesus to disobey His Father by undermining the authority of Scripture. This is best done by convincing people not to consult the Scriptures any longer because they are outdated. We can clearly see in our day, those secularists who call themselves Christian scholars do the same with almost everything Paul teaches here, even questioning if Paul was the author of this epistle. But to what gain? How many were delivered from the bondage of sin and motivated to become strong in the faith by such inventions?  Instead, there’s nothing to lose but everything to gain by sticking to the Word of God as it was delivered to us through the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.

Paul tells us that Hagar was able to give birth to a son through the procreation of nature, but Sarah was able to reproduce Isaac through the promise of God. So, considering her age and that of Abraham, we too might be guilty of laughing if we are told to schedule a baby shower at the age of ninety. It was impossible for Sarah to conceive except by way of divine providence. Likewise, it was impossible for Mary to conceive as a virgin except for the promise of God. Similarly, today it is impossible for people to be born again save for the promise of God through the Anointed One. No amount of human effort was able to birth Isaac without the power of God’s promise. We can say the same about our rebirth in union with the Anointed One through the Spirit without God’s promise to those who believe. Consequently, verse twenty-nine is just as valid today as it was when Paul wrote it.

In this illustration, we can also see a comparison in Paul’s thinking of God having two other sons: the first man Adam, who was formed out of the earth, and into whom God breathed the breath of life; the second man Adam, who was both of heaven and earth, and who was God in the flesh, and, therefore, He became the breath of life to all those who believed in Him so that they too may be born-again and live eternally as sons and daughters of God.

William Perkins (1558-1602), a clergyman and Cambridge theologian who was one of the foremost leaders of the Puritan movement in the Church of England, did not hold back his contempt for what he saw as complete degradation of the doctrines of the Scriptures involving justification by grace. He speaks of a fifth principle involved in this debate concerning whether any unsaved person can will their own conversion or regeneration into reality. He points to some of the Catholic scholars of his day who taught that will alone by itself cannot do so. However, it is possible when that same will is stirred up by some good teaching infused into the mind, and some good desire awakened in the heart, with assistance directed by God.

They illustrate this by saying that an eye in total darkness sees nothing. Yet, if an object is set before their eyes and light is brought into the room, and they open their eyes will be able to see again. Likewise, if a person lies sleeping in a dungeon and entertains no thought of ever being set free, let someone come to the window above and call their name, and let down and cord they tie under their armpits, they will come up out of the dungeon. But Perkins argues that the person bringing in the light and the one letting down the rope will be unsuccessful unless the person they’re trying to help expresses the will to be helped. It is the will to be saved that must precede the offering of salvation.^[6]

James Arminius (1560-1609) also finds the subject of using allegories to make the truth more understandable as a matter of discussion in his day,  One of the first objection on the part of some involved the assumption that by using allegories to explain what the Scripture says that it deludes the meaning of the text. As long as the reason for using an allegory is in itself clear and apparent, it enhances understanding of Scripture, it does not wrap it in a mental fog or haze. He defends Paul use of the allegory involving Hagar and Sarah because it assists in identifying the true spiritual children of the freewoman, Sarah, from the children of slave woman, Hagar, where the first are those redeemed and saved by grace and those of the second woman still imprisoned by the Law and enslaved by sin. The same goes for the descendants of Isaac illustrated by Esau and Jacob. Esau sold his birthright to Jacob, and that’s why the lineage of the Messiah came through him to those who are part of the covenant between God and Abraham, while Esau became to father of all those who is not part of the covenant between God and Abraham.

Arminius goes on to point out that here in verse twenty-four Paul says that these things are to be taken figuratively, not literally. The Apostle does not spend time attempting to prove these allegories as actual events. However, there’s no reason not to believe they are true when taken in a spiritual sense. Furthermore, if we truly believe that all Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in living right, who are we to dispute that?^[7] The key to understanding the relationship between allegory and Scripture is not meant to be an exact resemblance but in their mutual connection and relation. Arminius offers this admonition: No one needs to think it is necessary that they who speak of the “children of the flesh” in a spiritual sense, must actually be “children of the flesh” in reality.^[8]

Adam Clarke (1760-1851) points out that the use of allegories was prevalent in early Greek and Jewish writings.  It was an effort to take something that is representative of another and to show how the literal sense is illustrative of a spiritual meaning. He shows how in the life of Greek mythological Homer, the author, speaking of the marriage of gods Jupiter and Juno, is to be understood allegorically where Juno means the air and Jupiter the atmosphere. Also, Plutarch, we find how Cronos (Saturn) was allegorized into Chronos (Time).  Also, the Palestine and Babylonian Talmud are full of such allegories, as well as the writing of the Jewish philosopher Philo of Alexandria. So, Clarke says that it is very likely that the allegory produced here of Hagar and Sarah was borrowed from Jewish writings.  His purpose was to use something familiar in order to convict the Judaizing Galatians on their own principles.^[9]

[1] Ancient Christian Commentary Edwards, Mark J. (Ed.). On Galatians, op. cit., pp. 68–69

[2] Bruno the Carthusian: Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

[3] John Calvin: Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.

[4] Deuteronomy 27:26

[5] Galatians 3:10

[6] William Perkins. God’s Free Grace & Man’s Free Will (Kindle Location 665-694)

[7] 2 Timothy 3:16

[8] James Arminius: Analysis of the Ninth Chapter of the epistle to the Romans, p. 473

[9] Adam Clarke: Commentary on Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit.

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XXXVIII)

Obviously, God found something wrong with His people. So, He told them: The time is coming when I will make a new agreement with the people of Israel and to the people of Judah. It will not be like the First Covenant I gave to their forefathers. That was the contract I approved when I took them by the hand and led them out of Egypt. But they did not continue following the agreement I gave them, so I turned away from them. This is the Final Covenant I will give the people of Israel. I will give this agreement in the future, says the Lord: I will put my laws in their minds, and I will write my laws on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be my people. Never again will anyone need to teach their neighbors or their family to know the Lord. All the people – the greatest and the least important – will know me. And I will forgive all the wrongs they committed, and I will not remember their sins. God called this a Final Covenant, so when it comes to salvation, He made the First Covenant obsolete. And anything that is old and useless is ready to be done away with.^[1]

So, in the final analysis, the Anointed One is the One who was sent to give us this new way of becoming right in His eyes. All those called by God are offered a life that lasts forever, just as He promised them. The Anointed One bought this new life for us with His blood when He died. This made us free from our sins, which were atoned for under the old way of sacrifice. When a person wants to give their estate to someone after they die, they write it all down on paper beforehand. That piece of paper means nothing as long as they are alive. Therefore, the old method of getting right must end so that the new process of becoming righteous may begin.

Under the old method, the blood of animals was used. Moses told the people all the things they needed to do in order to obey the Law. Then he took the blood of animals together with water and put it on the altar and on all the people using special branches and red wool as he sprinkled it on them. Moses said, “This is the blood of the Way of Worship, which God said you must obey.” In the same way, Moses put the blood on the tent and on all the things used in worship. The Law says that almost everything is made clean by the blood. Sins are not forgiven unless blood is given. The tent to worship in and the things inside to worship with were copies of things in heaven. They were made clean by putting blood on them. But the things in heaven were made clean by a much better gift of worship. The Anointed One did not go into the Holy of Holies made by men, even if it was like the true one in heaven. He went to heaven itself, and He is right now before God on our behalf.^[2]

The writer of Hebrews goes on to say, you are coming to Jesus – the One who brought the Final Covenant from God to His people. You are coming to the sprinkled blood that tells us about better things than the blood of Abel.^[3] God is a God of peace. He raised the Lord Jesus from the dead. Jesus is the Good Shepherd of the sheep. His blood made a new Way of Worship, which will last forever.^[4] As the old hymn, written in 1876 by Robert Lowry, an American professor of literature and Baptist minister, goes: “What can wash away my sins, nothing but the blood of Jesus. What can make me whole again, nothing but the blood of Jesus. Oh, precious is the flow that makes me white as snow; No other fount I know, nothing but the blood of Jesus.”

In his investigation of what he called a “toxic text” from the Pauline tradition, psychologist Charles Davis suggests that this section qualifies as such. Basing his argument on principles of narrative theology, he proposes that stories can be identified as fairytales or toxic texts, based on whether the story serves to suppress or to support the development of one’s own personal “authentic” story.^[5] It is not too difficult to see that Davis’ theory is a coercive attempt to silence or discredit a person’s stories of faith. Therefore, it is a form of tyrannical censorship. That may sound like tough talk to describe one person’s attempt to illegitimately silence another person’s legitimate right to speak. This is accomplished by faulty character assassination. This is done invariably by bringing up questions about that person’s judgment being their only resource for discerning reality. When people are finding themselves in such a position, self-doubt may develop to the point they are not sure of the veracity of their stories, and thus their voices are silenced.

 The differing points of view between psychologist Davis and his critics involve the following issues: Davis is basically saying that Paul wasn’t able to come up with a good enough argument to prove his case with his facts and evidence, so he borrows a story from the past, which the Judaizers didn’t have a rebuttal for, and claims that the story proves his point.  His critics disagree by saying that attempts like those of Davis are nothing more than wanting to dismiss Paul’s illustration of Abraham as an effort to make up something, thereby telling Paul to shut up unless he’s got something more substantive to offer. If we accept Davis’ point of view, then preachers and teachers could never use Biblical texts to prove their points, and that would spell the end to expository preaching. No doubt there were those among the Judaizers in Galatia who felt the same way about Paul as psychologist Davis did. But Paul refused to be deterred, and so should we.

Whether or not Paul was talking to the non-Jewish converts to Christianity or the new Jewish believers, here he makes it quite clear whom he addresses. Early church theologian Thomas Aquinas imagines Paul asking the Galatians to justify their wanting to go back to serving the Law instead of serving the Anointed One. Paul may ask: Tell me, those of you that want to go back under the Law, surely you’ve read the Law, right? This is Paul’s way of putting them on the spot to decide if they are competent enough to refute Paul’s objections, and if not, then admit that what he is charging them of is true. Paul wants an answer but not an argument. So, he asks them straightforward to give him an honest answer whether or not what He’s been saying about their decision is true or false.

It is a method borrowed from the wise man Job when he asked his friends: “Think it over, please; see if what I said was right.”’^[6] If you read the Law, you ought to know the things written in it. But those things prove that it should be abandoned. If you did not read it yet, you ought not to accept what you do not know: “Let your eyes look straight ahead, fix your gaze on what lies in front of you.”^[7] Paul talks about being “under the Law,” namely, under the heavy burden of trying to be obedient to each letter of the Law. For to shoulder something light is not a heroic feat, but to assume a heavy burden, such as the burden of the Law, seems to be trying to carry something that exceeds one’s strength, which is another way of being stupid.

That’s why Christians are to fix their eyes upon Jesus, the Pioneer, and the Perfecter of our faith.^[8] Then accept His invitation to place His yoke on us and learn from Him, for He is gentle and humble in heart, and we will find rest for our souls.[9] Listen to what the Apostle Peter said to the Judaizing element present at the Jerusalem Council trying to incriminate Paul: “So now, why are you putting a heavy burden around the necks of the non-Jewish followers of Jesus? Are you trying to make God angry? We and our fathers were not able to carry that burden, so why should they?”^{[10] [11]}

Clement of Alexandria (153-193 AD), in writing about the need for reprimand and rebuke believes that the original understanding did not imply physical punishment, but strips being applied to the soul as a way of correcting wrongdoings, preventing injury, and leading to the blossoming of self-control for those whose lifestyles were carried away with immoral living. He notes that even the Greek philosopher Plato ascribed to this concept.[12] So if rulers and leaders are no threat to doing good, why is God to be thought of as a threat to those who do not sin? What Paul is telling the Galatians is that if they do wrong, they must be aware of what will come as a result.

Clement believes that Paul is speaking of sin and waywardness the same way the Lord Jesus spoke about it with strong language and boldness. That’s why he did not hesitate to ask the Galatians, “Do you hate me now because I’m telling you the truth?”^[13] Would someone tell a physician I’m angry with you because you told me I was sick? Just because they didn’t need the doctor when they were strong and well, doesn’t mean they don’t need the doctor now that they are sick. That’s why people who become spiritually and morally ill following their passions in excess need a savior. The healer who prescribes medicine that tastes good must sometimes administer medicine that tastes bad.

Clement then says that while the taste of fear may be a bitter pill to swallow, it may still end up helping us heal the sores of sins. Sometimes the more the fear of judgment may leave a sour taste in our mouths, the worse the taste my indicate a more pleasing degree of benefit and healing. There is nothing more true about this than our need for a Savior. Anyone who wandered in darkness knows the value of a light, a map, and a compass. Likewise, those who are thirsty need someone to lead them to the fountain of living water; sheep who have gone astray need a Good Shepherd to find them and bring them back to the fold, and children who are spiritually uneducated need a Divine Tutor. In the same way, humanity stands in need of a Redeemer who will deliver them from sin’s bondage and bring an end to their walk toward eternal condemnation.^[14]

Bishop Theodore of Mopsuestia (350-428 AD) also experienced problems with those who went to great pains to corrupt the meaning of the divine Scriptures, and especially by following what the Apostle Paul does here in using an allegory concerning two women and two mountains to explain those under the Law and those free from the Law. They took this as a license to take any scripture, then use an allegory to remove the sense of the literal Scripture in their aspirations to speak “allegorically,” as if they were the Apostle. They failed to see the big difference that existed between their own position and that of the Apostle in this passage.

[1] Ibid. 8:6-13

[2] Ibid. 9:15-24

[3] Ibid. 12:24

[4] Ibid. 13:20-21

[5] Davis III, C.T., 2007, ‘Defining a Toxic Text’, in W. G. Rollins & D. A. Kille (eds.), Psychological Insight into the Bible. Texts and Readings, pp. 232–236, Eerdmans, Grand Rapids.

[6] Job 6:29

[7] Proverbs 4:25

[8] Hebrews 12:2

[9] Matthew 11:29

[10] Acts of the Apostles 15:10

[11] Thomas Aquinas: Commentary on Galatians, loc. cit.

[12] Phaedrus by Plato: Trans. by Benjamin Howett, “I told you about the charioteer and his two stallions, the one a noble animal who is guided by word and admonition only, the other an ill-looking villain who will hardly yield to blow or spur. Together all three, who are a figure of the soul, approach the vision of love. And now, a fierce conflict begins. The ill-conditioned stallion rushes on to enjoy, but the charioteer, who beholds the beloved with awe, falls back in adoration, and forces both the stallions on their haunches; again, the evil stallion rushes forwards and pulls shamelessly. The conflict grows more and more severe; and at last, the charioteer, throwing himself backward, forces the bit out of the clenched teeth of the brute, and pulling harder than ever at the reins, covers beast’s tongue and jaws with blood, and forces him to rest his legs and haunches with pain upon the ground. When this has happened several times, the villain is tamed and humbled, and from that time forward, the soul of the lover follows the beloved in modesty and holy fear. And now their bliss is consummated; the same image of love dwells in the breast of either, and if they have self-control, they pass their lives in the greatest happiness which is attainable by man—they continue masters of themselves and conquer in one of the three heavenly victories.”

[13] Galatians 4:16

[14] Clement of Alexandria: The Instructor, Bk. 1, Ch. 9, p. 444

NEW TESTAMENT CONTEXTUAL COMMENTARY

by Dr. Robert R. Seyda

PAUL’S LETTER TO THE GALATIAN CHURCHES

CHAPTER FOUR (Lesson XXXVII)

In speaking about Christians continuing to celebrate Jewish feasts and holy days, Socrates says that the Apostle Paul expressly forbids it, not only rejecting circumcision but also denouncing any disputes about festival days. In fact, he tells the Galatians that it worried him that they still followed teachings about special days, months, seasons, and years. If they were to continue, Paul feared that his work among them was wasted.^[1] And continuing his train of thought, the Apostle makes it clear that the Jews were in bondage as servants, but that those who came to the Anointed One are called to live in freedom.^[2] Moreover, he exhorts them not to regard days, and months, and years to earn merit with God for their salvation.^[3] In his Epistle to the Colossians, he distinctly declares, that such observances are merely shadows, that’s why they must not bow to the will of others and allow themselves to be judged right or wrong by what they eat or drink.^[4]  Wherefore, he says, ‘Let no one judge you as to the meat you eat, or beverage you drink, or for not celebrating certain holy days or new moon ceremonies or Sabbaths.^[5]

We must keep in mind that Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians only some twenty plus years after Jesus’ ascension, and now here it was almost in the fifth century AD, and these problems still existed. However, in this modern era, the case is almost being done in reverse. It seems difficult anymore to get Christians out of bed to attend a Sunrise Service on Easter Sunday. Furthermore, Ascension Sunday and Pentecost Sunday are all but forgotten, and on Easter Day and the day set aside to celebrate His birth is celebrated by bunnies laying eggs and Santa Clause descending non-existent chimneys to deliver gifts. And what I find even more disconcerting is that Communion Services are not much more than a ritual, observed in some churches too frequently and in others very seldom. In the first church I pastored in the United States, I was shocked to find out the congregation never heard a sermon on the importance of communion on the day that communion was served.

Vincent Cheung mentions the story here of Abraham’s two sons born of two different women, one his lawful wife and the other a slave-girl. And how Abram’s son by the slave-girl, Ishmael, began to make fun of Abram’s son of his lawful wife, Isaac, and how in the case of the Galatians, those who were children of God through Sarah now persecuted those who were the children of God through the Messiah, Jesus. No wonder Sarah insisted that Abram get rid of the slave-girl and her son. Only one of them was destined to be the heir of God’s promise to Abram of a Promised Land. Therefore, we might call Ishmael’s treatment of Isaac, “reverse discrimination.”^[6] Paul wanted everyone in Galatia to see that once they became children of God through the Messiah, whether they arrived at that point by coming out of Judaism or heathenism, they were all equal children in God’s eyes.

Mark D. Nanos sees Paul making a mockery of the Galatians taking such a drastic turn from Grace back to the Law. He did this in chapter two, verses six to nine, eleven to seventeen, and then in chapter three, verses one to five, and now in chapter four, verses eight to twenty-one. What bothers Paul the most is that somehow the Galatians, in an inappropriate and unappreciated way, failed to understand they actually knew better. That’s why the Apostle needed to confront their foolish, naïve failure to recognize the magnitude of what they were throwing away.

Nanos doesn’t believe the Galatians had already made an irreversible decision but were acting in a manner that suggests they were well on their way. While the Gentiles were not the major factor in Paul’s focus, they were in danger of internalizing the message of these Judaizers as being something good for them to do. Why could they not see, says Paul to the Galatians, that by pledging allegiance to the corrupt message of the Judaizers, they were defecting from the grace of God. It was another way of saying that the purpose of the Messiah’s death for them was of no use. Not only that, but it also denied the reality of their experience of the Holy Spirit, including the miracles performed among them^[7].^[8]

4:23-24 The Scriptures tell us that Abraham produced two sons. The mother of one son was a slave mistress, and the mother of the other son was a free woman. Furthermore, his son, born to the slave mistress, was the result of the usual form of human conception, while his son, born to the legitimate wife, was the result of God’s promise of divine intervention. Now, these two women serve as an illustration of God’s two covenants with man. Hagar, the slave-mistress, represents the covenant God made on Mount Sinai. They will be slaves who are owned by someone and will always be told what to do!

 Now Paul enters the theater where concrete situations of reality are used to illustrate abstract concepts by allegory. He chooses the two mothers – Hagar and Sarah, of his first two sons – Ishmael and Isaac, as two different branches of Abraham’s descendants. As Paul explained it, only some of Abraham’s descendants are true children of Abraham. This is what God told Abraham: “Your true descendants will be those who come through Isaac.” Therefore, Abraham’s true children are those who become God’s children because of the promise He made to Abraham.^[9] On the other hand, the descendants of Ishmael were not included and were, so to speak, on their own as far as any promises God made to Abraham.

Let’s add another factor. From the time Abram left the city of Ur in the land of the Chaldeans in Babylon until the time he received justification as being right before God through his faith in God’s promise, this patriarch was a Gentile. He tried to bring about God’s promise of a son through his own works instead of waiting for the promise of his true son to come to pass. Therefore, all the descendants of Abraham through Ishmael were never considered as having any future with those who were destined to be called God’s chosen people.

But despite Abram’s foolish error spurred on by Sarah’s insistence, Paul tells us that Abram still believed he was going to be the father of many nations, not just one. He saw no reason to hope for this, but he was told, “Your children will become many nations.” Abram was about one hundred years old. His ability to father children was impotent, but his faith in God was still very potent. His faith was not weak despite the fact that his wife Sarah was well past the age of having children. Abraham did not doubt God’s promise. His faith in God was strong, and he gave thanks to God. He was sure God was able to do what He promised.^[10] So it was only after Abram expressed his total faith in God’s Word that he became the father of God’s Promised Son when Sarah gave him Isaac. These two branches then become represented by Jews from Isaac and Gentiles from Ishmael. Isaac was born as a result of faith; Ishmael was born as a result of works of the flesh.

The use of allegories to illustrate a truth came long before Paul. For instance, when God told Ezekiel to use the forests that existed in that day in the Negev wilderness south of Judah to illustrate God’s coming judgment on the children of Israel. But Ezekiel complained by crying out, “Oh, Lord God! If I say this, the people will say that I am only telling them stories.”^[11] And when the Israelites were misbehaving, God told Hosea that he refused to send them back down into Egypt to learn another hard lesson, but rather, He, the Lord, will roar like a lion, and His children would come and follow Him. They’d come from the west, from Egypt, and from Assyria shaking with fear.^[12]

As Paul explained it, these things that happened to those people are examples. They were written and repeated to be warnings for us. We live in the time that all those past histories pointed to.^[13] Even the writer of the book of Hebrews took the illustration of Isaac and Abraham, saying that Abraham believed that God raised people from death. And really, when God stopped Abraham from killing Isaac, it was as if he got him back from death. This was to point out that since Jesus was the Promised Son coming through Isaac, God did the same for Him He did for Isaac.^[14]

Then Paul goes on to lay another layer to this allegory. Hagar and Sarah represented the two covenants that God made with His children. And now Hagar and Sarah are represented by two mountains, Mt. Horeb in the Sinai desert where Moses received the First Covenant, and Mt. Moriah on which Jerusalem sat where Jesus received the Final Covenant. But what was so puzzling to Paul was how the Galatians and others were so mixed up as to think that one was as good as the other.

So, Paul told them: brothers and sisters, I want you to know what happened to our ancestors who were with Moses. They were all guided by a cloud overhead, and they all walked through the Red Sea. They were all baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea. They all ate the same spiritual manna, and they all drank the same spiritual drink. They drank from that spiritual rock that was with them, and that rock represented the Anointed One.^[15] So as far back as the children of Israel’s deliverance from Egyptian bondage, their trek through the wilderness, the manna from heaven, the water from the rocks, and those who disobeyed left buried in the wilderness with Moses, it pointed out that those who obeyed that were led into the Promised Land by Joshua, which is the same as Yeshua – the Hebrew name for Jesus.

The writer of Hebrews sees the clear implications in all this by declaring that this means that Jesus is the guarantee of a better covenant between God and His people.^[16] But the work given to Jesus is much greater than the work given to those priests in Israel. In the same way, the Final Covenant that Jesus brought from God to His people is much greater than the first one. And the Final Covenant is based on better promises. If there was nothing wrong with the First Covenant, then why did God authorize another Covenant?

[1] Galatians 4:10-11

[2] Ibid 5:13

[3] Ibid 2:16

[4] Colossians 2:16

[5] The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 2, Socrates Scholasticus, Ecclesiastical History, Bk. 5, Ch. 22, pp. 300-301

[6] Cheung, Vincent. On Galatians, op. cit., loc. cit., location 2437-2449, Kindle Edition.

[7] Galatians 3:2-5

[8] Mark D. Nanos: The Irony of Galatians, op. cit., pp. 52-53

[9] Ibid. 9:7-8

[10] Ibid. 4:18-21; See Hebrews 11:11

[11] Ezekiel 20:49

[12] Hosea 11:10-11

[13] 1 Corinthians 10:11

[14] Hebrews 11:19

[15] 1 Corinthians 10:4

[16] Hebrews 7:22