Chuck Larsen

Paul wants his readers to understand that since they have put their confidence in Christ, rather than in a religious system, they too are not of Ishmael but of Isaac. Galatians 4:28 says, “Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise.” There are several contrasts between the child of Hagar and child of Sarah. The child of the slave girl, Ishmael, came into the world through natural means. Abraham had sexual intercourse with the slave girl provided to him by his wife Sarah and she conceived and delivered a son. Nothing at all out of the ordinary. This is all completely natural and was the result of the “will of man,” not according to the will of God. Sarah’s son Isaac, on the other hand, was born of a supernatural birth according to the will and promise of God. His conception and birth were God’s promise and not man’s decision. You might also notice that Ishmael was circumcised at the age of 13, the age of awareness, while Isaac was circumcised as an 8 day old infant, an age at which a person is not even conscious of what is taking place around him or the significance of it. In other words, Ishmael represents the rational, legal, and natural relationship with God, while Isaac represents the supernatural relationship.

There are two kinds of births. The first is physical, and every human has a birthdate that marks this event. Then there is the spiritual birth, or as Jesus informed Nicodemus, a “re-birth.” When Jesus said you must be born again, He was referring to the spiritual birth that takes place once a human puts their faith in Jesus and not in religion. One is flesh and one is spirit. One is supernatural, one is natural. The first makes us children of God by creation. The second makes us children of God by redemption. Those redeemed are the spiritual heirs and the legitimate children of God. The others remain slaves according to the flesh.

From the very beginning, there has been animosity between the two children. Galatians 4:29 goes on to clarify the perpetual dynamic that takes place between the flesh and the spirit. Paul writes, “But just as at that time he who was born according to the flesh persecuted him who was born according to the Spirit, so also it is now.” Conflict between the two sons of Abraham began from the very start. This jealousy and resentment between Sarah and Hagar and their sons Isaac and Ishmael created an unparalleled hate which has set off wars and atrocities for four thousand years. What Paul is saying here is that those who were trying to pull the Galatian believers back into an observance of the laws were making themselves like Ishmael, while the believers in Christ and God’s grace were like Isaac. We, like Isaac, relate to God based on who we are. We do not relate to God like Ishmael, based on what we do!

The narrator of Herman Melville’s book, “Moby Dick” begins his story with the words, “call me Ishmael.” When this narrator tells us to call him Ishmael, he’s telling us about himself. He is an outcast. He is rejected by his father and a pariah to his people. He is the son of a slave and destined to remain such his entire life. Although protected by God, his half-brother would inherit all that his father leaves. He is rebellious and jealous and bitter and in many ways senses that he has been passed over for all the good things in life. He is a man set on vengeance like the Ahab of Moby Dick. He will stop at nothing to get even or to hurt the “chosen” and take for himself the best of everything. He is the one who will do what it takes to get what he wants.

Ishmael, the child of Hagar, is used by Paul to contrast the situation of the believer in Christ with the non-believer. The non-believer is trapped, enslaved to making his way in life on his own. He must put his confidence in his own abilities rather than trust in the loving relationship with his father. He is an illegitimate child. This child is a slave, while the other child, the son of the free woman, Sarah, is an heir. Through faith in Christ, the Messiah, we are heirs to the promise. Children of promise do not live with their parents under an arrangement of law. Their connection is not based on what they “do” but on who they “are.” They live together based on love. In Galatians 4:25-26, Paul writes, “Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children. But the Jerusalem above is free, and she is our mother.”

Paul sees the earthly Jerusalem as the center of the religion of bondage. God was shut up in a temple from the people and accessed only through strict religious rituals and sacrifices and mediators called priests. Paul’s argument is that those who hold to such religion, as Maxie Dunnam writes, “…whether they in fact trace their ancestry to Ishmael or not, are sons of Hagar. That line continues prolifically until today, for it includes all those who seek salvation apart from the freely given grace of God through Jesus Christ.” Dunnam goes on to say that on the other hand “Those who acknowledge Christ as Lord, who by faith receive His grace, claim the Jerusalem above. Like Isaac, the believing recipients of grace are the children of promise, whether any trace of Isaac’s blood flows through them are not. It is grace, all grace!”

When Jesus and the apostles refer to “the law,” they are often referring specifically to the first five books of the Old Testament. There is normally a threefold division of the Old Testament in Jewish thinking; the Law, the Writings, and the Prophets. The Law is the Pentateuch consisting of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. The Writings refer to Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon and Ecclesiastes. The Prophets refer to everything else.  Paul asks the Galatians in Chapter 4:21, “Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law?” The Law consists of more than the issues handed down to Moses on Sinai. It also encompasses the historical information as well. So Paul goes back to early passages in Genesis and connects his argument with the story of Abraham and Sarah. He writes in Galatians 4:22-24, “For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.”

Paul had already talked about Abraham as the father of the faithful, now Paul addresses another aspect of Abraham’s life. He not only had Isaac, but he had another son named Ishmael. Ishmael was born because Sarah and Abraham took matters into their own hands. It could have been as many as 18 years since God had originally given Abraham the promise of a son that he and Sarah decided to help God out. Our self-effort associated with the “flesh” in our passage results in children of Hagar or children of the flesh. I think I’ve given birth to several Ishmael’s in my life. I have taken things into my own hands and ended up really messing things up.

Jon Courson in his commentary on Galatians observed, “You see, to this day, blood is shed daily in the ongoing struggle between the children of Ishmael and the children of Israel. So, too, in my own life, whenever Ishmael is born as a result of my own fleshly efforts, strife, anxiety, and tension are also birthed in my life.” Although considered the father of the “faith” filled, Abraham had a problem with impatience and God recorded that for our instruction. When I get impatient waiting for God’s promises to come true, I tend to want to take matters into my own hands and help God out. It always results in an “Ishmael.” It always results in trouble! God always fulfills His promises, in His time because He’s always faithful. Yet, I have a lot of Ishmael’s clinging to my legs and have to deal with them. Like with Abraham, Ishmael became a problem for the child of promise. The prophet Isaiah reminds us that those who wait, (notice: wait!) upon the Lord will renew their strength and mount up on wings like eagles. They will run and not be weary!

Jews would have spit upon encountering Paul’s diseased person. The Greeks would have rejected him and his message because of his lack of an imposing appearance. But the Galatians had received Paul as though they were receiving Christ. Everyone in God’s eyes is a sinner. We are all unattractive. We all have the infirmity that disgusts God. Yet in His great love for us, while we were still disgusting, God demonstrated His own love for us by sending the only perfect person, His only begotten Son, to die on the cross and pay the penalty for our sins (read disgustingness). God’s love for all people, He so “loved the world,” was such that there was nothing He would have held back to win us back from sin. He made that clear on Calvary. That is the way of love.

Like God and Jesus, the Galatians had received the small, unimpressive Paul with all his diseases and weaknesses. Even though he was very unimpressive in physical appearance and strength there was an appeal to his message that was undeniable. In the 2^nd Century document entitled, “The Acts of Paul and Thecla,” we read of his movement during his Galatians travels en route to Iconium. In that text we read that Titus had given Onesiphorus a description of Paul so he would recognize him as he came from Lystra to Iconium. The writer then describes Paul as a very unimpressive figure, yet he appeared to be “full of grace” and sometimes “had the countenance of an angel.” This description is interesting because in Galatians 4:14, Paul said that the Galatians had initially received him as “angel of God.” Paul was full of grace, the Judaizers were full of law.

In Galatians 4:15, Paul confronted the Galatians and asked them, “What then has become of your blessedness?” He wants to know what has changed. Their gracious acceptance of him in all his imperfections has now turned into seeing him as a despicable sinner who is not worthy of their fellowship. The legalists had turned their hearts from love to law. Paul wanted them to see that the law rejects and condemns, love accepts and embraces sinners in spite of their despicable nature. Love sacrifices itself for others. That’s what God did. Love motivated God’s sacrifice and love motivated the Galatians’ sacrifice for Paul in all his infirmities as well. He finishes verse 15 with, “For I testify to you that, if possible, you would have gouged out your eyes and given them to me.” That was when you experienced God’s grace! Now under law, there is only condemnation and rejection. Which do you want, law or grace? I’ll take grace every time! Do you want the way of law or the way of love? I’ll take love every time!

Paul did not preach his message of Grace from a position of strength. Those who preach the necessity of keeping the law always do so from a position of perceived strength. When I first became a believer at age 31 in 1978, we immediately fell under the influence of legalists. They seemed so much more spiritual than the average person and it was compelling to want to live up to their standards. We threw out our TV, Kathy stopped using make-up, I dressed the part, and we adopted the religious language of our group. We denounced other “professing believers” as deceived and diluted because they did not practice the same standards we did. This gave me strength. I preached from a “better than you” position for several years. I still have to look out for this tendency. Legalists always present their message from a platform of strength.

Paul reminds the Galatians that he preached his message of grace from the bed of sickness, weakness. In Galatians 4:13-14 he writes, “You know it was because of a bodily ailment that I preached the gospel to you at first, and though my condition was a trial to you, you did not scorn or despise me, but received me as an angel of God, as Christ Jesus.” We don’t know what the sickness was but there is no lack of suggestions by the commentators, bruises and broken bones from his beatings, malaria, some kind of blindness, epileptic seizures, and many others. Most people in the world, Jews included, looked on sicknesses as God’s punishment for sin. Those under the law were outcasts and “unclean” with respect to the religious system, but as Christ ignored the “uncleanness” created by the law in sick people, so too did the Galatians ignore Paul’s sickness and just as Christ received the infirm, they had received him.

The Greek term for “scorn” that Paul uses here literally means “to spit out.” It was customary for religious leaders to spit when affronted by unclean, sick people. It was a way of warding off any contagion as well as an expression of contempt for the sinner who was receiving just punishment from God. Paul also says that they didn’t despise him. I expect that much like today, leaders are expected to have an impressive appearance. The tall, handsome ones always get a better hearing than the less attractive ones. According to the Acts of Paul and Thecla, (a text from the 2^nd century), Paul is described as “small, short, bow-legged, with eyebrows knit together and an upturned nose.” To the Greek way of thinking, his appearance would have been repulsive. To the Jew his infirmity made him unclean. To the Gentile his appearance should have cause them to reject him. Jesus accepted the sick: lepers, blind, lame, etc. Jesus loved the deformed (Zacchaeus). Grace receives the weak! Law spits and ridicules. Paul and Jesus love the despicable. Even me! Even you!