Galatians 4:22
22 For [gar] it is written [grapho], that [hoti] Abraham [Abraam] had [echo] two [duo] sons [huios], the one [heis] by [ek] a bondmaid [paidiske], [kai] the other [heis] by [ek] a freewoman [eleutheros]. KJV-Interlinear
22 For it is written that Abraham
had two sons, one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman. NASB
Paul begins his allegory with the first two sons of
Abraham.
Abraham had one son by a slave woman named Hagar. Her
son was Ishmael.
Abraham had a second son by his wife Sarah, whose
name was Isaac.
After Sarah’s death, Abraham took a second wife
named Keturah, who had several sons, and he had several mistresses toward the
very end of his life, who also had children. Those details are recorded in
Genesis 25.
Only the first two sons are in view here, as Paul
is teaching a principle of doctrine, using Ishmael and Isaac, as his example. Genesis
16 and Genesis 21 contained the details of Paul’s example.
The first son, Ishmael, was born in accordance with
Abraham’s own plan, as a slave girl, Hagar, who was the property of Sarah, was
given to Abraham for the purpose of his having a child by her, being Hagar.
This Ishmael was born from a slave, into a slave, representing the works of the
world, as taught by the law, but was Abrahams attempt to fulfil Gods promise.
The second son, Isaac, was born in accordance with
God’s plan and promise. He therefore was the son of promise, and not of human design.
So Paul begins explaining the contrast between
slavery and freedom, using these two children as his example. The purpose is to
teach the Galatians, as well as us and all believers for that matter, that
there are two systems, or two patterns of life, from which you can choose to
guide your own life.
The first pattern is that of works, where you try
to do everything on your own with almost complete indifference toward God’s
design for life.
The second pattern, is that of grace, or in this
case promise, by which God does all of the work and we as man become the
beneficiaries of the results of God’s work.
And as far as the Galatians were concerned in this
book, where they were exposed to false teachings, requiring works, which in
this case was circumcision, as a necessary activity for obtaining salvation.
But as we shall see from Paul’s example, the result
of works will never be anything more than slavery.
And, the result of promise, or God’s plan, will
always result in phenomenal blessing.
