Two Mothers, Two Covenants: Galatians 4:21-31

Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?

Paul turned to allegory. The Galatians wanted the law? Then let them listen to what the law actually said. Let them hear the story of Abraham's household—and understand which son they resembled.

For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and one by the free woman.

Two sons. Both Abraham's. Both circumcised. Both raised in the patriarch's tent.

But everything about their origins was different.

His son by the slave woman was born according to the flesh, but his son by the free woman was born as the result of a divine promise.

Ishmael came first. Hagar was his mother—Sarah's Egyptian slave, given to Abraham when Sarah grew impatient with God's timing. Ishmael was born according to the flesh. Human planning. Human timing. Human effort to help God out.

Then came Isaac. Sarah was his mother—the free woman, the wife, the one to whom the promise belonged. Isaac was born as the result of a divine promise. Against nature. Against probability. Against the deadness of Sarah's womb and the age of Abraham's body.

One son was produced by human effort. One son was produced by divine power.

These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants.

Allegory. The story meant more than the surface. Hagar and Sarah weren't just historical figures—they represented two ways of relating to God.

One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar.

Hagar. The slave woman. Sinai. The mountain of law. Children born into slavery.

The connection startled. Sinai—the glorious mountain, the fire and thunder, the giving of Torah—represented by a slave woman?

But the logic was relentless. The Sinai covenant, for all its glory, produced slavery. It demanded what it could not give the power to perform. It bound its children in obligations they could not fulfill.

Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children.

Present Jerusalem. The physical city. The temple establishment. The Judaism that insisted Gentiles must be circumcised. That Jerusalem—for all its heritage, all its history—was in slavery with her children.

The very people pushing circumcision on the Galatians were Hagar's descendants, spiritually speaking. Slaves. Bearing slaves. Bound to a covenant that could not free them.

But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother.

Another Jerusalem. Above. Heavenly. The city of promise, not the city of law. The true Zion. The dwelling of God.

This Jerusalem is free. Her children are free. She is our mother—the mother of all who believe, the Sarah of the new covenant.

For it is written: "Be glad, barren woman, you who never bore a child; shout for joy and cry aloud, you who were never in labor; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."

Isaiah's prophecy. The barren woman—Sarah, the church, the new covenant community—would have more children than the fertile one. More children than Hagar. More children than Sinai. The promise would outproduce the flesh.

Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise.

You. The Galatian believers. Uncircumcised Gentiles. Children of promise. Isaac's siblings. Born not of flesh but of Spirit. Born not of effort but of God's word.

The Judaizers wanted them to become Ishmael—to rely on flesh, to trust in circumcision, to be born again under Sinai.

But they were already Isaac. Already free. Already children of the free woman.

At that time the son born according to the flesh persecuted the son born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same now.

Ishmael mocked Isaac. Genesis recorded it. The flesh-born son persecuted the Spirit-born son.

It was happening again. The Judaizers—children of Sinai, children of slavery—were persecuting the Galatians. Mocking their freedom. Demanding their conformity.

But what does Scripture say? "Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman's son will never share in the inheritance with the free woman's son."

Sarah's harsh words. Cast out Hagar. Cast out Ishmael. The slave woman's son will not inherit alongside the free woman's son.

The allegory was sharp. Cast out the Judaizers. Cast out the Sinai covenant. Cast out the demand for law-keeping. Slavery cannot inherit with freedom.

Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman.

The conclusion. Identity statement. We are not Hagar's children. We are Sarah's children. Not slaves but free. Not Ishmael but Isaac. Not Sinai but the heavenly Jerusalem.

The Galatians wanted the law? The law told them they were Isaac. The law told them to cast out Hagar. The law itself pointed beyond itself to the freedom of the promise.

Children of the free woman. That's who they were.

Why would they choose slavery?