Day 2 

Lisa Scheffler, author

Listen at bit.ly/EngageGodDaily

God acts in unexpected ways. As you read through the Bible, you’ll discover times when God broke into history and intervened in a human situation to make his presence and will known in an undeniable way. Yet, if his people aren’t patient, or not willing to cooperate with God, they can miss the miracle, or even make the situation worse.

Of all the people on the earth, God chose Abraham to be the father of his people. God promised to create a family through Abraham, and ultimately, his line would culminate in the Seed of Abraham, Jesus. Yet God wanted it to be clear that this family didn’t come through ordinary, human means, but as an act of his supernatural grace. Abraham’s wife Sarah was unable to bear children. Yet God promised a son. Abraham and Sarah began to doubt God’s promise and tried to help God along.

Today we’re going to consider Abraham’s two sons and the mothers who bore each of them.

Read 

Galatians 4:21-24a

²¹ Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says? ²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the free woman. ²³ 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.

²⁴ These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants.

Who was the mother of the child of the promise? Who was the mother of  the child of the flesh?

Reflect 

Let’s take a trip back in time to Genesis to read the story that Paul is referencing in these verses. Notice which son of Abraham is the one who was promised. (Note that later in their journey with God, changed Abraham’s name from Abram and Sarah’s name from Sarai.)

Now Sarai, Abram’s wife, had borne him no children. But she had an Egyptian slave named Hagar; ² so she said to Abram, “The Lord has kept me from having children. Go, sleep with my slave; perhaps I can build a family through her.”

Abram agreed to what Sarai said. ³ So after Abram had been living in Canaan ten years, Sarai his wife took her Egyptian slave Hagar and gave her to her husband to be his wife. ⁴ He slept with Hagar, and she conceived. (Genesis 16:1–4)

¹⁵ So Hagar bore Abram a son, and Abram gave the name Ishmael to the son she had borne. ¹⁶ Abram was eighty-six years old when Hagar bore him Ishmael. (Genesis 16:15–16)

Now the Lord was gracious to Sarah as he had said, and the Lord did for Sarah what he had promised. ² Sarah became pregnant and bore a son to Abraham in his old age, at the very time God had promised him. ³ Abraham gave the name Isaac to the son Sarah bore him. ⁴ When his son Isaac was eight days old, Abraham circumcised him, as God commanded him. (Genesis 21:1–4)

Earlier in our study of Galatians, we defined “flesh” as any activity done outside of the Spirit. It is activity that flows from unbelief rather than faith. How is Ishmael the son of the “flesh” and Isaac the son of the “promise”?

At the center of the argument that the Galatian Christians were falling for was that Gentile believers needed to become Jews. Once they were circumcised and following food laws and other restrictions, they could become part of God’s family. It was then they would become children of the promise. What we will see in Paul’s counter argument this week is that the true people of God rely his promises, not works of the law, and that brings freedom.

Paul is making the same argument he’s been making, but coming at it from a different angle. He’s built to a climax and is using the story of Abraham’s sons to confirm to the Galatian Christians that they became God’s sons and heirs through faith in Jesus.

Acts of the “flesh” flow from unbelief. At the root of our disobedience is a lack of trust in God and his goodness. When we commit overt sin, we are imitating Eve who bought the Serpent’s lie that God was holding out on her. When we fail to wait on God to fulfill his promises according to his will, and at his time, we are telling God that we know better than he does.

Maturing as a believer means growing in our faith in God.  We can trust him. He is our Father and we are children of promise.

Respond

It’s not uncommon for us to be like Abraham and Sarah. When it seems like God is taking too long, we decide to “help” God out with our own human efforts. Can you relate to their story? If so, how?