Day 3
Lisa Scheffler, author
Listen at bit.ly/EngageGodDaily
Jerusalem was not just a city to the Jewish people, it was a powerful symbol of God’s presence and promise. It was the home of the temple, designed as the dwelling place of God. It was the seat of power during Israel’s most prosperous period under King David and King Solomon.
At the time Paul was writing, Jerusalem was under Roman occupation. The city of Paul’s present was nothing like the city that lived in the Jewish imagination — as they looked back to their glorious past or forward to the future reign of the Messiah. Yet, there was always a hope. The prophets spoke of a restored Jerusalem, more glorious than the city at the time of David. This future Jerusalem, the one from above, is the one that Paul speaks of in our verses for today.
Read
Galatians 4:24-27
24 These things are being taken figuratively: The women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai and bears children who are to be slaves: This is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery with her children. 26 But the Jerusalem that is above is free, and she is our mother. 27 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.”
What are the two places Paul mentions?
What are the two covenants these women represent?
Reflect
Notice the contrast Paul is making between Hagar’s son and Sarah’s. Each one is associated with a place from Israel’s past, and one is associated with a place in the future. Paul associates Hagar with Mount Sinai, the place where God gave Moses and the people the law. It was there that they swore to obey the law to meet their obligation to the covenant God made with them. We have already seen in Galatians how Paul leaps back over the Mosaic covenant to emphasize the Abrahamic covenant — one based solely on God’s faithfulness to his own promises.
The other place that is mentioned is Jerusalem. Recall that Paul’s opponents came from Jerusalem and likely claimed authority because of that. Paul sees the present city of Jerusalem as a pale comparison to the city that is above. Not only is it enslaved under Roman occupation, but because most of the Jewish people had rejected their Messiah, it is under the slavery of the old covenant.
Notice also that Paul is quoting from Isaiah. Scot McKnight explains the connection between Sarah and Isaiah’s prophesy:
“The children of the ‘barren woman’ is from Genesis 11:30, where Sarah is described as ‘barren.’ But this Sarah is connected to Isaiah 54:1 by the word ‘barren.’ In 54:1 we have promises of God that he would restore Zion (Israel). Thus, Isaiah is predicting the future Jerusalem. In fact, by associating their being the true Jerusalem in the sense of fulfilling 54:1, Paul is saying that those who believe in Christ are living in the new era, the era of fulfillment.”[1]
Did you catch that? We’re living in the new era! The era where God’s promises are being fulfilled. We will not experience all of them fully until Christ returns, but in the Spirit we are already being made new. The new Jerusalem is just beyond the veil, but as its citizens, we can begin to bring the peace, goodness, and justice of that city into our own.
Yet, before we leave these verses, we should check to see who’s side we’re on. Paul is making a start contrast in this passage. Whose covenant we are living under. All those who believe in Jesus, trusting God’s promise rather than their ‘fleshly’ identity, belong on the Isaac-side, while those who claim to represent “present” Jerusalem belong with Ishmael.
[1] Scot McKnight, Galatians, The NIV Application Commentary (Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan Publishing House, 1995), 231.
Respond
Paul has drawn a clear line in the sand. Either you are trusting in Jesus by faith or you are trusting in your own efforts by keeping the law. You can’t do both. Which side of the line do you live on? What does that mean for how you live?