Galatians 4:21-31 Which Mountain Will You Choose?
Format for Your Devotions
Instructions: Do not read my example devotion until you have completed your own devotional time in the scriptures. Reading my thoughts first may limit your own understanding. Let the Holy Spirit speak to you alone before looking to see what anyone else has to say, whether it is me, a Bible commentary, or a friend. Let God speak to you before you let another person speak to you. I have provided a format, but modify it to fit your needs. For example, I usually combine my application and prayer together talking to God about the application to my own life. You can go through this devotion process mentally, speaking out loud, or in writing as you wish. Don’t worry if you are not following this process exactly. Sometimes, I add extra information and sometimes I emphasize one part more than others. However, you should always think about what you learn about God from this passage.
Step 1: Pray–Ask for the Holy Spirit’s guidance first of all and that God may reveal the lessons that He wants you to have that day. Request that God protect you from Satan’s distractions (and the devil will try to distract you whether it is pinching the baby or putting you to sleep). Ask to see God more clearly as you read and think about the passage.
Step 2: Read the passage–Read to get an overview of the information first. Then start looking at specific parts after the first reading. You may read a larger or smaller section than I have here because you do not have to follow my organization at all.
Step 3: Understand the passage–You can summarize, ask and answer your own questions about the passage, visualize the story, analyze the characters, and relate this passage to other scriptures and personal experiences.
Step 4: What does this reveal about God?–What do you learn about the Father, Son, and/or Holy Spirit from this passage?
Step 5: Apply this to your own life.
Step 6: Prayer
My Example Devotion: June 15, 2020 Galatians 4:21-31
Note: In the devotion examples, I leave my questions and thought processes in the text because I am trying to demonstrate that a devotional time is a dialogue with God about what you are reading from His word. As such, any questions or ideas that you have should be explored by talking it out with God. These example devotions are not my attempts to teach you what the meaning of a particular scripture is. They are an attempt to teach you the process of devotions, which is a combination of prayer and Bible study where you explore ideas with God as you read His word.
Tell me, you who desire to be under the law, do you not listen to the law? 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. 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. For it is written, “Rejoice, O barren one who does not bear; break forth and cry aloud, you who are not in labor! For the children of the desolate one will be more than those of the one who has a husband.” Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise. 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. But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the slave woman and her son, for the son of the slave woman shall not inherit with the son of the free woman.” So, brothers, we are not children of the slave but of the free woman.
(Understanding the Text) Paul’s theme has been that Christians are the real descendants of Abraham because they are under the covenant of faith that existed prior to the covenant of law that came later as a babysitter to tell the children of Israel how to live. Now, Paul takes that comparison further by comparing Abraham’s two descendants–one from a promise that needed faith and one from trying to earn the inheritance on one’s own efforts. Paul says that what happened can be an allegory for covenants. He says that Hagar is the covenant that happened on Mount Sinai. This covenant made Israel a nation of laws with punishments. As such, obedience is about forms and sacrifices and obeying out of fear of punishment. Paul says that Sarah is the prior covenant made before the rules were given. She is a covenant of faith that God will follow through on His promises without aid from humans. Then Paul carries the allegory further. He says that Ishmael is representative of the Jews without Jesus and Isaac is the younger son who is the true heir. He says that just as Ishmael was a persecutor of his younger brother, so the Jews who were living according to man’s ways were ready to persecute the followers of Jesus who were living in the Spirit. Paul says that Isaac was born of the Spirit and the Christians are also born of the Spirit. Then Paul takes the allegory a step further. Just as God cast out Ishmael refusing to let him inherit the promise given to Abraham, so the Jews who rejected Jesus were also not part of the inheritance of the promise.
Paul is telling the Galatians that they are trying to follow a method that God has rejected. If they choose to follow that method, they become part of that rejection. Paul’s point is that God has given a specific method to follow Him through faith and listening to the Spirit. If the Galatians try to earn their salvation through another method, they will be cast out like the slave’s son. They can choose to follow God in the way that He has given through Jesus, or they can corrupt that way and be part of the rejected group.
Paul is telling the Galatians to stop acting like slaves and act like free men who are children of God. They do not have to be laden down by rules that Jesus never gave them. Jesus chose them and adopted them to be children of promise, not slaves living under rules that are obsolete or not even ever given by God.
The nation of Israel’s time as God’s chosen people was ending. God was doing a new thing. Paul was telling the Galatians that they were part of God’s new way of relating to people, so they should not return to the obsolete, rejected method. It was time to forge ahead in newness rather than to go back to old restrictions that no longer applied. It is the same as the new wine in old wineskins. It just doesn’t fit.
(Understanding the Text / Revelation of God) Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1. The context of this is that just before in chapter 53, Jesus is the subject of the prophesy. “Because of this I will divide to Him with the great, and with the strong He shall divide the spoil; because He poured out His soul to death; and He was counted with those transgressing; and He bore the sin of many, and made intercession for those transgressing. Sing out, barren one who never bore; break out a song and shout, you who never travailed. For the sons of the desolate one are more than the sons of the married woman, says Jehovah” (Isaiah 53:12-54:1). Paul uses this verse to show that the Gentiles are the children of promise spoken of by Isaiah. In Isaiah 54, it describes heavenly Jerusalem which is the inheritance of the Israel of promise. “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.” Using Isaiah 54 as his basis, Paul is saying that the earthly Jerusalem is no longer the promised city. Instead, there is a Jerusalem above that is the promised city of the Christians. “Afflicted one, storm tossed and not comforted! Behold, I am laying your stones with antimony, and have founded you with sapphires. And I will make your battlements of ruby, and your gates carbuncle stones, and all your borders pleasing stones; and all your sons will be taught of Jehovah; and the peace of your sons will be great” (Isaiah 54:11-13). Compare this with the New Jerusalem of Revelation: “And the structure of its wall was jasper; and the city was pure gold, like pure glass. And the foundation of the wall of the city having been adorned with every precious stone: The first foundation, jasper; the second, sapphire; the third, chalcedony; the fourth, emerald; the fifth, sardonyx; the sixth, sardius; the seventh, chrysolite; the eighth, beryl; the ninth, topaz; the tenth, chrysoprasus; the eleventh, hyacinth; the twelfth, amethyst. And the twelve gates were twelve pearls; respectively each one of the gates was of one pearl. And the street of the city was pure gold, as transparent glass” (Revelation 21:18-21). The stones do not all correspond, but I think that was because the two prophets were trying to describe what they saw based on earthly gemstones that do not correspond exactly to the actual materials of the city. The point is that it is colorful and beautiful and the same city. Paul looked at the prophecy of Isaiah and saw a heavenly Jerusalem, just as John would later see in his vision. The point Paul is making is that the days of Jerusalem as the capital of God on earth were finished when Jesus died and the veil was rent. God had left the building and the city. Now Jesus was in the heavenly Jerusalem and that was where His people were bound and should look to, not to an empty, discarded temple in Jerusalem.
Then Paul quotes Genesis 21:10 where Sarah says to cast out the slave girl so that her son would not have any inheritance with Sarah’s son. Paul is saying that Jerusalem on earth was cast off by God and the worship in that discarded place was not part of the inheritance of those who followed God. God had a new temple with new ceremonies and only one sacrifice that had already been accomplished. The old ways were obsolete, and the new ways were set. To go back to the old ways meant that they were rejecting God’s voice.
(Application) My application for myself is that I need to act like a free person and not a slave to this world. I need to follow You in faith and not worry about the politics and disasters and hardships of this world. Yes, I need to help people through them, but I need to trust in my inheritance in the New Jerusalem. I should not let the changes of my circumstances bog me down in depression. Instead, I should go to You with my concerns and then have faith in Your love and relationship to me and desire to have me with You. Help me through this time of discouragement. Show me how to relate to You and what to do to serve You so that others can also have an inheritance with You. Help me to make the right decisions so that others are helped and not hurt.