18_Children of the promise Gal 4:21-30 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. 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.” 28 Now you, brothers and sisters, like Isaac, are children of promise. 29 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. 30 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.” 31 Therefore, brothers and sisters, we are not children of the slave woman, but of the free woman. During the American Civil War, President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation, declaring freedom for slaves in the Southern states. Many slave owners exploited the illiteracy of their slaves by not letting them know. Though the rumours spread far and wide, legally emancipated slaves continued to be in bondage. This continued until the government officially announced in their hearing that they had been set free. This mirrors the spiritual condition of many today. Though Christ’s gospel proclaims freedom to the enslaved sinner through union with him, people continue to be bound in sin. Ignorance, unbelief, and misplaced priorities often keep the sinner bound, keeping us from the liberty for which Christ has set us free. The story of Abraham, Ishmael, and Isaac in Genesis 21, paired with Paul’s reflection in Galatians 4:21-31, provides a profound picture of this struggle. It is the struggle between the flesh and the Spirit, between human self-salvation effort and divine promise. Ishmael, born of human effort and impatience, represents the life of the flesh. He represents Abraham’s doubt, his fleshly energy to get himself an heir, and his self-reliant strategy to use the slave woman to accomplish his objective. Isaac, the child of promise, embodies the life of the Spirit. Abraham did nothing but cooperate with God who gave Sarah the power to conceive at last. Trusting and dependent wholly on God, Abraham received the miraculous son of promise. These two sons, born in two distinct sets of circumstances, symbolize