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"These people are zealous to win you over, but for no good. What they want is to
alienate you (from us), so that you may be zealous for them. It is fine to be zealous,
providing the purpose is good, and to be so always and not just when I am with you."
From these words it is clear that the false teachers, being moved with envy, had
attempted to exclude Paul from the Galatians. After this, the "allegorizing"* of the story
of Hagar and Ishmael, Sarah and Isaac is a further attempt to show the foolishness of the
backward movement of these believers who were so dear to the Apostle. He says:
"My dear children, for whom I am again in the pains of childbirth, until Christ
is formed in you, how I wish I could be with you now and change my tone,
because I am perplexed about you" (4: 19, N.I.V.).
[* - "The modern and common usage of the word allegoria is quite
different from this Scriptural definition. According to the modern
sense it is taken to mean a fictitious narrative which has another and
deeper meaning than that which is expressed. Allegory is always stated
in the past tense and never in the future. Allegory is thus distinguished
from prophecy. The allegory brings other teaching out of past events,
while prophecy tells us of events that are yet to come" (Figures of
Speech in the Bible, E. W. Bullinger, D.D.).]
When Paul talks about an allegory, we must not conclude that he doubted the
historical basis of the story in the O.T. It was sober fact to him but it illustrated the
profound difference that existed between the two covenants, one of law and the other of
grace and the impossibility of mixing the two together.
"Tell me, you who want to be under the law, are you not aware of what the law says?
For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by the slave woman and the other by the
free woman. His son by the slave woman was born in the ordinary way; but his son by
the free woman was born as a result of a promise. These things may be taken
figuratively, for the women represent two covenants. One covenant is from Mount Sinai
and bears children who are to be slaves. This is Hagar. Now Hagar stands for Mount
Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, because she is in slavery
with her children. But the Jerusalem which is above is free and she is our mother . . . . .
Now you, brothers, like Isaac, are children of promise . . . . . But what does the 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. Therefore, brothers, we are not children of
the slave woman, but of the free woman" (4: 21-31, N.I.V.).
The story bears out in picture form the condition of one under the dominion of the law
and in contrast one who has been freed from it by redemption. The two Jerusalems,
earthly and heavenly bear this out too. The earthly one was still in slavery and subject to
a Gentile power. The heavenly one was in a different sphere from earth and was in no
sense in bondage. This is described in all its artistry and beauty by the Apostle John in
the Revelation. But we must remember that this revelation is not confined to John and
his writings. Hebrews 11: and 12: make quite clear that Abraham saw it in a vision,
although the O.T. does not reveal this, and we believe that all the faithful who followed
by overcoming faith, treading the same path as Abraham embraced, saw its wonders too.
For them it was the "better country", better than anything on this earth and worth going
without a lasting home here and now, where they were only strangers and pilgrims.