God’s Word for You

Galatians 4:24-27 The Illustration

by Pastor Timothy Smith on Monday, July 29, 2024

24 Now these things can be an illustration: These two women are the two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children who are slaves. She is Hagar. 25 Now Hagar stands for Mount Sinai in Arabia; she corresponds to the present city of Jerusalem, for 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, “Rejoice, O barren woman, who does give birth. Break forth and shout for joy, you who do not suffer labor pains! For the barren woman has more children than the woman who has a husband.”

The word “illustration” in Greek is allegoroumena (from ἀλληγορέω) or “allegory,” although “analogy, illustration” comes closer to the point in English. In the Middle Ages, allegory became a way of dismissing the truth or historicity of the Bible in order to make theological conclusions. This is not what Paul is doing at all. This is a figure of speech in which a truthful, historical account from the Bible is used to illustrate a doctrinal truth, but not any hidden message. As a rule, it is best for us to avoid allegorizing the Bible, especially to discover new and hidden meanings. The difference between interpreting the Bible and allegorizing the Bible is that the interpretation of the Scriptures is always a practical matter of showing us the way of salvation, the way we should live, the glory of God, and especially God’s glory in the person of Jesus Christ and in his work. Allegories (says Luther) “do not provide solid proofs in theology, but, like pictures, they adorn and illustrate a subject. For if Paul had not proved the righteousness of faith against the righteousness of works by more substantial arguments, he would not have accomplished anything with this allegory” (LW 26:435-436). This allegory or illustration (the only one in the Scriptures) is simply added like an ornament; like a man putting a flower in his lapel. Without the suit, the flower would be entirely out of place. With the suit, the flower is only an added touch.

The comparison Paul makes does not follow exactly as we expect it to. He is careful to say that the two women, Hagar and Sarah (Abraham’s two wives) can be compared with the two covenants. Then he says that Hagar stands for Mount Sinai, and we anticipate that he will say that Sarah stands for Jerusalem. But before he does this, he brings Hagar back, telling us that she and Mount Sinai are also a comparison for Jerusalem, but it is the “now Jerusalem,” the present city of Jerusalem. Luther thinks he does this for two reasons, saying first that “I would not have had the courage to handle this allegory in this manner.” But both the earthly Mount Sinai and the earthly Jerusalem are a part of his world. But besides this, for those who live in Arabia or Israel or who have been there, people will rightfully say that there are continuous mountains all the way from Sinai up to Kadesh and continuing all the way to the mountains that surround Jerusalem. Therefore the real comparison is not with any earthly Jerusalem, but with the heavenly one, which is heaven itself.

Like any earthly city in the present time (Paul’s comparison stands until Judgment Day), the “now” Jerusalem will perish. It will not continue on into eternity. But the “new” Jerusalem endures forever. Therefore the Judaizers might try to claim that they represent Jerusalem, but they only represent the present-day Jerusalem, the Jerusalem that is here below, not the Jerusalem that is here above.

But even more than this, the “now” Jerusalem, the Jerusalem here on earth, represents more than Hagar and Ishmael her son (for Ishmael is taken today to be the ancestor of the Arabs and, by their own claim, the Muslims). But more than that, since the Jerusalem on earth is the one of the old covenant, it is the Old Testament church, especially the Old Testament church that still continued on in Paul’s time and continues now to this day. For that church, which rejected Christ and looks for its own Savior, is no different from the Muslims. They both claim a part ownership of Palestine and of Jerusalem. And if some local Christians claim a share for themselves, it is only out of nostalgia or on account of a misunderstanding of the End Times. For what does Christ care if a handful of Christians will be in the physical walls of Jerusalem when he returns? Does he rescue billions on account of their faith and a dozen on account of their location? Not at all. Christ is concerned only with faith, and not at all with geography.

Paul quotes Isaiah 54:1 to add to his point. There the prophet declares: “The barren woman has more children than the woman who has a husband.” The barren woman is Sarah. The woman with a husband is another way of talking about Hagar, whose son was born in the way of all sinful flesh. But Isaac was born on account of the promise from God. The passage in Isaiah is cryptic without Paul’s interpretation, almost foolishly hopeful and obscure, and very hard to understand. Without the New Testament and without Christ, it would make no sense at all. But Paul lays out the meaning with an explanation that is so simple it makes us tilt our heads like scholars and shrug as if we have all the wisdom in the world, saying, “Oh, of course! What else could it be?” Paul makes it as obvious as a six-piece puzzle for children. Sarah with her faith has more true children than Hagar and her slavery to the law.

Every single attempt to achieve heaven apart from Christ is to go through the old law, the old covenant, and to climb the impossible heights of Sinai. Those who rely on the law will be swallowed up by it just as Dathan and Korah were swallowed by the earth right there at the foot of that mountain. Therefore when we find that we are all guilty of the same thing, or trying to justify ourselves rather than be justified by Christ, we repent of that sin, and we look to Jesus alone for forgiveness, faith, the resurrection from the dead, and life in eternity and bliss.

In Christ,
Pastor Timothy Smith

 

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