Ministry of Grace Church

 

Galatians 4:24

which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar—

Truth to Learn

Living your life under a collection of spiritual rules and guidelines produces bondage.

Behind the Words

It was pointed out a few verses back that Paul is using an allegory of the first two sons of Abram, Ishmael and Isaac. Here’s why. The word translated “symbolic” is the Greek word allēgoreō, from which we get our English word allegory. The Greek word is made up of allos, meaning “another” and agoreuō, meaning “to speak in a place of assembly.” This word means “a thing spoken of as emblematic of something else.”

The word translated “covenants” is diathēkē, which means “to set out in order.” It is the word used to describe the setting in order of property before death. Today we call it a will or a testament.

“Gives birth” is translated from gennaō, meaning “to generate,” that is, to produce offspring. In this case Paul is saying that the covenant from Mt. Sinai produces bondage.

In Greek there is a type of conjunction (one or more words that join two ideas) called a correlative conjunction. One type of correlative conjunction is used to say “on the one hand … on the other hand.” This appears in the Greek text as the words men and de. In the current text, men occurs in this verse but de does not occur until verse 28.

Meaning Explained

In the previous two verses Paul introduced the two sons of Abraham: Ishmael, the son of flesh, and Isaac, the son of promise. He now tells us that he is going to be using these two as an allegory, that is, the symbolic use of one thing to teach another. Here, he says that these two sons represent the two covenants. The one covenant is that which God made with the Jews at Mt. Sinai. Paul does not specifically say what the other covenant is, but the Greek correlative conjunction men … de tells us that the other covenant is in verse 28, namely, “the promise.”

Mt. Sinai is where God presented Moses with the Ten Commandments and where the remainder of the Law was orally given to him, later to be written down by Moses in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. Paul tells us that the covenant given at Mt. Sinai produces bondage (he goes into much more depth regarding the bondage of the Law in Romans, chapters three through eight).

He further points out that the bondage produced by the Law of Moses, represented by Mt. Sinai, is symbolized by Hagar. It is interesting to note that at the time of Paul’s writing of this letter the Arabs referred to Mt. Sinai as Mt. Hagar.

Paul will continue with his allegorical treatment of Ishmael and Isaac in the following verses.

Application

The Law of Moses is a covenant of slavery, whereas faith in Christ is a covenant of freedom. Which covenant do you want as a testament of your life?

In God’s service, for His glory,

Copyright © 2008 Will Krause. All rights reserved.

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