{"id":54,"date":"2008-01-06T20:11:57","date_gmt":"2008-01-07T02:11:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/01\/06\/galatians-424-covenant-of-bondage\/"},"modified":"2008-01-06T20:11:57","modified_gmt":"2008-01-07T02:11:57","slug":"galatians-424-covenant-of-bondage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/galatians-424-covenant-of-bondage\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 4:24 – Covenant of Bondage"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ministry<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Galatians 4:24<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/sup>which things are symbolic. For these are the two covenants: the one from Mount Sinai<\/st1:place> which gives birth to bondage, which is Hagar\u2014<\/o:p><\/span><\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Truth to Learn<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

Living your life under a collection of spiritual rules and guidelines produces bondage.<\/p>\n

Behind the Words<\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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\u2019s why. The word translated \u201csymbolic<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word all\u0113gore\u014d<\/span><\/em>, from which we get our English word allegory. <\/span>The Greek word is made up of allos<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201canother\u201d and agoreu\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto speak in a place of assembly.\u201d This word means \u201ca thing spoken of as emblematic of something else.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201ccovenants<\/span>\u201d is diath\u0113k\u0113<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto set out in order.\u201d It is the word used to describe the setting in order of property before death. Today we call it a will or a testament.<\/p>\n

\u201cGives birth<\/span>\u201d is translated from genna\u014d<\/span><\/em>, meaning \u201cto generate,\u201d that is, to produce offspring. In this case Paul is saying that the covenant from Mt.<\/st1:placetype> Sinai<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> produces bondage.<\/p>\n

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 \u201con the one hand \u2026 on the other hand.\u201d This appears in the Greek text as the words men<\/span><\/em> and de<\/span><\/em>. In the current text, men<\/span><\/em> occurs in this verse but de<\/span><\/em> does not occur until verse 28.<\/p>\n

Meaning Explained<\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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.<\/st1:placetype> Sinai<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>. Paul does not specifically say what the other covenant is, but the Greek correlative conjunction men \u2026 de<\/span><\/em> tells us that the other covenant is in verse 28, namely, \u201cthe promise.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mt.<\/st1:placetype> 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.<\/st1:placetype> Sinai<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place> produces bondage (he goes into much more depth regarding the bondage of the Law in Romans, chapters three through eight).<\/p>\n

He further points out that the bondage produced by the Law of Moses, represented by Mt.<\/st1:placetype> Sinai<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>, is symbolized by Hagar. It is interesting to note that at the time of Paul\u2019s writing of this letter the Arabs referred to Mt.<\/st1:placetype> Sinai<\/st1:placename> as Mt.<\/st1:placetype> Hagar<\/st1:placename><\/st1:place>.<\/p>\n

Paul will continue with his allegorical treatment of Ishmael and Isaac in the following verses.<\/p>\n

Application <\/o:p><\/span><\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

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?<\/p>\n

In God\u2019s service, for His glory,<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"signature\"<\/p>\n

Copyright \u00a9 2008 <\/span>Will <\/span>Krause. All rights reserved.<\/span><\/p>\n

– – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – – –<\/p>\n

<\/span>If this message or this link was forwarded to you by a friend and you wish to receive future verses directly to your inbox, you can call the church phone (618) 614-3070 and leave a message telling us your name and e-mail address or you can send an e-mail to:\"e-mail<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

  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\u2014 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-54","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-S","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=54"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/54\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=54"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=54"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=54"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}