{"id":55,"date":"2008-01-07T21:12:57","date_gmt":"2008-01-08T03:12:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ministryofgrace.org\/blog\/index.php\/2008\/01\/07\/galatians-425-jerusalem-bound\/"},"modified":"2008-01-07T21:12:57","modified_gmt":"2008-01-08T03:12:57","slug":"galatians-425-jerusalem-bound","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/galatians-425-jerusalem-bound\/","title":{"rendered":"Galatians 4:25 – Jerusalem Bound"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Ministry<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Galatians 4:25<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> which now is, and is in bondage with her children\u2014<\/o:p><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

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

We have been set free from the slavery which is produced by trying to live by the Law, and we want to remain free.<\/p>\n

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

\u201cThis Hagar<\/span>\u201d is translated from the Greek to hagar<\/span><\/em>. Since Hagar is a feminine name it is normally accompanied with feminine articles when used in reference to Sarai\u2019s handmaid. But the article used here, to<\/span><\/em>, is a neuter article indicating that Paul is not referring to Hagar the person but Hagar the thing. The proper name Hagar in Arabic signifies \u201cwanderer or fugitive\u201d from the Arabic word hadschar<\/span><\/em>. There is a very similar Arabic word, chadschar<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201ca rock or a stone.\u201d<\/p>\n

The word translated \u201ccorresponds<\/span>\u201d is the Greek word sustoiche\u014d,<\/span><\/em> which is made up of sun<\/span>,<\/em> meaning \u201ctogether\u201d and stoiche\u014d<\/span><\/em>, which means \u201cto advance or proceed in order.\u201d It is a military term used in reference to soldiers in the same column or phalanx who must advance together without breaking ranks. Figuratively, however, sustoicheo<\/span><\/em> is used to express when one thing corresponds to or logically parallels another.<\/p>\n

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

There has been much discussion over the centuries as to what Paul meant when he said, \u201cthis Hagar is Mount Sinai<\/st1:place>.\u201d He is not saying that Sarai\u2019s handmaid, Hagar, is a great mountain called Sinai. As noted above, he uses a neuter article in reference to Hagar so as to refer to Hagar as a thing, not a person. This grammatical construction is often used when one thing is being used as representing something else. An example of this type of usage is in the familiar communion passage:<\/p>\n

And He took bread, gave thanks and broke it,<\/em> and gave it<\/em> to them, saying, “This is My body which is given for you; do this in remembrance of Me.”<\/span> (Luke 22:19<\/span><\/strong>)<\/p>\n

In this verse in Luke, \u201cThis\u201d is a neuter article whereas \u201cbread\u201d is masculine. Christ was saying \u201cThis thing is,\u201d or \u201cThis bread represents.\u201d Similarly, in the current verse Paul is saying \u201cthis Hagar represents Mount Sinai<\/st1:place>, that is, the Law.\u201d The point Paul is making is that as Hagar represents the Law, her son (Ishmael) is born of the covenant of the Law and as Sarai represents the promise, her son (Isaac) is born of the covenant of promise.<\/p>\n

Also, Paul is going to be making a comparison between the Jerusalem<\/st1:city> which is now (the city of Jerusalem<\/st1:city> which currently exists physically) and New Jerusalem, the heavenly Jerusalem<\/st1:place><\/st1:city> which will appear as part of the new heavens and the new earth revealed in Revelation 21:1, 2<\/span><\/strong>. By making the comparative reference to Hagar and the Law corresponding to the current Jerusalem<\/st1:place><\/st1:city>, Paul is saying that they are all part of the covenant of bondage, whereas faith in Christ is part of the covenant of freedom.<\/p>\n

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

Freedom and slavery can be looked at from many different angles, both physically and spiritually. Once freed from slavery, however, no one wants to voluntarily return to slavery.<\/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

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

  Galatians 4:25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children\u2014 Truth to Learn We have been set free from the slavery which is produced by trying to live by the Law, and we want to remain free. Behind the Words […]<\/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-55","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-galatians-4"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pd5geA-T","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55","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=55"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ministryofgrace.org\/test\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}