Hagar & Isaac & Paul

Q. What is the explanation for sending Hagar away after Isaac is born and how does Paul use it in Galatians 4?

A. In the literal passages in Genesis, Sarah has convinced Abraham to send Hagar and Ishmael away because of the family strife that has happened and she thought his presence threatened Isaac’s inheritance. But, there is more going on here because there is a spiritual lesson underneath the literal. To understand scripture, you need to understand types and symbols. Abraham represents faith and Sarah grace. Faith and grace are “married” and cannot be separated. Hagar is a picture of the works of the flesh or works of the law. Her name means “ensnarer” and man can be ensnared with the doctrine that one can produce good works to be saved. When faith (Abraham) is separated from grace (Sarah) and joins Hagar (works) you produce Ishmael (fleshly works). Now, the first-born in scripture is a picture of the natural man.

That is why the first born was always replaced by the younger. One must be born again in order to inherit the kingdom of G-d, not flesh and blood. So, Ishmael was replaced by Isaac, Esau by Jacob, Reuben by Joseph, Adam by Yeshua and so on. In Galatians Paul is confronting a false teaching that the Galatians had to be circumcised in order to obtain righteousness, to be saved (Acts 15.1). This is ritual circumcision, not to be confused with covenant circumcision. These Jewish believers thought that a gentile had to become Jewish (circumcised) to be saved.

Paul uses the types mentioned above to show that that teaching wasn’t true. It was a big issue in the first century, and there are some today who teach similar doctrines, but instead of circumcision its baptism or church attendance of whatever. In Galatians 4, Sarah represents the spiritual, the heavenly, the born again state or approach to the Torah as opposed by Hagar the ‘ensnarer” which is a fleshly, weak, earthly approach to the Torah which is salvation by works. You must cast out the bond-woman (service) and her child (works of the flesh) in order to please G-d, thus uniting faith (Abraham) with grace (Sarah) which produces Isaac (child of promise). We can’t have both “women” in our lives. The two covenants represent the Abrahamic covenant and the Mosaic covenant. One did not replace the other.

The teaching in Galatians isn’t that the law has been done away with it is the approach to it. If you approach the Torah by faith, that is acceptable. But if you approach the Torah in the flesh thinking that keeping the commandments saves you, then you are like Hagar and that thinking needs to be cast out because it will ensnare you if you don’t and it only produces works of the flesh( Ishmael). Faith cannot be separated from grace, they are “married” in a spiritual sense. Many believe you have to choose between faith OR grace. You are making the same mistake Abraham did when he “associated” with Hagar. It will only produce what is unacceptable. Some think if you keep the commandments that is “works”, but if you have grace you don’t need to follow them, they have been “done away with.”

That is the mistake of Galatians and that is why Paul uses this story in Genesis to illustrate the error. When you don’t follow the commandments you are automatically following man’s commandments which are worthless works of the flesh.