March 1, First Sunday in Lent

Lesson: Galatians 4.21-31

Sermon Title: Hagar and Sarah

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INTRODUCTION

Phone Call (1)

A man was at home with his children when the telephone rang.

In going to answer it, he tripped on a rug, grabbed for something to hold on to and seized the telephone table. It fell over with a crash, jarring the receiver off the hook.

As it fell, it hit the family dog, which leaped up, howling and barking.

The man's three-year-old son, startled by this noise, broke into loud screams.

The man mumbled some colorful words.

He finally managed to pick up the receiver and lift it to his ear, just in time to hear his wife's voice on the other end say, "Nobody's said hello yet, but it certainly sounds as if I have the right number."

  1. Lets talk this morning about figures of speech.

    1. In the biblical material there are a number of different figures of speech.

    2. Okay, but let's not get into a heavy discussion of the all of them.

    3. Let us concentrate on one of them, allegory.

      1. ALLEGORY is a dramatic or pictorial representation, the apparent or superficial sense of which both parallels and illustrates a deeper meaning than is apparent on the surface of the allegorical story used.

      2. The actual story employing the allegory may use exaggeration or hyperbole to illustrate the idea.

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MAIN BODY:

  1. There are many secular examples of allegory.

    1. John Bunyan's, Pilgrim's Progress

    2. Herman Melville's, Moby Dick.

FEE FI FO FUM!
I SMELL THE BLOOD OF AN ENGLISHMAN,
BE HE 'LIVE OR BE HE DEAD,
I'LL GRIND HIS BONES TO MAKE MY BREAD.

    1. A more playful example of an allegory is Jack and the Beanstalk.

      1. Jack is the hero of the allegory. Jack takes a chance on a promise made by an old man Jack meets on the way to the market.

      2. You see, Jack was going to the market to sell his mother's last possession, the family cow.

      3. But the old man captured Jack's imagination concerning some magic beans.

        1. The boy decides to sell his cow to the old man for the magic beans.

        2. Later, upon returning home with his "bounty" Jack's mother is furious and sends Jack to bed without dinner.

        3. The mother throws the beans out the kitchen window in disgust.

      4. Yet, in the morning when Jack awakes, he finds an enormous beanstalk just outside his bedroom window.

        1. He immediately starts to climb it...

        2. In the process of invading the ogre's castle, Jack acquires:

          1. A bag of gold.

          2. A hen that lays golden eggs.

          3. The golden harp.

      5. Chased by the ogre, Jack managed to get to the ground, grabbed an axe and cut down the beanstalk, saving the loves of the family.

      6. Jack demonstrates that skill and wit can overcome brute force.

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  1. The Apostle Paul relates an allegorical story to prove his point that being saved by grace through faith has nullified the law.

    1. To get to the story it is necessary to check out what happened to Abraham, Sarah and Hagar.

    2. The story begins in Genesis 16:1-15 (NRSVA)

1Now Sarai, Abram's wife, bore him no children. She had an Egyptian slave-girl whose name was Hagar, 2and Sarai said to Abram, "You see that the LORD has prevented me from bearing children; go in to my slave-girl; it may be that I shall obtain children by her." And Abram listened to the voice of Sarai. 3So, after Abram had lived ten years in the land of Canaan, Sarai, Abram's wife, took Hagar the Egyptian, her slave-girl, and gave her to her husband Abram as a wife. 4He went in to Hagar, and she conceived; and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked with contempt on her mistress. 5Then Sarai said to Abram, "May the wrong done to me be on you! I gave my slave-girl to your embrace, and when she saw that she had conceived, she looked on me with contempt. May the LORD judge between you and me!" 6But Abram said to Sarai, "Your slave-girl is in your power; do to her as you please." Then Sarai dealt harshly with her, and she ran away from her.

7The angel of the LORD found her by a spring of water in the wilderness, the spring on the way to Shur. 8And he said, "Hagar, slave-girl of Sarai, where have you come from and where are you going?" She said, "I am running away from my mistress Sarai." 9The angel of the LORD said to her, "Return to your mistress, and submit to her." 10The angel of the LORD also said to her, "I will so greatly multiply your offspring that they cannot be counted for multitude." 11And the angel of the LORD said to her,

"Now you have conceived and shall bear a son;
    you shall call him Ishmael,
 for the LORD has given heed to your affliction.
    12 He shall be a wild ass of a man,
 with his hand against everyone,
    and everyone's hand against him;
 and he shall live at odds with all his kin."

13So she named the LORD who spoke to her, "You are El-roi"; for she said, "Have I really seen God and remained alive after seeing him?" 14Therefore the well was called Beer-lahai-roi; it lies between Kadesh and Bered.

15Hagar bore Abram a son; and Abram named his son, whom Hagar bore, Ishmael.

    1. It continues in Genesis 21.

      1. Isaac is born

      2. Hagar and Ishmael are cast out Genesis 21:8-0 (NRSVA).

8The child grew, and was weaned; and Abraham made a great feast on the day that Isaac was weaned. 9But Sarah saw the son of Hagar the Egyptian, whom she had borne to Abraham, playing with her son Isaac. 10So she said to Abraham, "Cast out this slave woman with her son; for the son of this slave woman shall not inherit along with my son Isaac." 11The matter was very distressing to Abraham on account of his son. 12But God said to Abraham, "Do not be distressed because of the boy and because of your slave woman; whatever Sarah says to you, do as she tells you, for it is through Isaac that offspring shall be named for you. 13As for the son of the slave woman, I will make a nation of him also, because he is your offspring." 14So Abraham rose early in the morning, and took bread and a skin of water, and gave it to Hagar, putting it on her shoulder, along with the child, and sent her away. And she departed, and wandered about in the wilderness of Beer-sheba.

15When the water in the skin was gone, she cast the child under one of the bushes. 16Then she went and sat down opposite him a good way off, about the distance of a bowshot; for she said, "Do not let me look on the death of the child." And as she sat opposite him, she lifted up her voice and wept. 17And God heard the voice of the boy; and the angel of God called to Hagar from heaven, and said to her, "What troubles you, Hagar? Do not be afraid; for God has heard the voice of the boy where he is. 18Come, lift up the boy and hold him fast with your hand, for I will make a great nation of him." 19Then God opened her eyes and she saw a well of water. She went, and filled the skin with water, and gave the boy a drink.

20God was with the boy, and he grew up; he lived in the wilderness, and became an expert with the bow.

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  1. Now we get to the rest of the story.

    1. Galatians 4:21-5:1 (NRSVA)

      1. 21Tell me, you who desire to be subject to the law, will you not listen to the law? 22For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and the other by a free woman.

      2. 23One, the child of the slave, was born according to the flesh; the other, the child of the free woman, was born through the promise.

      3. 24Now this is an allegory: these women are two covenants.

        1. One woman, in fact, is Hagar, from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery.

        2. 25Now Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem, for she is in slavery with her children.

        3. 26But the other woman corresponds to the Jerusalem above; she is free, and she is our mother.

        4. 27For it is written,

"Rejoice, you childless one, you who bear no children,
    burst into song and shout, you who endure no birth pangs;
 for the children of the desolate woman are more numerous
    than the children of the one who is married."

      1. 28Now you, my friends, are children of the promise, like Isaac.

      2. 29But just as at that time the child who was born according to the flesh persecuted the child who was born according to the Spirit, so it is now also.

      3. 30But what does the scripture say? "Drive out the slave and her child; for the child of the slave will not share the inheritance with the child of the free woman."

      4. 31So then, friends, we are children, not of the slave but of the free woman.

      5. 5:1For freedom Christ has set us free. Stand firm, therefore, and do not submit again to a yoke of slavery.

    1. So now we have the pieces of the allegory together.

      1. We can see what Paul is proposing.

      2. We are free to choose.

  1. We can summarize the whole argument in this way, Sarah is our mother.(3)

    1. The Christian Church regarded as a mother. It has three marks.

      1. It is free. "Is free, which is our mother."

        1. We are taught to think of the Church as our mother.

        2. We are the Church's sons and daughters, through the efficiency of Christ in the Church and its services.

        3. All our well-springs are in the Church.

        4. It is of Zion that it is said, "This man and that woman were born in her."

        5. 'The Church of Christ is represented by the freewoman.

        6. We are taught to regard it as the home of freedom.

        7. We feel free in our covenant position before God, in our immediate relation to him, and' in our glorious prospects.

      2. It has a numerous offspring. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for more are the children of the desolate than of her which hath the husband."

        1. In this language the prophet makes use of Sarah having a more numerous people descended from her than Hagar.

        2. And what the apostle does in quoting it is to give the fact another application.

        3. The Church represented by the desolate Sarah is to have a. more numerous offspring than the Church represented by the favoured Hagar.

      3. It has an offspring according to promise. "

        1. Now we, brethren, as' Isaac was, are children of promise."

        2. We are not certainly children according to the course of nature, or in virtue of influences that belong to our nature.

        3. We are children through the Divine influences that are efficient in the gospel surmounting great natural obstacles.

        4. We are miraculously, supernaturally born.

      4. An instructive parallel added.

        1. The persecutors.

        2. It But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now."

        3. It is said, in connection with a festival in honor of the weaning of Isaac, that Sarah saw the son of Hagar, which she had born unto Abraham, mocking. 'This little circumstance is referred to here, not so much for what it was in itself, as for its foreshadowing the bearing of the Arab tribes toward the Israelites.

        4. As the descendants of Ishmael persecuted the descendants of Isaac, in the apostle's day did the Jews persecute the Christians.

        5. It was a well-known fact that they were the bitterest enemies of the Christians and were the principal instigators of persecution against them.

      5. Their fate foreshadowed,

        1. "Howbeit what saith the Scripture? Cast out the handmaid and her son; for the son of the handmaid shall not inherit with the son of the freewoman."

        2. Ishmael could not be allowed to live in the same house with Isaac.

        3. He had to be cast out and was no sharer. of the inheritance with him.

          1. So the Jewish Church and the Christian Church could not coexist.

          2. Jews could only be in the Church as Christians.

      6. General conclusion regarding our state of freedom.

        1. "Wherefore, brethren, we are not children of a handmaid, but of the freewoman."

        2. Exhortation founded on it.

          1. (a) To maintain our freedom.

          2. "With freedom did Christ set us free: stand fast therefore."

          3. We owe our freedom to Christ. And it can be said that with a great price have we obtained our freedom, that price being his blood.

          4. We are not, therefore, to treat lightly what has been so dearly won.

          5. We must show our sense of it by maintaining it in its entirety.

        3. To shun bondage. "And be not entangled again in a yoke of bondage."

          1. 'They had formerly been under the yoke of heathenism; they were not to put themselves under the similar yoke of Judaism.

          2. A slave who has been liberated does not voluntarily put himself into the hardships he has left.

          3. So they who had experienced the sweets of Christian liberty were not to go back to bonds.

-R. F.

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CONCLUSION:

  1. In England there is a paper factory that makes the world's finest stationery.

    1. If you visit it and ask what this stationery is made from, you will be surprised to find out that much of what makes this perfect, high-quality paper is dirty rags!

    2. In one area, stockpiled old dirty rags are in huge piles.

    3. One man who visited there wouldn't believe it.

      1. Then six weeks after his visit he received a package of paper from the company with his initials embossed on it.

      2. On the first page were written the words, "Dirty rags transformed!" (2)

  2. Now you can stay dirty rage or be transformed.

Amen!

1. martysjotd [martysjotd@hotmail.com]

2. Source unknown.

3. I am indebted to R. F. whose homiletical comments in the Pulpit Commentary provided the information for this section of the sermon.

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