Passage: (Galatians 4:21-31)
Points
1. Ishmael was the son of a slave woman and according to the flesh; while Isaac was the son of a free woman and born according to a promise.
2. The Old Testament told the barren ones to break forth and cry out for there was a promise of a greater future.
3. The one who was born of the flesh persecuted those who were born of the spirit. The slave will not inherit what has promised to the free.
Personalize
We have the tendency to venture back to enslavement. We loose sight of the way things were and we drift back to those things that will never lead to freedom. Paul points out that we have been born spiritually because of a promise and not of the flesh, yet we drift back to the flesh or the tangible because we are unwilling to wait on the promise. If Abraham and Sarah had waited on the promise then they would not have sought a short cut to the promise by taking Hagar, their slave, and seek a descendent the easy way, the natural way, or by the flesh. Abraham took his slave and Ishmael was born in the flesh and did not fulfill the promise. If they had only waited, the promise would be fulfilled.
The way of the flesh is physical and touchable, but the way of the promise is spiritual and received by faith. “Faith comes by hearing and hearing from the Word of God”. When God has made a promise He will fulfill it in His time and in His way. It is our tendency to trust in what we can control rather than wait on God’s control. Paul is reminding his readers that the law is the way of the flesh and the gospel is the way of the promise. We rest in what Christ has done alone and not in our own efforts.
Prayer
Lord, may we rest in Your promises. Give us an insight into the promise and the vision You have for our future. We yield to your leadership in our lives and we seek to walk by faith in the promises and not by the flesh.
