God's Eternal Promise

Read Galatians 4:21-31

Here we have the only time in the NT or even the whole Bible outside of the book of Genesis, Hagar is mentioned. Now we have seen that God showed much grace and compassion to her, but we would be wrong to see her as someone to emulate. Here in Galatians she is used in the negative.

In Abraham’s household she was a slave, purchased or gifted to them during their time in Egypt. Whereas Sarah was a free woman, she was not a slave, but a master. Now from Hagar came Abraham’s firstborn son, Ishmael. But he would not be the one to inherit the promises given to Abraham by God, because he was not the child of the promise.

The promise that God gave to Abraham that Sarah would conceive a child. Though Ishmael was heir to the promise, God chose Isaac because he was the promised offspring. Paul compares Hagar to the Law, the covenant of Moses. But Sarah represents the promise that would come by faith.

Hagar was part of Abraham and Sarah’s plan to fulfill God’s promise in their own strength, rather than trusting in faith. So Paul sees Hagar as representing those who seek to earn salvation with their own plans, in their own strength and wisdom. But Sarah represents those who seek salvation through faith in God.

Hagar was given temporary blessing, many offspring, but she and Ishmael disappear from the biblical story, they are removed from the eternal blessing of God. God continues to care for those who do not pursue him in faith, who don’t even believe he exists. But only those who seek him in faith, trusting in Jesus to make them righteous through his sacrifice on the cross.

My friends, there is only one way to heaven, trusting in Jesus for salvation and awaiting his return. He is the way there is no other. We can grow impatient like Abraham and Sarah, and try to seize control.

We can seek messages that tell us Jesus will give us the blessed life here and now if we just do the right things, we can get lost in end times prophecy thinking every world news event has some correlation in Revelation. We can grow disillusioned with God’s plan and leave the faith altogether.

Because we want to control our destiny, we don’t want to wait, we want to do it our way. But the answer remains the same, trust God and believe in his son.

Questions:

Why is it so hard to trust in God’s plan for our lives?

What can we do to help us trust in him more?