Bible Reading: 2 Samuel 24; Galatians 4; Ezekiel 31; Psalm 79
Galatians 4:28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.
The narrative of Abraham and his family in the book of Genesis is very important to our understanding the New Testament. It has been said, “The Old Testament is the New Testament concealed; the New Testament is the Old Testament revealed.” If you do not know what happened in the life of Abraham, you are going to have a hard time understanding the book of Galatians. Here the Bible tells us that we are as Isaac. If you remember what the Bible tells us about Abraham, he and his wife Sarah were not able to have a child. God had promised him that he would have a child and so they took the matter into their own hands. It was a custom of the people in their day to have a surrogate mother have a child for a barren woman so Sarah gave Abraham her handmaid, Hagar. Abraham’s first son, Ishmael, was born of Hagar, but God said that he was not the child that was promised. God then clarified that Sarah would have a child and thirteen years later, Isaac was born to Sarah! This was clearly a miracle because Sarah was ninety years old at the time and Abraham was one hundred! (Genesis 21)
Now the New Testament tells us that we are the children of promise like Isaac. First, that means that we are born again according to a promise. The Bible here is contrasting national Israel with those who are born again. Religion is the fleshly child born of the bondwoman. Those who rejected Christ were very religious people, but they were not born again. God promised a people to his son.
Psalms 2:8 Ask of me, and I shall give thee the heathen for thine inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for thy possession.
This people include not only Jews, but Gentiles too. Those who hear the good news of Jesus Christ and believe are born again and are the children of promise! We are born into God’s family and become his children. If you belong to God it is not because of your religious rites. It is because you are born again. As a child of promise you will experience persecution from the religious!
Galatians 4:29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now.
Just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, the true children of promise will experience persecution from the children of the bondwoman. Think of all the true believers who are persecuted by religious institutions around the world today. Just as Jesus was persecuted by the religious people of his day – we will be like our Master!
In Christ,
Rody
