We have come to Galatians 4:25, one more link in Paul’s allegorical chain of thought, in his vital doctrine of Salvation by Grace!
“For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.”
The Apostle has carefully taught us the background of two sons of Abraham. Or maybe I should say Abram’s first two wives! (Technically Hagar, spelled “Agar” here, is a slave wife, in our Text a handmaid, but still the mother of one of the man’s children!)
So Paul is now using her, Hagar, as a symbol, as a picture, as a “type” the Bible teachers sometimes say … of someone in bondage! And naturally her child as a servant/slave too!
Accordingly, she is here in Galatians 4:25 being called the equivalent of “Mount Sinai,” the place the Law of Moses was penned (given by God) hundreds of years earlier. The place those 613 injunctions were pressed upon Israel. As a way of pleasing God! As the way of achieving God’s Blessings! Including land, and health, and prosperity!
Sidebar: How did Paul learn some of these dangers of trusting “Arabia” instead of “Jesus” for salvation? Personally, I suspect from the Holy Spirit Himself … as the Apostle invested those “silent” years in Arabia … shortly after his conversion! See Galatians 1:17 … “Neither went I up to Jerusalem to them which were apostles before me; BUT I WENT INTO ARABIA, and returned again unto Damascus.”
Our Text for today, again: “For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.”
The verb “answereth” is unique. It’s a “hapax legomenon,” occurring only one time in all the Bible. But Paul needed it here! It is spelled “sustoicheo,” and is a blend. Its prefix is really “sun,” a preposition meaning “with” or “alongside,” suggesting “union.” And its root verb is “stoicheo” (which does occur elsewhere (but only 5 times, 4 in Paul and once in Acts, used by Luke) meaning “to line up in a row.” In our King James Bible it is once translated “to walk orderly.”
In other words, “Hagar” is parallel (in the same line as) “Jerusalem.” Not the literal city as in its “streets and houses and infrastructure”) … but in its (“current” to Paul and his coworkers) theological teaching. In its insistence that the coming and death and resurrection of Jesus had absolutely NO bearing on the plan of salvation, as if Jesus had never been Virgin Born!
Embedded in the name “Jerusalem” is the Hebrew word “shalom,” essentially meaning “peace, welfare.” But the City has seldom experienced any of that illusive little quality! And as Paul wrote she was in the clutches of strict a deadly “Moses-helps-save-as-much-as-Jesus” heresy!
“Agar” used to be, but of course she died.
“Jerusalem” still is, and is carrying forward Agar’s “slave/handmaid” status, not to Abraham this time but instead to Moses!
That’s what Paul means by using the word “bondage” in our Verse. “For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in BONDAGE with her children.”
Really a verb, “is in bondage” translates “douleuo,” merely “to be a slave.” Present tense, active voice … still happening, and by choice!
Wow!
What analogy!
So … do these Gentile converts to Jesus, these Galatians, REALLY want to go back into a form of slavery, after having been set free by Christ our Lord?
To go back into a life foreign to the working of the Freedom-Giving (yet godly-living) Holy Spirit, the Godhead?
And as they say … THAT IS THE QUESTION!
— Dr. Mike Bagwell
“Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” John 14:6
Yes … Jesus only saves!