You must be in fellowship prior to your Bible study, so that the spiritual information you receive can become a source, of blessing to your soul and produce spiritual growth.
24 Which
things [hostis] are [esti] an allegory [allegoreo]: for [gar] these [houtos] are [eisi] the two [duo] covenants [diatheke]; the
one [mia][men]
from [apo] the mount [oros] Sinai [Sina], which
gendereth [gennao] to [eis] bondage [douleia], which [hostis] is [esti] Agar [Hagar]. KJV-Interlinear
24 This is
allegorically speaking: for these women are two covenants, one proceeding from
Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves; she is Hagar NASB
And now Paul makes it clear that he is using these people, as symbols for his teaching example.
An allegory is a parable, symbolism, a metaphor, a representation wherein he is using real people and their circumstances, to explain a principle of doctrine.
That principle being the difference between works or human works, and spiritual works. The former being the design of people doing their own thing, making their own plans, and the latter being divine design wherein God does all of the work, and advances life in accordance with His divine plan.
And so Hagar, represents the Law or Mt. Sinai, because the Law came to Moses while on the mountain.
Hagar was a slave. The Law describes and explains the slavery of man to his own works, or put in another way, the works of man which put and keep man in slavery.
The Law which Moses wrote, documents and defines perfection. This is something that man cannot accomplish. Man cannot live a perfect life. If he could, then he would in fact be a god himself. And of course we know that none of us are gods, or even little gods, even though there are those who might believe that of themselves.
And so, Hagar was born a slave, lived her life as a slave, and had a child representing Abrahams production, as a slave, and were then thrown out while remaining slaves. Slavery, and its activities and its life and its production all remain slaves.
A slave cannot free himself unless he pays a hefty price, and the price for sin is far beyond mans means.
Even if a slave runs away or is sent away, he remains a slave, never being recognized by anyone as anything other than slave.
When you live in slavery, you have no hope from yourself or from the world. The world does not care, and Satan runs this world and gladly sacrifices any and all in order to promote his, Satan’s, agenda, not yours.
And since man cannot live a perfect life, and even more than that, cannot pay the price for sin, which means to suffer the divine penalty and judgment for sin and then defeat death. All of which is infinitely beyond mans resources.
God promised Abraham, a son, but his promise was one based on the principle of truth. Isaac was son from the legitimate marriage, but Christ was the son of the promise, both synchronized through the natural line of Christ and with all integrity intact.
Hagar was not a wife, but a mistress, and therefore her child was illegitimate and not of the line of promise. Hagar was not Gods plan, but Abrahams panic plan. Abraham tried to invent his own way which is human works with total disregard for Gods plan.
And in this principle we should see that anything that you do, that is apart from Gods design, is wrong, and more than wrong, it is evil.
Peter did not want Jesus to die, but that would be Satan’s plan, thus derailing Gods salvation plan for man. Peter proposed an emotional and evil plan in opposition to Gods plan.
People do not want to study to demonstrate their spiritual growth, but want to do things in their own way, in their own time. Most folks just want to quote scripture and impress others. Most folks have no spiritual discipline because they choose to ignore Gods mandates to confess in order to live in fellowship, refuse to study under instruction because they already know it all and/or do not believe they need to be taught anything.
Or, they are authorities in their own eyes, and study is somehow beneath them. Or, they define their own methods of study as being sufficient Or, they prefer gimmicks that are exciting or convenient, or simply easy because they don’t have to commit to some study obligation as required by God.
Then again there are those who simply do not care for any of this bible stuff. There are just too many other things to deal with in life and reading a book or listening to some preacher repeat the same things over and over again, things that they have already heard, is not one of them.
And so they miss the whole point of the spiritual life, and as Hagar lived, so too they live, but without knowing it.
The secret to spiritual growth is not in the individual words in the Bible, for anyone can read the bible and go nowhere. Satan knows the bible better than anyone and he has no spiritual life.
The secret, is in the obedience to Gods mandates for functioning in the spiritual life, by means of faith. Which means, belief in Christ to get saved, and then following salvation, to confess ones sins, to study daily, and to use doctrinal principles in your daily life, and then God takes over and constructs a spiritual fortress within your soul. All of which is unseen, unfelt, undetectable, but accomplished miraculously by God within you. And eventually you begin to see and understand and orient to life as life unfolds all around you.
All the while everyone else around you, believes that you are a fool, when in fact they are the fools for chasing slavery.
