Galatians 5 v 7 – 12 - Divine condemnation of those leading the Galatian Christians astray

 ‘You were running well. Who cut into you, not being persuaded of the truth, 8 the self-produced persuasion absolutely not from out of your summons and calling? 9 A little yeast is fermenting the whole lump. 10 I, on my part, am convinced towards you within the Lord that you will have no other mindset. But the one disturbing, troubling and agitating you will carry the judicial decision, whoever he is. 11 Now brothers if I still, even now, am proclaiming circumcision, why am I still pursued and persecuted, since the cause of stumbling, the cross, has been rendered entirely idle? 12 Oh that those turning you upside down will also ‘cut themselves off’, (Galatians 5 v 7 - 12).

Paul is very abrupt in style in verses 7 – 12. His thought jumps from subject to subject, not stopping to insert links of connection. He says that the Galatian Christians were ‘running well’ – elsewhere he likens the Christian life to athletes running a race in order to win the prize and he says that they were doing well, but then he asks, ‘Who, not being persuaded of the truth, cut in?’ Who, as it were, knocked them sideways so as to lead them to take another route? In turning back to the written codes of the Sinai Covenant, the Galatian Christians have persuaded themselves. What they are holding to is not from out of their calling by God. The belief that it is necessary to obey the laws of Moses and blend the observance of Jewish law with Christian teaching in order to be delivered and maintain a godly life, cannot be traced to God, even though those who are teaching it pretended to be commissioned by Him. Those who are wayward in the fellowship may be few, but they will soon ruin the whole assembly, because a small portion of legalism, if mixed with the Gospel, corrupts its purity and undermines the whole. Though they had been led astray and had embraced many false opinions, yet, on the whole, Paul had confidence in them and believed they would yet return and embrace the truth, as Paul had taught it. 

‘But the one disturbing, troubling and agitating you…’. Paul seems to have a particular individual in mind, perhaps the leader of the false teachers who was causing the most mischief among them. This agitator had unsettled the minds of the Galatian Christians and caused them to halt between two mutually exclusive Covenants, Moses and the Messiah, law and Gospel, and divine approval attained by working to observe the law or by means of the atoning sacrifice of the Messiah. Paul says that this individual ‘will carry the judicial decision, whoever he is’. Whoever endeavoured to lead them astray, whatever their status, God will reward them according to their behaviour. They will carry the consequences of God’s judicial decision. 

‘Now brothers…’. Another abrupt transition by Paul. It may well be that Paul had at one time seemed to preach, or at least permit, circumcision. This may have arisen from the fact that he had circumcised Timothy, (Acts 16 v 3) ‘on account of the Jews in that area, for they all knew that his father was a Greek’. This would have been so that the Jews did not immediately reject Timothy as he and Paul sought to announce the gospel to them. It was done to avoid the opposition and reproaches of the Jews. But Paul did not want any misunderstanding. He was not teaching that male Gentile Christians had to be circumcised. Paul had never complied with Jewish customs where there was danger that his behaviour would be understood. He did not want people to think that he regarded such customs and laws indispensable, or as furnishing a basis for divine approval. The fact that Jews are still persecuting me, he says, is full demonstration that I am not regarded as teaching the necessity to be circumcised. Circumcision is the special badge of Jewish religion; it implies all the rest, and if I preach the necessity of it, then this would satisfy the Jews and save me from persecution. But if I teach the necessity of circumcision, as alleged, then the cause of stumbling for Jews, the cross, is removed - ‘If you let yourselves be circumcised, the Messiah will be of no value to you at all’, (Galatians 5 v 2). It is because I preach the Messiah crucified, and not Mosaic law as the sole basis of divine approval that they persecute me.

Paul says, ‘I am so far from agreeing with them, so far from preaching the necessity to be circumcised, that I sincerely wish that they were excluded from the assembly, as being unworthy of having a place among the children of God’.

Galatians 5 v 1b – 6 - The Messiah frees Christians from the Sinai Covenant and its written codes of law

 ‘The anointed has set us free, therefore, stand firm, not holding yourselves within the yoke of slavery once more. 2 Look, I Paul am saying to you that if you become circumcised, the anointed will benefit you nothing 3 and I call to witness once more, that every man being circumcised is indebted to continue constructing the whole of the law. 4 Whosoever being judicially approved and right-wise within law, you are idle and inactive away from the anointed one, you have dropped away from the freely extended favour, 5 for we are eagerly awaiting judicial approval and being made right wise with confident expectation from out of Breathful [Pneuma] persuasion. 6 For within Jesus the anointed one, neither circumcision nor foreskin has any power, strength or ability, on the contrary, persuasion to the point of obedience, effectively working by means of practical beneficial love’, (Galatians 5 v 1b - 6).

What is the practical application and result of this allegory of Sarah and Hagar? It is that God’s anointed, Jesus, has set us Christians, both Jews and Gentiles, free. Jewish Christians in particular have been set free from being enslaved to the Sinai Covenant with its written codes of law. Therefore – stand firm within this freedom. Persevere within it. Maintain it. Hold on to it. Don’t turn back to the Sinai Covenant and its written codes of law so as to be enslaved again. 

Then in verse 2 Paul addresses a wider audience. He turns his attention to those male Gentile Christians who were being pressured by these visiting Jews to be circumcised according to Covenant law. Paul says, ‘Look, it’s me, Paul, an Apostle, who is speaking to you’. He sets out his own delegated authority in opposition to these Judaizers. 

First of all he says to these Gentile Christians, ‘If you submit to circumcision then the Messiah will benefit you nothing at all. You are entering into a completely different Covenant or set arrangement that negates or bypasses the Messiah’. 

Second, he reminds them of what he has told them before. ‘Every man being circumcised is indebted to begin and continue constructing the whole of the law’. Failure to observe just one aspect of divine law results in self-forfeiture and loss. When it comes to combating legalism it is important that the law is correctly perceived as an integrated unified whole containing both moral and ceremonial aspects. 

Third, whoever is seeking ongoing and final divine judicial approval within the sphere of Covenant law is ‘idle and inactive away from the anointed one’. These two set arrangements cannot be mixed or blended together. Within the Messiah, an individual is rendered idle and inactive away from the external written codes of Covenant law. If an individual turns to seeking ongoing divine judicial approval by means of obedience to Covenant law, then they are rendered idle and inactive away from the Messiah, [they] have dropped away from the freely extended favour’. These two Covenants are mutually exclusive. They are two different orders of priesthood. 

By contrast, we Christians ‘are eagerly awaiting judicial approval with confident expectation from out of Breathful persuasion’…NOT by seeking to observe all of the written codes of Covenant law. Thus we come back to Paul’s earlier statement, that ‘within Jesus the anointed one, neither circumcision nor foreskin has any power, strength or ability’  - there is no difference, there is neither Jew nor Gentile. Where is the power, strength or ability? It is found in ‘persuasion to the point of obedience, effectively working by means of practical beneficial love’ – persuasion carried across into the primary fruit of the set apart Breath of God – practical beneficial love. 

Galatians 4 v 30, 31, 5 v 1a - The exclusion of Hagar the slave girl and her son Ishmael from the inheritance

 ‘But what is Scripture saying? ‘Be throwing out the slave girl and her son, because the son of the slave girl will absolutely not inherit in company with the son of the free woman’. 31 Therefore on this basis brothers, we are absolutely not children of the slave girl, but on the contrary, of the free woman, the free’, (Galatians 4 v 30, 31, 5 v 1a).

Paul refers to the language of Sarah to Abraham when she requested him to throw out Hagar and Ishmael, (Genesis 21 v 10). Her words received endorsement, ‘And rulers and judges said to Abraham, ‘Don’t let it be displeasing in your sight because of the boy or your concubine. All, whatever Sarah has said to you, listen and pay attention to her voice, because your seed will be called out within Isaac’, (Genesis 21 v 12). Thus, as the Galatians could read for themselves in the Scriptures, delegated rulers and judges said that Hagar and Ishmael were indeed to be sent away from Abraham’s family. The son of the slave girl was not to share the inheritance with Isaac. In the same way, on this account, all Jews who continue to exist under 'Jerusalem' and the legal Covenant of Sinai, enslaved to seeking to obtain judicial approval by observing its written codes of law, are excluded from the ‘family’ of those brought forth as a result of the announced promise. They are excluded from the divine inheritance. Thus Jesus says to Jews, ‘Struggle to go in by means of the narrow door. For I am saying to you, many will seek after entering in and will not be able, 25 away from which the master of the house having roused up and shut the door. And you begin to stand outside, knocking the door, saying, ‘Lord, open to us’. Answering, he will say to you, ‘I don’t know you, from what place you are’. 26 Then you will begin to say, ‘We ate and drank in front of you, and you taught in our streets’. 27 And he will say, ‘I am telling you, I don’t know where you are from, stand away from me all workers of injustice. 28 There will be the lamentation and the grinding of teeth when you see Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and all the prophets within the Kingdom of God, but you being thrown out. 29 They will come from the east and west, and from north and south, and will recline in the Kingdom of God. 30 And look! Those existing last who will be first, and those existing first who will be last’, (Luke 13 v 24 – 30). 

Paul comes to a conclusion. ‘Therefore on this basis brothers…’. They are his brothers on account of being fellow Jews, but more especially they are his brothers because along with Paul, they ‘are absolutely not children of the slave girl, but on the contrary, of the free woman, the free’. Paul applies the allegory and brings it to its conclusion. Paul said earlier ‘Now if you [are] of the anointed, then you are existing Abraham’s seed, heirs down from announced promise’, (Galatians 3 v 29). And again, So therefore, you are no longer existing a slave, but if a son by means of God, also an heir, allotted a share, (Galatians 4 v 7). His logic then is this, if we are heirs, ‘we are not children of the slave girl’, whose son, according to Scripture, was ‘not to be heir’ (verse 30). But we are of the free woman whose son was, according to Scripture, to be heir. We Hebrew Christians are not ‘thrown out’ like Ishmael, but accepted as sons and heirs in God’s household on the basis of God’s announced promise.

Galatians 4 v 28, 29 - The children and heirs of God’s announced promise

 ‘But you brothers are down from Isaac, are children of announced promise. 29 But just as at that time the one having been procreated down from flesh persecuted the down from Breath, [Pneuma], in this manner also at this present time. 30 But what is Scripture saying? ‘Throw out the slave girl and her son, because the son of the slave girl will absolutely not inherit in company with the son of the free’. 31 Therefore on this account brothers, we are absolutely not children of the slave girl, but on the contrary, of the free’, (Galatians 4 v 28, 29).

‘But you brothers are down from Isaac’. Paul continues the allegory that he introduced in verse 23. He is not talking about physical descent from Abraham and Isaac, but about a line of ‘children of promise’, as he confirms in the next phrase – you ‘are children of announced promise’. Remember, Paul is speaking to and about Jews, and the contrast is between -

Jews existing under the Sinai Covenant and its written codes of law, and

 

Jews existing under the announced promise of God, by means of entrustment

The allegory describes -

Jews under the Sinai Covenant in terms of Abraham, Hagar and Ishmael

Jews under the announced promise in terms of Abraham, Sarah and Isaac

Scripture describes the animosity between Ishmael, born of the flesh, and Isaac who was brought forth as a result of the announced promise, down from the Breath. The particular reference made by Paul is doubtless to Genesis 21 v 9 where Ishmael treated Isaac with ‘outright scornful laughing’, jeering and deriding him. Jewish commentators pretty much also agree that Ishmael took his bow and shot an arrow at Isaac, with an intention to kill him, though he pretended it was but in play. The incident is recorded in the non-canonical Book of Jasher. ‘And Ishmael the son of Abraham was grown up in those days; he was fourteen years old when Sarah bare Isaac to Abraham. 12 And God was with Ishmael the son of Abraham, and he grew up, and he learned to use the bow and became an archer. 13 And when Isaac was five years old he was sitting with Ishmael at the door of the tent. 14 And Ishmael came to Isaac and seated himself opposite to him, and he took the bow and drew it and put the arrow in it, and intended to slay Isaac. 15 And Sarah saw the act which Ishmael desired to do to her son Isaac, and it grieved her exceedingly on account of her son, and she sent for Abraham and said to him, ‘Cast out this bondwoman and her son, for her son shall not be heir with my son, for thus did he seek to do unto him this day’.’, (Book of Jasher 21 v 11 – 15). Other commentators suggest that there was also contention about the inheritance, which Sarah’s words to Abraham seem to confirm. Ishmael claimed the birthright, despising Isaac as the younger son, and insisting on his right to the inheritance. He mocked the promise of God with respect to Isaac and threatened what he intended to do to Isaac should Isaac claim it.  Mocking has been always reckoned as a form of persecution.

Paul applies this animosity to the present situation. Just as Ishmael persecuted Isaac, so now at this present time, Jews under the Sinai Covenant with its written codes of law pursue and persecute Jews, and indeed Gentiles, who are ‘down from the Breath’.

Galatians 4 v 27 - The cry of the deserted woman and her children

 ‘For it has been written: ‘Be well understanding, the barren, the not bringing forth, break forth and shout, the one not labouring in birth pangs; because many the children of the desolate woman, more than of her possessing the husband’, (Galatians 4 v 27).

The quotation Paul refers to is from Isaiah. ‘‘Cry out, you sterile, not bringing forth; burst forth a ringing cry and cry shrilly you not writhing in birth pains, because many more the sons of the desolated woman than sons from the married woman’, says Yahweh’, (Isaiah 54 v 1). 

‘Jerusalem above’ - the delegated leadership and leadership infrastructure within the heavenly realm - is free and unbound, (verse 26). This statement is placed in contrast to ‘Jerusalem below at this present time’ - the enslaved delegated leadership and infrastructure of Israel. Given this context, the ‘the barren and not bringing forth’ refers to ‘Jerusalem at this present time’. The delegated rulers, authorities and judges of Israel – metaphorically referred to as ‘Jerusalem’ – are barren and not bringing forth, and are enslaved to law and flesh. Thus the delegated rulers, judges and authorities in Israel - ‘Jerusalem’ - are exhorted to be ‘well understanding’ (verse 27), to perceive their position and to ‘cry out with a ringing, shrill cry’, (Isaiah 54 v 1). The phrase ‘well understanding’ is from the Greek word ‘euphrainó’, usually translated into English as ‘Rejoice’, ‘Sing’, or ‘Be glad’, but it is actually an imperative to have a ‘good mind’. It can indeed refer to rejoicing and being glad, but this is not necessarily the case, and such a meaning is not intended here. In Isaiah the Hebrew word is ‘ranan’, meaning is ‘to cry out’, ‘to shout’. This is not a call to rejoice or be glad – just the opposite. Isaiah 54 ultimately leads to a prophecy concerning the Millennium Reign and the restoration of Israel. In verse 1 Israel is in a barren state and the call is to cry out. In verse 2 expansion is exhorted, because in verse 3 and the verse following, their restoration is prophesied. 

In Galatians it is the enslaved delegated leadership and leadership infrastructure of Israel, and given the quote from Isaiah, Israel itself, that is to cry out and shout with a shrill voice. Why? ‘Because many the children of the desolated woman, more than of her possessing the husband’ and ‘because many more the sons of the desolated woman than sons from the married woman’. 

By way of explanation Paul continues to refer to Hagar and Sarah. Hagar, points to the Sinai Covenant and its written codes, she is the ‘desolated woman’. The Greek word is ‘erémos’ meaning ‘deserted, abandoned’. Following the birth of Sarah’s son, Isaac, immediate animosity arose between Ishmael and Isaac, and between Sarah and Hagar, such that Sarah insisted to Abraham that Hagar and Ishmael be removed. Accordingly they were given some provisions and sent away into the desert – they were ‘deserted’. However, earlier, an angel/messenger had delivered a promise to Hagar, as recorded in Genesis 16 v 10, ‘I will greatly multiply your offspring so that they will be too numerous to count’. Hagar fled toward Egypt, and when in despair at the want of water, an angel/messenger again appeared to her, pointed out a supply of water close by, and renewed the former promises to her, (Genesis 21 v 9 - 21). Ishmael afterwards established himself in the wilderness of Paran, where he married an Egyptian, (Genesis 21 v 20, 21). Paul will refer to some of these events in verse 30. 

In the allegory here in Galatians, Hagar and her descendants point to Israel’s delegated rulers, and Israel’s leadership infrastructure at present, together with Jews themselves, as being enslaved under the Sinai Covenant with its written codes of law, from whom God's honour and praiseworthiness has departed. They are compared to Hebrew Christians who are described as ‘sons of the married woman’ – Sarah, who is free and unbound. 

Why is Israel to be ‘well understanding, and break forth and shout’? Because many are those who are under the Sinai Covenant, whereas few are brought forth by means of the announced promise. Jesus put what is being referred to here in another way - ‘Wide the gate and broad the way leading towards ruin and loss, and many are those going through it. Because small the gate and pressed in the way leading towards Life, and few are those finding it’, (Matthew 7 v 13, 14). There are many more descendants of Abraham who are seeking divine approval by means of Covenant law, leading to their ruin, loss and withering away, than there are descendants of Abraham who are children of God’s announced promise leading towards Life.