Galatians 4:22–24 (ESV)

²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. ²⁴ Now this may be interpreted allegorically: these women are two covenants. One is from Mount Sinai, bearing children for slavery; she is Hagar.

Abraham and Sarah were childless even up to his and her very old age in the 90s. They have been waiting for a long time for a child but to no avail. It is at those crucial time of waiting and waiting in an extended period of time that Abraham and Sarah began to doubt God’s promise. In all natural circumstances their question and doubt is totally legitimate. I think that’s where the challenging point is as Christians as we wait upon God because from the natural circumstances we seem to have exhausted all means of bringing the redemption and correction we so desired. We just don’t know what’s going to happen next? Even though God has promised repeatedly two to three times the Abraham will have a son and he shall be his heir. God actually fulfilled that promise when Sarah was in her 90s and was barren, a truly miraculous act of God.

But Galatians 4 woke me up because one it’s a son by a slave woman and the other one by a free woman. Galatians 4 verse 22 says the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, the son of the free woman was born through promise. Verse 24 says this may be interpreted allegorically. One is from Mount Sinai bearing children for slavery she is Hagar. The other one is Jerusalem like Isaac are children of promise.

In our exasperation, who could be very well tempted to act like Sarah and Abraham to speed out the process to fulfill the promise of God. But the problem is that will not be the fulfillment of the promise of God, but that would be the work of the flesh. This notion of the work of the flesh is deadly and a true wake up call for us Christians as we seek to do God’s will. Flesh is our default value and action mode unless and until we are sanctified and glorified more and more in our personal relationship with Christ. We have to understand that even if we have rushed like Sarah and Abraham, on the surface it seems that we have solved the problem that we have but in reality, we just messed up the good plan of God for us. And of course by the grace of God, he didn’t let this completely screw up Abraham’s calling, but he continued to honor them and provided miraculously the pregnancy of Sarah to give birth to their promised son Isaac.

 “²² For it is written that Abraham had two sons, one by a slave woman and one by a free woman. ²³ But the son of the slave was born according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise.” (Galatians 4:22–23)

This is exactly what happened and is very significant. Hagar gave birth to her son according to the flesh, while the son of the free woman was born through promise. These are two very important words. The flesh speaks of all human endeavor, human effort, our own planning and agenda, while the promise is the promise given by God to Abraham and to us in his calling. You can see that our flesh works against the promise of God. We must have the promise of God overwhelms and defeats the flesh the human effort which is carnality. Therefore in our waiting to see God’s promise fulfilled in our lives, we have to be patient and be focused on God continually through meditation of the scripture, through prayers, and continually submitting our hearts’ desire unto the Lord. We should mortify our flesh giving the flesh no chance of raising its ugly head. Do you want the promise of God or do you want the works of your flesh?

We could wait upon the Lord and trust in him to break about the calling just like at the right time God cause Sarah to be pregnant. And if God could do that with the 90 years old barren woman to give birth to a son, God could do that with us giving us his promise for his calling upon our lives. I begin to realize that even if we succeeded via flesh, or the human efforts, my own efforts, then I may find life to be really miserable because of the oppositions, politics, and tough times. We could run ahead of God and circumvent the true calling of God which is from him, and that will be exactly what Abraham Sarah did we Hagar their slave woman and the result didn’t look pretty. We should be scared that by further asserting our own effort we could produce a fruit according to the flesh and missing out the true calling of God through God’s promise.

I would just say I surrender all to the Lord O God and trust in Him. Amen.