And you, dear brothers and sisters, are children of the promise, just like Isaac. But you are now being persecuted by those who want you to keep the law, just as Ishmael, the child born by human effort, persecuted Isaac, the child born by the power of the Spirit. But what do the Scriptures say about that? “Get rid of the slave and her son, for the son of the slave woman will not share the inheritance with the free woman’s son. Galatians 4:28-30 NLT
Paul is genius for not only reminding, admonishing us about the struggle within our own nature – to go pharisaical versus free for all. Instead Paul defines the third option, the Jesus way. We can often choose to bury our frustrations and double down INTO the law (which brings death and back to a religious slavery) or just give up and live like hell, letting all constraints and boundaries go (which also brings death and back to living by the flesh). The Jesus way is certainly grace (not the law) but also yielding to the Spirit and not the flesh.
The natural tendency for the Jewish believer was to run back to the false sense of safety and try to fulfill the law. Paul says “don’t do it.” Within this life lesson Paul conveniently interprets a difficult Old Testament predicament for us, “how does God deal with our lack of faith when we CHOOSE to do things our own way.” Notice, God didn’t stop Abraham and Sarah from their decision to “make” an heir. The “consequences” were a human child that created havoc for centuries to come. It was not Ishmael’s fault, nor Hagar’s! And, God did not tell Abraham to kill the child or the mother, even if Sarah, in her anger, wanted them both dead. God spared Hagar and Ismael and allowed a great nation to come out of this horrible situation. I believe this great nation, this global movement has a genuine, genetic disposition to anger, hatred and revenge.
Paul clearly shows us; this is the results of choosing self determination over faith – the law (self will) verses grace (faith in God’s promises). It makes me wonder, “what do we do with living results of our bad decisions or lack of faith, even when they produce human beings?” I do not know. I do know that killing them is not an option. Paul tells the Galations, in a spiritual context, “get rid of the slave and her son.” I get that. But many of our decisions yield very real people that must live their lives despite a “wrong” choice in the past.
One of the reasons I ask such a complicated question is because I was born from a union between two people that were broken and most likely only got married just to give me a sense of legitimacy. They divorced soon after an was born and I never met the mother who carried me and gave me life. After I was born, I was taken from her and my family asked that she never have anything to do with me in the future. My birth mother died in August, 2018 at 83 years old. I just found out a couple weeks ago. Crazy thing is, she lived in the same city as I did for over 20 years – just a few miles from where I lived. I never knew.
Prayer
Dad,
Clearly our decisions have consequences, even eternal ones. Yet, your will, your mercy allows even the most difficult decisions and outcomes to be redeemed and restored. I am a perfect example, a product of a relationship that most likely started bad and ended even worse. I now live as a trophy of grace rather than a trope of failure. That’s because of your power to redeem all things. I am eternally grateful.