Galatians 4:27-31 | |
27. For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband. | 27. Scriptum est enim: Exulta, sterilis, qum non paris; erumpe et elama, quae non parturis; quaE plures erunt liberi desertae quam habentis maritum. (Isaiah 54:1.) |
28. Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise. | 28. Nos autem, fratres, secundum Issac, promissionis sumus filii. (Romans 9:7.) |
29. But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. | 29. Sed quemadmodum tunc, qui secundum carnem erat genitus, persequebatur eum qui secundum Spiritum genitus erat; sic et nunc. |
30. Nevertheless, what saith the scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman. | 30. Sed quid dicit Scriptura? Ejice ancillam, et filium ejus; non enim haereditatem obtinebit filius ancillae cum filio liberae. (Genesis 21:10.) |
31. So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. | 31. Ergo, fratres, non sumus ancillae filii, sed liberae. |
27.
He next concludes that we become the sons of God by promise, after the example (
29.
But how widely distant is this from persecution? 1 And yet it is not idly or unguardedly that Paul enlarges on this point. No persecution ought to distress us so much as to see our calling attempted to be undermined by the reproaches of wicked men. Neither blows, nor scourging, nor nails, nor thorns, occasioned to our Lord such intense suffering as that blasphemy:
"He trusted in God; what availeth it to him?
for he is deprived of all assistance." (Matthew 27:43.)
There is more venom in this than in all persecutions; for how much more alarming is it that the grace of Divine adoption shall be made void, than that this frail life shall be taken from us? Ishmael did not persecute his brother with the sword; but, what is worse, he treated him with haughty disdain by trampling under foot the promise of God. All persecutions arise from this source, that wicked men despise and hate in the elect the grace of God; a memorable instance of which we have in the history of Cain and Abel. (Genesis 4:8.)
This reminds us, that not only ought we to be filled with horror at outward persecutions, when the enemies of religion slay us with fire and sword; when they banish, imprison, torture, or scourge; but when they attempt, by their blasphemies, to make void our confidence, which rests on the promises of God; when they ridicule our salvation, when they wantonly laugh to scorn the whole gospel. Nothing ought to wound our minds so deeply as contempt of God, and reproaches cast upon His grace: nor is there any kind of persecution more deadly than when the salvation of the soul is assailed. We who have escaped from the tyranny of the Pope, are not called to encounter the swords of wicked men. But how blind must we be, if we are not affected by that spiritual persecution, in which they strive, by every method, to extinguish that doctrine, from which we draw the breath of life! -- when they attack our faith by their blasphemies, and shake not a few of the less informed! For my own part, I am far more grieved by the fury of the Epicureans than of the Papists. They do not attack us by open violence; but, in proportion as the name of God is more dear to me than my own life, the diabolical conspiracy which I see in operation to extinguish all fear and worship of God, to root out the remembrance of Christ, or to abandon it to the jeers of the ungodly, cannot but rack my mind with greater anxiety, than if a whole country were burning in one conflagration:
30.
Let us be instructed by this beautiful passage,
"not to fret ourselves because of evil-doers,
neither be envious against the workers of iniquity,"
(Psalm 37:1,)
when they hold a temporary habitation and rank in the Church, but patiently to look for the end which awaits them. There are many pretended Christians, or strangers, who hold a place in the Church, but who afterwards give evidence of their departure from the faith, as he who, proud of his birthright, at first reigned, was cast out like a foreigner with the posterity of Ishmael. Some censorious persons smile at Paul's simplicity, in comparing a woman's passion, arising out of a trifling quarrel, to a judgment of God. But they overlook the decree of God, which took effect in such a manner, as to make it manifest that the whole transaction was directed by a heavenly providence. That Abraham should have been commanded to humor his wife (Genesis 21:12) entirely in the matter, is no doubt extraordinary, but proves that God employed the services of Sarah for confirming his own promise. In a word, the casting out of Ishmael was nothing else than the consequence and the accomplishment of that promise, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called," (Genesis 21:12,) -- not in Ishmael. Although, therefore, it was the revenging of a woman's quarrel, yet God did not the less make known his sentence by her mouth as a type of the Church.
31.
1 "The history tells us, that he laughed at, derided, and mocked him to scorn, which is real persecution; probably through pride, and the conceit of being Abraham's eldest son and heir." -- Chandler. "Diw>kw will here denote injurious treatment of every kind, both in deeds and words. And although the Mosaic history records only one instance of insulting treatment, -- namely, on Ishmael mocking Sarah, when she weaned Isaac, (Genesis 21:9, 10,) yet when we consider the disappointment which both Hagar and Ishmael must have felt on the birth of Isaac, it was not unnatural for them to feel ill-will, and show it on every occasion, to the real heir of the promise. And many such are recorded, from tradition, in the Rabbinical writers." -- Bloomfield.