Galatians Journal: Chapter 4, verse 27

Galatians 4:27 For it is written: "Be glad, O barren woman, who bears no children; break forth and cry aloud, you who have no labor pains; because more are the children of the desolate woman than of her who has a husband."

Paul quotes from Isaiah 54:1, a passage originally applicable to the exile, when the nation of Israel had been dispossessed by its Babylonian conquerors, the temple had been closed, and the inhabitants of Jerusalem were forced to live in a pagan land. Some biblical scholars/critics complain that Paul stretches too far here – this passage could not have been meant to apply to Abraham and Sarah, let alone the promise of the Messiah. Yet, even Isaiah himself seems to have contemplated such a connection (see Isaiah 51:2). And the application works on all three levels – with Abraham, Israel and God’s family today. In each instance, a promise is fulfilled – a promise regarding a hopeless, impossible to achieve goal – a goal that cannot be reached by human effort. Sarah, a woman who cannot physically have children, gives birth. Israel, a nation destroyed by foreign invaders – destruction allowed by God because of Israel’s own faithlessness – is restored. The Galatians, and therefore Christians today, were people lost in the bondage of sin are made right with God through Jesus. The first two events foreshadow the last. One of the bible commentaries I rely upon says that the Jews of Paul’s day would have easily connected the Isaiah 54:1 passage to the story of Abraham. This of course made Paul’s analogy to Sarah and Hagar all the clearer. Placed in the context of the Jewish reliance on ethnicity, which is the fruit of the heresy of the Judiazers, the use of this passage from Isaiah helps reinforce the concept that race and ethnicity do not matter. Paul will continue with this same analogy through verse 31, but I particularly like the implication of the last phrase here – the children of the barren woman will be more numerous. The promise to Abraham was that his children would be as many as stars, as many as the sand on the beach. It’s like a floodgate – a promise not just of you and me coming to God, but of millions – a promise of true revival, across all ethnic and cultural lines. Truly radical. Truly astounding.