21 Tell me, you who want to be under law , do you not listen to the law ? 22 For it is written that Abraham had two sons , one by the bondwoman and one by the free woman . 23 But the son by the bondwoman was born according to the flesh , and the son by the free woman through the promise . 24 This is allegorically speaking , for these women are two covenants : one proceeding from Mount Sinai bearing children who are to be slaves ; she is Hagar . 25 Now this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia and corresponds to the present Jerusalem , for she is in slavery with her children . 26 But the Jerusalem above is free ; she is our mother . 27 For it is written , " REJOICE , BARREN WOMAN WHO DOES NOT BEAR ; BREAK FORTH AND SHOUT , YOU WHO ARE NOT IN LABOR ; FOR MORE NUMEROUS ARE THE CHILDREN OF THE DESOLATE THAN OF THE ONE WHO HAS A HUSBAND ."
Matthew Henry's Commentary on Galatians 4:21-27
Commentary on Galatians 4:21-27
(Read Galatians 4:21-27)
The difference between believers who rested in Christ only, and those who trusted in the law, is explained by the histories of Isaac and Ishmael. These things are an allegory, wherein, beside the literal and historical sense of the words, the Spirit of God points out something further. Hagar and Sarah were apt emblems of the two different dispensations of the covenant. The heavenly Jerusalem, the true church from above, represented by Sarah, is in a state of freedom, and is the mother of all believers, who are born of the Holy Spirit. They were by regeneration and true faith, made a part of the true seed of Abraham, according to the promise made to him.