In Galatians 4 the Apostle declares: 21 Tell me, you that desire to be under
the law, do you not hear the law? 22 For it is written, that Abraham had
two sons, the one by a female slave, the other by a free woman. 23 But
he who was of the female slave was born after the flesh; but he of the
free woman was by promise. 24 Which things are an allegory: for these
are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which engenders to
bondage, which is Hagar. 25 For this Hagar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and
answers to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children.
26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.
27 For it is written, Rejoice, you barren that bore not; break forth and
cry, you that travail not: for the desolate has many more children than
she which has an husband. 28 Now we, brothers, as Isaac was, are the
children of promise, 29 But as then he that was born after the flesh
persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. 30
Nevertheless what said the scripture? Cast out the female slave and her
son: for the son of the female slave shall not be heir with the son of
the free woman. 31 So then, brothers, we are not children of the female
slave, but of the free. In this teaching the Apostle is clearly
saying that the rituals and rites of the Mosaic law called the first
covenant are symbolized by Hagar and the birth of Ishmael. He calls the
mother of the children of the first covenant the physical city of
Jerusalem. In the context of the entire chapter he is comparing
the purely physical descendant's of Abraham to the people of faith, be
they Jew or Gentile. This article,
Symbolism in Genesis
Regarding the First and Second Covenant goes into this very deeply.
The point of this is that he is quoting from one of the old Testament
prophecies about the New Jerusalem to teach this; Isaiah 54.
Isaiah 54:1 Sing, O barren, you that did not bear; break forth into
singing, and cry aloud, you that did not travail with child: for more
are the children of the desolate than the children of the married wife,
said the LORD.
This is the verse Paul quotes. The way he is interpreting it is
that the Mosaic Law and the physical city of Jerusalem were the married
wife that bore many children. The people of faith though, few and for
most of the history of ancient Israel persecuted and murdered by the
faithless; these are the children of the desolate woman. However with
the coming of the messiah the children of the desolate woman, in this
case the children of the Jerusalem from above, the New Jerusalem, would
bear more children than the earthly city would. The rest of the prophecy
in Isaiah 54 will say more of this.
2 Enlarge the
place of your tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of your
habitations: spare not, lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes;
3 For you shall break forth on the right hand and on the left; and your
descendants shall inherit the Nations, and make the desolate cities to
be inhabited. A truly amazing prophecy exhorting the faithful
with the promise that lay ahead. That the people of faith soon to be of
all nations will grow and expand. So much so that it will be said the
descendant of Abraham, the Messiah, through them will inherit the
nations. That the fruit of this will be prosperous civilizations. (The
desolate cities will be inhabited.)
4 Fear not; for
you shall not be ashamed: neither be you confounded; for you shall not
be put to shame: for you shall forget the shame of your youth, and shall
not remember the reproach of your widowhood any more. 5 For your Maker
is your husband; the LORD of hosts is his name; and your Redeemer the
Holy One of Israel; The God of the whole earth shall he be called. 6 For
the LORD has called you as a woman forsaken and grieved in spirit, and a
wife of youth, when you were refused, said your God. 7 For a small
moment have I forsaken you; but with great mercies will I gather you. 8
In a little wrath I hid my face from you for a moment; but with
everlasting kindness will I have mercy on you, said the LORD your
Redeemer. 9 For this is as the waters of Noah to me: for as I have sworn
that the waters of Noah should no more go over the earth; so have I
sworn that I would not be wroth with you, nor rebuke you. 10 For the
mountains shall depart, and the hills be removed; but my kindness shall
not depart from you, neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
said the LORD that has mercy on you. Here are more references to
the bride of Christ. The shame and the reproach of her youth and being
forsaken is a reference to the tribulations the believers in ancient
Israel faced at the hands of the Gentiles because of the wickedness of
the majority of its citizens and its leaders. Due to this they were not
recipients of any of the earthly promises of God made to Abraham and in
many other places in the scripture. It seemed as if they were forsaken
by God and left to the whims of the wicked. It mattered not how
they lived their lives before the Lord. They reaped whatever the despots
who ran the world sowed. This certainly did not change in New Testament
times and for many a century beyond that. Yet in the next verses we have
a promise of a day when that would not be so.
11 O you
afflicted, tossed with tempest, and not comforted, behold, I will lay
your stones with fair colors, and lay your foundations with sapphires.
12 And I will make your windows of agates, and your gates of carbuncles,
and all your borders of pleasant stones. 13 And all your children shall
be taught of the LORD; and great shall be the peace of your children. 14
In righteousness shall you be established: you shall be far from
oppression; for you shall not fear: and from terror; for it shall not
come near you. 15 Behold, they shall surely gather together, but not by
me: whoever shall gather together against you shall fall for your sake.
16 Behold, I have created the smith that blows the coals in the fire,
and that brings forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the
waster to destroy. 17 No weapon that is formed against you shall
prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against you in judgment you
shall condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and
their righteousness is of me, said the LORD. The first few
verses unmistakably use the same type of illustrations as the New
Jerusalem in Revelation. Verse 14 clearly states that the way
these children of the heavenly city will be established in the earth is
because of righteousness. That the terror and the oppression their
ancestors were subjugated to will not be their story, their
testimony. Verse 15 points out that these promises will come to
pass in a world where evil exists because the wicked seek to conquer the
people of faith. It simply shows that unlike the ancient world where the
wicked reigned in perpetuity. In this one with the Lords help, the
righteous will come out on top.
This prophecy by
Hosea starts out with a common theme among many of the OT prophets who
illustratively use an adulterous wife to describe ancient Israel's
relationship to God. Just a Isaiah's prophecy above though it speaks of
a time to come when God's people, (those of faith of all nations.) will
become his faithful wife who will dwell safely in their lands. The
really profound verse is the last one though. Hosea states as a prophecy
that God's wife, his bride will not be taken up to heaven as so many
suppose but instead sown into the earth, exactly as all the New
Jerusalem prophecies say. Proving the point that the New Jerusalem is an
illustration or symbolic of believers that as prophecy become especially
relevant in the time period after the fall of the Roman Empire in 1453
AD. The time period when all the earthly promises to the saints in
time past, unfulfilled in their days begin to come to pass in nations as
the influence of Gods invisible kingdom expands throughout the earth.
Hosea 2: 1
Say you to your brothers, Ammi; and to your sisters, Ruhamah. 2 Plead
with your mother, plead: for she is not my wife, neither am I her
husband: let her therefore put away her prostitutions out of her sight,
and her adulteries from between her breasts; 3 Lest I strip her naked,
and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a
wilderness, and set her like a dry land, and slay her with thirst. 4 And
I will not have mercy on her children; for they be the children of
prostitutions. 5 For their mother has played the harlot: she that
conceived them has done shamefully: for she said, I will go after my
lovers, that give me my bread and my water, my wool and my flax, my oil
and my drink. 6 Therefore, behold, I will hedge up your way with thorns,
and make a wall, that she shall not find her paths. 7 And she shall
follow after her lovers, but she shall not overtake them; and she shall
seek them, but shall not find them: then shall she say, I will go and
return to my first husband; for then was it better with me than now. 8
For she did not know that I gave her corn, and wine, and oil, and
multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. 9
Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and
my wine in the season thereof, and will recover my wool and my flax
given to cover her nakedness. 10 And now will I discover her lewdness in
the sight of her lovers, and none shall deliver her out of my hand. 11 I
will also cause all her mirth to cease, her feast days, her new moons,
and her sabbaths, and all her solemn feasts. 12 And I will destroy her
vines and her fig trees, whereof she has said, These are my rewards that
my lovers have given me: and I will make them a forest, and the beasts
of the field shall eat them. 13 And I will visit on her the days of
Baalim, wherein she burned incense to them, and she decked herself with
her earrings and her jewels, and she went after her lovers, and forgot
me, said the LORD. 14 Therefore, behold, I will allure her, and bring
her into the wilderness, and speak comfortably to her. 15 And I will
give her her vineyards from there, and the valley of Achor for a door of
hope: and she shall sing there, as in the days of her youth, and as in
the day when she came up out of the land of Egypt. 16 And it shall be at
that day, said the LORD, that you shall call me Ishi; and shall call me
no more Baali. 17 For I will take away the names of Baalim out of her
mouth, and they shall no more be remembered by their name. 18 And in
that day will I make a covenant for them with the beasts of the field
and with the fowls of heaven, and with the creeping things of the
ground: and I will break the bow and the sword and the battle out of the
earth, and will make them to lie down safely. 19 And I will betroth you
to me for ever; yes, I will betroth you to me in righteousness, and in
judgment, and in loving kindness, and in mercies. 20 I will even betroth
you to me in faithfulness: and you shall know the LORD. 21 And it shall
come to pass in that day, I will hear, said the LORD, I will hear the
heavens, and they shall hear the earth; 22 And the earth shall hear the
corn, and the wine, and the oil; and they shall hear Jezreel.
23 And I will sow her to me in the earth;
and I will have mercy on her that had not obtained mercy; and I will say
to them which were not my people, You are my people; and they shall say,
You are my God.
In case
there is some skepticism about this referencing believers of all
nations; parts of the last verse are quoted in the NT as speaking to
believers of all nations.
1st Peter 2:9 But you
are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, an holy nation, a peculiar
people; that you should show forth the praises of him who has called you
out of darkness into his marvelous light: 10
Which in time past were not a people, but are now the people of God:
which had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.
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