March 13, 2014 (Deuteronomy 22-24; Galatians 4)
From the Life Journal of Adam Proux:
Scripture: “The son of the slave wife was born in a human attempt to bring about the fulfillment of God’s promise. But the son of the freeborn wife was born as God’s own fulfillment of His promise.” Galatians 4:23 NLT
Observation: Paul is using the example of Sarah and Hagar to show the Galatians the difference between faith in Christ and the Law. Though the Law was given by God it was never intended to be our salvation. The sinfulness of mankind has always been exposed to God’s eyes, but the Law was given so that mankind could understand their own sinful state. The fact that humans struggle to keep the Law of God and fail, is just more proof of our sinful condition. Many well intended people in Paul’s day insisted that the Law of Moses must be followed and could not be ignored. While that is somewhat true they took it a step too far. They were teaching the Galatians that they could earn their salvation by keeping the Law instead of using the Law to reveal man’s sinful condition and reveal our great need for Christ. Only through faith in Christ will we be reconciled to God. Our great works, nor our keeping of the Law will ever save us. We must accept and receive the salvation that comes from God’s fulfillment of His promise.
Application: Have you ever grew tired of waiting on God to fulfill His promise? Have you ever taken steps to “help” God out? Sarah and Abraham experienced this type situation long ago. God had promised to bless Abraham’s seed and make his people as numerous as the stars in the sky, yet God wasn’t moving fast enough for Abraham and Sarah. So Sarah decides to help God out by giving Abraham a slave named Hagar to sleep with to produce a son. Well her plan worked, partly. Abraham did have a son with Hagar, but then along came the promise of God and the real problems started. Once the promise of God was fulfilled Sarah’s decision to give Hagar to Abraham wasn’t settling too well. Jealousy reared its ugly head and Hagar and Isaac had to go! It would have been much better for many people if Abraham and Sarah had waited patiently on the Lord to fulfill His promise. If you find yourself in a situation where you know God has promised, but He has not yet fulfilled His promise, wait patiently on Him, He will not disappoint.
Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for Your promises. Thank You for keeping Your promise to send a deliverer for all mankind. Help me to patiently wait on You to fulfill Your promises You’ve made to me. Protect me from myself. Keep me from “helping” you and teach me to accept Your help. In Jesus name, Amen!