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After Melchisedec as a type of Christ as God’s High Priest, we have Sarah and Hagar as types of the two covenants which God made with His chosen people concerning their inheriting of the good land. These are signified by Abraham’s wife and his concubine.
The two women, Abraham’s wife Sarah and his concubine Hagar, recorded in Genesis 21, symbolize two covenants (Gal. 4:24). One is the covenant of promise given to Abraham, which is related to the new testament, the covenant of grace; the other is the covenant of law given to Moses, which has nothing to do with the new testament. Sarah, the free woman, symbolizes the covenant of promise, and Hagar, the maidservant, the covenant of law.
Genesis 17:15-19 shows us that God definitely promised that Abraham would have a son, Isaac, and that this son would be born of his wife, Sarah. God’s promise of a seed to Abraham was altogether worked out by God’s grace. In Genesis 18:14 God said to Abraham, “At the appointed time I will return to you, according to the time of life, and Sarah shall have a son.” This means that Isaac’s birth was a birth at the appointed time, at the time of life, according to God’s promise. It was not by the natural energy of Abraham and Sarah; it was the issue of the visitation of God’s grace. God’s promise is fulfilled by God’s grace for those who inherit the promise. This grace is the very Christ Himself who brought with Him God’s grace (John 1:14). He supplies God’s chosen people with all that He is to fulfill for them God’s promise.
God’s promise is not fulfilled by the energy of man’s flesh. When God promised that Isaac would be born of Sarah, Abraham, being old and well stricken in age, considered his body as already dead, and Sarah’s womb also was deadened (Gen. 18:11-14). It was only after they became nothing and were void of strength that God came in to carry out His promise by His grace. This shows us that it is God who promises and it is also God who fulfills what He has promised. Man’s flesh is of no use at all. Abraham brought forth a seed, Ishmael, by the endeavor of the human flesh, but Ishmael was rejected by God (17:18; 21:10) and could not fulfill God’s purpose. Likewise, whatever we do, whether good or bad, by the strength and ability of our natural man cannot fulfill God’s promise to us. God desires that we only receive His grace and cooperate with Him and not do anything by ourselves.
In Genesis 21:12 God said to Abraham, “For in Isaac shall your seed be called.” Isaac was born of the free woman, Sarah, through promise. This means that he was born through God’s power in grace, which is implied in God’s promise (Gal. 4:23); that is, he was born according to God’s Spirit of life (v. 29). Only the children of promise were accounted as Abraham’s seed (Rom. 9:8), and only they could inherit the good land that God had promised to Abraham for the accomplishment of His purpose. The good land, which is a type of the all-inclusive Christ, was given by God as an inheritance to His children of promise, in which and by which they might live to defeat God’s enemy, to gain the kingdom for God, to build God’s dwelling place, and to express God’s glory.
Hagar, the concubine of Abraham, signifies the covenant of law. Hence, the position of the law is like that of a concubine. As such, the law has no rightful position in God’s economy. Like Sarah, grace brings forth children unto sonship; like Hagar, the law brought forth children unto slavery. Galatians 4:24 says, “One [covenant] from Mount Sinai, bringing forth children unto slavery, which is Hagar.” Mount Sinai is the place where the law was given (Exo. 19:20; 24:12). The covenant of law, symbolized by Hagar, brings God’s chosen people into the bondage of the law, making them slaves under the law, separated from the grace of God.
Galatians 4:23 says, “The one of the maidservant was born according to the flesh.” Abraham brought forth Ishmael through the maidservant Hagar by his fleshly effort and not by God’s grace. Therefore, Ishmael, as the issue of man’s fleshly effort according to the law, was rejected by God. When man ignores the work of God’s grace and attempts to do something by himself to please God, this brings in the law and joins man to the law. Thus, what is brought forth in this way cannot remain in God’s economy, and it is of no use for the accomplishment of God’s purpose.
According to God’s intention, the covenant of promise came first (Gen. 12:2, 7; 13:15-17; 15:4-21). God had no intention of bringing in the law or of having man endeavor to keep it for the fulfillment of His purpose. Rather, through the effort of man’s flesh, the covenant of law, signified by Hagar, was brought in to frustrate God’s work of grace.
In Genesis 21:10 Sarah said to Abraham, “Cast out this maidservant and her son, for the son of this maidservant shall not inherit with my son Isaac.” The bondwoman Hagar symbolizes the covenant of law, the position of which is like that of a concubine (Gal. 4:22, 24-25). Therefore, what was brought forth through her was not accepted as an heir to the inheritance and had no share in God’s promised good land.
By this we see that the two kinds of children brought forth by the two covenants, the covenant of God’s promise and the covenant of law, signified by Abraham’s wife Sarah and by his concubine Hagar, are different in nature. Those brought forth by the covenant of law are born according to the flesh; those brought forth by the covenant of promise are born according to the Spirit. The children born according to the flesh have no right to participate in God’s promised blessing, but the children born according to the Spirit have the full right to inherit God’s promised blessing. We, the believers in Christ, are not children of the maidservant but of the free woman (Gal. 4:31). We are not children of the law under the slavery of the law but children of grace under the freedom of grace to enjoy the God-promised all-inclusive Christ with all His riches.
After God called Abraham, He gave him the promise, which concerned mainly the seed and the land (Gen. 12:1-2, 7; 13:15-17), and then He confirmed the promise by making a covenant with him (15:4-5, 18-21). However, after Abraham received the covenant, he accepted his wife’s proposal and by his own flesh he brought forth Ishmael through his maidservant Hagar. This was a serious offense against God’s economy for His eternal purpose, and it interrupted the fellowship that came from God. For a long period of thirteen years, Abraham, a man called by God, missed God’s presence. It was not until he was ninety-nine years of age that God appeared to him again.
Then God revealed to Abraham that His name is El-Shaddai, the all-sufficient Mighty One, implying that He would be the source of the rich supply of grace to keep His covenant for the fulfillment of His purpose. Moreover, He again made a covenant with him (17:1-2, 4). In making this covenant, God used circumcision as evidence of the covenant to confirm the covenant of promise which He gave to Abraham. This shows us that although the promise of the good land given by God to His chosen people had been made a covenant by God to His elect, there was still the need to confirm the covenant of God’s promise with the covenant of circumcision. Circumcision was the procedure which God’s chosen people had to pass through to inherit God’s promise. It signifies that God’s elect in the New Testament must pass through the dealing of the cross so that they may inherit and enjoy all the riches in Christ promised by God.
The covenant of promise was confirmed by God with the covenant of circumcision. As far as the faithful God is concerned, there was no need for this confirmation. However, as far as Abraham was concerned, the covenant of promise needed to be confirmed again, because he had used his natural strength by his flesh to produce Ishmael. Since this was the cause of the trouble, God confirmed His covenant by having Abraham circumcised to cut off the flesh. God said to Abraham, “You shall keep My covenant, you and your seed after you throughout their generations. This is My covenant, which you shall keep, between Me and you and your seed after you: Every male among you shall be circumcised” (Gen. 17:9-10).
In the Bible, the spiritual meaning of circumcision is to put off the flesh. Colossians 2:11 says, “In Him also you were circumcised with a circumcision not made with hands, in the putting off of the body of the flesh, in the circumcision of Christ.” The circumcision that is the putting off of the body of the flesh was not made with hands; it was accomplished by the death of Christ. The cross of Christ gets rid of our old man and our self (Rom. 6:6; Gal. 2:20). When we believe and are baptized into Him, we put off the flesh by experiencing the cutting off of the cross of Christ (Col. 2:11), that we may participate in the fullness that is in Him (vv. 9-10) for the fulfilling of God’s purpose.
In the covenant of circumcision which He made with Abraham, God required His people to be circumcised on the eighth day after their birth (Gen. 17:12). The eighth day is the first day of the week, the day of Christ’s resurrection (Matt. 28:1, 6). Circumcision on the eighth day signifies the receiving of the dealing of the cross of Christ in resurrection. We were buried together with Christ in baptism for the termination of our flesh; we were also raised together with Him for the germination of our spirit (Col. 2:12). Now, in Christ’s Spirit of resurrection we need to live a crucified life, putting to death our flesh and cutting off our flesh, that the God who has the all-sufficient supply may come into us to be our everything for the accomplishment of His economy.
Abraham’s wife Sarah and his concubine Hagar typify the two covenants which God made with His chosen people concerning their inheriting of the good land. Sarah symbolizes the covenant of God’s promise, and Hagar, the covenant of law. God’s promise is fulfilled not by the energy of man’s flesh but by God’s grace for those who inherit the promise. It is God who promises, and it is also God who fulfills what He has promised. Man’s flesh is of no use at all; it cannot fulfill God’s promise to us. Moreover, only the children of promise are accounted as Abraham’s seed, and only they can inherit the God-promised good land (Christ), in which and by which they live for the accomplishment of God’s purpose.
Since the covenant of law is signified by Hagar, the position of the law is like that of a concubine. As such, the law has no rightful position in God’s economy. Furthermore, those brought forth by the covenant of law are born according to the flesh; they are not accepted as heirs to the inheritance and have no share in God’s promised good land.
God used circumcision as evidence of the covenant to confirm the covenant of promise that He gave to Abraham. Circumcision was the procedure which God’s chosen people had to pass through to inherit God’s promise. It signifies that the New Testament believers must pass through the dealing of the cross to put off the flesh that they may inherit and enjoy all the riches in Christ promised by God. Circumcision was performed on the eighth day, signifying that we must receive the dealing of the cross in resurrection for the cutting off of our flesh, that the God of all-sufficiency and bountiful supply may come into us to be our everything for the accomplishment of His economy.
