Fireside: Deeper Meaning Implied

“For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.”

Galatians 4:22

Some people derive moral lessons from works of fiction or stories. This is (or was) a common parenting practice to teach a life lesson. These lessons came from everywhere: From the Odyssey to the Andy Griffith Show, from a president’s inaugural speech to Dr. Seuss. But these lessons are tertiary at best, and sometimes a head-scratching stretch of what they actually meant.

Some keen folks can see virtuous undertones in various forms of art: a painting, a poem, or a tune. A comedy may suggest a truth in jest. Some satire (Orwell’s 1984) carries a truth on the back of crude humor, becoming a parable of sorts all by itself.

Whatever good comes of the works of man– it is a derived, synthesized goodness; a saccharin subliminal message that is known best for entertainment that it is enlightenment. For example, a teacher shopping Christianbook.com (and that term is used loosely) can find themselves seriously considering a Lord of the Rings study guide for their teen group. That is not Biblical teaching material– it is a study substitute.

Only the work of God carries an intentional moral benefit.

Take this story from Genesis 16 about a bedouin shepherd’s family drama.

“Now Sarai Abram’s wife bare him no children: and she had an handmaid, and Egyptian, whose name was Hagar. And Sarai said unto Abram, Behold now, the LORD hath restrained me from bearing: I pray thee, go in unto my maid; it may be that I may obtain children by her. And Abram hearkened to the voice of Sarai.”

Genesis 16:1-2

First of all, who cares what goes on in the tent of an estranged Chaldean couple pitched in the Syrian desert? What kind of heading goes on this ephemera? “Sarai being barren, giveth Hagar to Abram. Hagar is sent by an angel to submit to her. Ishmael is born.” is the chapter summary from my Cambridge Bible. A displaced family embraces an indiscretion. So what.

No one outside of that family circle noticed. If they had, they wouldn’t have cared. The chapter ends, “And Abram was fourscore and six years old, when Hagar bare Ishmael to Abram.” He was 86, he made a mistake. Life goes on.

But this story is God’s history.

Paul looked back into these strange tales and saw something else. Something bigger, farther-reaching, deeper in meaning.

“But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise. Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar. For this Agar is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all.”

Galatians 4:23-26

Paul saw the deeper meaning in the story. Bondage and freedom. Flesh and promise. Earth and Heaven. Two births. One to illegitimize the whole human race; the other to liberate it. Paul saw the present and future working of the death, burial, and resurrection of the Lord Jesus.

Is that deep enough?

And this wondrous Book is full of stories just like this. Stories with lessons ripe with the deeper meaning that the Author intended.

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