Galatians 4:27
27 For it is written:
Rejoice, childless woman, who does not give birth.
Burst into song and shout, you who are not in labor,
for the children of the desolate are many,
more numerous than those of the woman who has a husband.

The Bible tells us that children are a gift from God, and yet in this passage, which is a quotation from Isaiah 54:1 says that the desolate and barren woman, who has no husband, has greater blessings from the Lord, and many more children that the woman who has a husband! Indeed she is enabled to burst forth into joyful singing.. for this barren and desolate woman, has many more children than the married woman, with a husband!!

Paul used two historical women (Sarah and Hagar) to represent these the two covenants that the Lord made with Israel.. Hagar the slave-mother of Ishmael, who was born to Abraham through works of flesh, represented the first covenant - i.e. the Law of Moses.

THis first covenant was given to Israel, at mount Sinai - and this earthly covenant represents the earthly Jerusalem, while the slave-woman, Hagar, represented Abraham's earthly seed.

Hagar typified works of the flesh and represents Israel under the Law of Moses, which placed men under bondage and enslavement to the pre-cross Law.

This old Law could not save a guilty sinner. All the Law could do was to identify sin, and then to condemn the guilty man before God. The power of the Mosaic Law was to place guilty sinners under slavery to sin.

Hagar and the Law of God represented pre-cross, earthly Israel and the earthly Jerusalem. The purpose of the Law was to point guilty sinners to Christ.

The first covenant was in effect from the time that it was given through Moses, right up until the day that Jesus Christ was crucified on the cross.. when the New Covenant was cut in His blood - the New Covenant, of which we are ministers. The New Covenant of God will one day be fully ratified, when Israel, as a nation, acknowledge Jesus as their King. They will cry out in joyful unison: blessed is He who comes in the name of the Lord.

Sarah, the free-born, though physically barren woman, who miraculously bore Isaac, gave birth to the child of promise. In Hebrews, we read that Sarah received ability to conceive, even beyond the proper time of life, since she considered God was faithful, Who had promised she would be the mother of multitudes.