Will the Real Ishmael Please Stand Up? Galatians 4:21-31

Galatians 4:21-31 has been used to say that observing the commandments in the front of our Bibles is bondage and slavery. A careful reading of this passage shows that Paul associates Ishmael with Mt. Sinai... but Ishmael wasn't at Mt. Sinai! The sons of Isaac were! Paul is switching the sons to make a point about what happens when we take God's promises and we try to fulfill them our way in our own time.

This eye-opening realization shows that even great men like Abraham, Moses and John the Baptist struggled with their own "ishmaels" when Yahweh didn't produce the results they expected, when they expected, how they expected. Unfortunately this mistake has been repeated in our time on a much grander scale. There is a major "ishmael" in Christianity today regarding the New Covenant. We need to follow the Scripture and "cast out the slave woman and her son"!

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