the ‘offspring’ God promised. The promise was to the offspring of Abraham and
Sarah, in this case Isaac, and this was the rightful child and heir, son of Abraham,
in the spiritual realm.
In John 14:6 Jesus says to us, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to
the Father except through me.’ In saying this, Jesus is cautioning us that there are no
two ways to becoming the spiritual sons and children of God, except through Him,
the way ordained by God from eternity. All our efforts and other schemes will not
make us children of God, except to call on Him and accept Him as our Lord and
Saviour, and follow Him in obedience.
In the same way, the human effort of Sarah and Abraham in getting Ishmael would
not change God’s plan, nor serve His purpose. It had to be Isaac, the promised
rightful heir, through whom Abraham’s seed would be counted. As a matter of
fact, Abraham took another wife and had concubines, and had other children. But
when time came for Isaac to inherit, he sent all the concubines and other children
away, and left everything, his inheritance, to Isaac, the son of promise (Genesis
25).
Many people today are going on with much religious activity and even being quite
helpful and supportive to the Church and God’s people. But unless they have a
saving relationship with God through Jesus, they are just serving from the
periphery, like Ishmael and the other children, and will not inherit the spiritual
Canaan. This calls for self-reflection to ensure our hearts are in the right
relationship and standing with Christ.
Thus Paul says in a grave and unfiltered message in Galatians 4.30: ‘ But what does
Scripture say? “Get rid of the slave woman and her son, for the slave woman’s son will
never share in the inheritance with the free woman’s son.”’ Here he was referring to
Genesis 21:10 where Sarah asked Abraham to expel Haggai together with her son,
and God confirmed Sarah’s words through the words in Genesis 21: 12- 13. ‘ But
God said to him, “Do not be so distressed about the boy and your slave woman. Listen to
whatever Sarah tells you, because it is through Isaac that your offspring^ will be reckoned.
I will make the son of the slave into a nation also, because he is your offspring.”’
Paul starts the analogy above in Galatians 4:1-7 as follows: ‘ What I am saying is that
as long as an heir is underage, he is no different from a slave, although he owns the whole