QUESTIONS and ANSWERS – Viewpoint

Question: What did the Apostle Paul mean by his words in Galatians 4:27? - “For it is written: ’Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who are not in labor! For the desolate has many more children than she who has the husband.’”

Answer: The context of verses 21-31 must be considered to understand the point of truth that the Apostle is making. He is contrasting the Jews who are under the Law Covenant represented by Hagar, and those who are under the New Covenant of Grace (the spiritual Church of the Gospel Age) represented by Sarah. The former is in bondage and the latter is a free woman. In this setting, Paul goes on to develop his point.

When Jesus came upon the scene, and for centuries prior to this, God’s sheepfold consisted only of “the lost sheep of Israel.” See Matthew 10:6 & 15:24. God is said to be a Husband to the nation of Israel in Jeremiah 31:31-32: “Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah—not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt, My covenant which they broke, though I was a husband to them, says the Lord.” Up to that time the Gentiles were not accepted into the sheepfold of Jesus’ followers. They had been barren of God’s guidance and blessings; without hope in the world. None of God’s promises applied to them. However, all that changed when the Gentiles were accepted into the sheepfold. Jesus prophesied about this in John 10:16: “And other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one Shepherd.”

John 1:11-12 says, “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, to those who believe in His name.” As a nation, Israel rejected Jesus as their Shepherd. When you add to the believing Jews the number of the Gentiles who come in later to the sheepfold, these would far exceed those of Israel under the Law who had had the LORD for their “Husband.”

This indeed was a matter of rejoicing for the Gentiles, for now they were able to join their believing Israelite brethren to become the “children of God” under the New Covenant of Grace.

E. Weeks