Ber 16 is an account of how people tried to fulfill Yah’s promises in their own way.  Sarai became impatient with Yah and tried to bring about a fulfillment of his promise.  Thus the “flesh” attempted to do it, instead of the “Spirit”

The result: anger and discord, jealousy and hatred.

 Yishmael means “El hears” because Yahuwah has heard your affliction

¹² He will be a wild donkey of a man. He will be hostile to everyone, and everyone will be hostile to him. He will live away from his brothers (literally “against the face of all his brothers”)."

ar<P, (“pere’”) wild ass (prob. from swiftness) -- wild ass; fig. of wilfulness; of lust (i.e. Israel's love of idolatry); of poor desert-dwellers, nomads

Sha’ul’s Commentary on the Hagar Story

Gal 4:21 Say to me, you who wish to be under Torah, do you not hear the Torah?

Under the Torah = under the authority of oral, man-made torah

The Torah = the Scriptures (written Torah) – the words which proceeded from the mouth of Yahuwah and which were then written down.

Free and Slave

Gal 4:22 For it has been written that Abraham had two sons, one by a female servant, the other by a free woman. 23 But he who was of the female servant was born according to the flesh, and he of the free woman through promise.

The female servant = Hagar, to whom was not given the son of the inheritance

The free woman is Sarah because she was promised a Seed who will inherit.

24 This is allegorical, for these are the two covenants:  one indeed from Mount Sinai which brings forth slavery, which is Hagar, 25 for this Hagar is Mount Sinai in Arabia, and corresponds to Yerushalayim which now is, and is in slavery with her children.

Allegory is the expression, by means of symbolic figures and actions, truths or generalizations about human existence.

Did “Mount Sinai” cause all Yisrael to go into slavery?

The Allegory Explained

Mt Sinai stipulated captivity for those who disobeyed the commandments of Yah:

Devarim 28:14,15 But you must not turn away from all the commandments I am giving you today, to either the right or left, nor pursue other elohim and worship them.  But if you ignore Yahuwah your Elohim and are not careful to keep all his commandments and rules I am giving you today, then all these curses will come upon you in full force…

Thus, Hagar represents those who do NOT fully obey written Torah!

Captivity For the Disobedient

Devarim 28:41 You will bear sons and daughters but not keep them because they will be taken into captivity.

2 Divre haYamim 6:36ff "The time will come when your people will sin against you (for there is no one who does not sin!) and you will be angry at them and deliver them over to their enemies, who will take them as prisoners to their land, whether far away or close by.  When your people come to their senses in the land where they are held prisoner, they will repent and beg for your mercy in the land of their imprisonment, admitting, 'We have sinned and gone astray, we have done evil!‘  When they return to you with all their heart and being in the land where they are held prisoner and direct their prayers toward the land you gave to their ancestors, your chosen city, and the temple I built for your honor

The “Other” Covenant at Sinai

Gal 4:26 But the Yerushalayim above is free, which is the mother of us all.

Those who obey the written Torah – the Covenant with all its rules and right-rulings, will be free to inherit the promises.  This Yerushalayim (which is coming down out of heaven) is the mother of all who withdraw their fidelity from the world, and are faithful to Messiah and to the written word.

The Barren and the Married

Gal 4:27 For it has been written, “Rejoice, O barren, you who do not bear! Break forth and shout, you who do not have birth pains! For the deserted one has many more children than she who has a husband.”

The allegory is further explained by reciting a quote from Yeshayahu 54:1

The desolate woman is Ephraim, The married woman is Yehudahh

Yah Divorced Ephraim

Yeshayahu 50:1 This is what Yahuwah says: "Where is your mother's divorce certificate by which I divorced her? Or to which of my creditors did I sell you? Look, you were sold because of your sins; because of your rebellious acts I divorced your mother.

Yirmyahu 3:8 She also saw that I gave wayward Yisrael her divorce papers and sent her away because of her adulterous worship of other elohim. Even after her unfaithful sister, Yehudah, had seen this, she still was not afraid, and she too went and gave herself like a prostitute to other elohim.

See also Hoshea 1

Who is the Persecutor?

Gal 4:28 And we, brothers, as Yitshaq was, are children of promise. 29 But, as he who was born according to the flesh then persecuted him born according to the Spirit, so also now.

We are sons of Yitshaq, who follow in the footsteps of the faithfulness of his father Avraham – we, too, follow in trusting obedience to Yah’s commands.

Yishmael (the son of the slave woman = Pharisees, Orthodox) persecutes Yitshaq (the followers of Yahusha and the written Torah)  See Bereshith 21:9

30 But what does the Scripture say? “Cast out the female servant and her son, for the son of the female servant shall by no means be heir with the son of the free woman.”

Bereshith 21:10

31 Therefore, brothers, we are not children of the female servant but of the free woman.

(Messiah was always speaking in parables.)  The servant to be cast out:

Mattityahu 21:20,21 When the disciples saw it they were amazed, saying, "How did the fig tree wither so quickly?" Yahusha answered them, "I tell you the truth, if you have faith and do not doubt, not only will you do what was done to the fig tree, but even if you say to this mountain, 'Be lifted up and thrown into the sea,' it will happen.

A commentary on “present day Jerusalem”?  The unbelievers would be cast out.

Luke 12:42-48  The Master replied, "Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the Master puts in charge of his household servants, to give them their allowance of food at the proper time? Blessed is that slave whom his Master finds at work when he returns. I tell you the truth, the Master will put him in charge of all his possessions. But if that slave should say to himself, 'My Master is delayed in returning,' and he begins to beat the other slaves, both men and women, and to eat, drink, and get drunk, then the Master of that slave will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he does not foresee, and will cut him in two, and assign him a place with the unfaithful. That servant who knew his Masters will but did not get ready or do what his Adonai asked will receive a severe beating. But the one who did not know his Masters will and did things worthy of punishment will receive a light beating. From everyone who has been given much, much will be required, and from the one who has been entrusted with much, even more will be asked.

END