Shabbat Midrash (Teaching) Outlines

Genesis 16 - Hagar and Ismael

• Hagar - Egyptian slave girl
• Egypt - Symbolic of world system apart from God
• Avram (Abraham) - Symbolic of God's faith kingdom
• Avram listened to what Sarai said - reference to Adam and Eve in Garden
• Disobedience brought about a curse
• Two offspring - Cain and Abel - one's offering accepted, the other's rejected
• Rivalry eventually led to murder

Genesis 21:8-21

• Children of different destinies
• Could not live together - natures clashed
• Still true today

Genesis 17:18-21

Genesis 25:12-18

Galatians 4:21-31

• Hagar represents the slavery of those who believe that they can earn their salvation by keeping the law - this was the old covenant at Mt. Sinai
• Sarah represents the freedom of believers who come to Yeshua by faith and are not dependent on keeping the Law for their salvation
• The attitude of a believer that is saved by faith should be gratitude. That gratitude should manifest itself in a desire to study Torah and use its precepts as a pattern and example by which to live their new lives in Yeshua.

posted by Chris Phillips, Congregational Leader  # 8/26/2005