Our last devotional covered the Covenant between Abraham and YHWH, with circumcision being the sign of the Covenant. The Lord also changed Abram’s name to Abraham – from “exalted father,” to “father of many.”

15 And God said unto Abraham, As for Sarai thy wife, thou shalt not call her name Sarai, but Sarah shall her name be.

As God did with Abraham , He changes Sarai’s name to Sarah.

YHWH – 

We now see the the “hey” on the end of His name, being attached to end of Sarai’s name, the same as He did to Abraham. Her name becomes Sarah. Remember – this letter –  – means “Spirit.”

Sari +  = Sar or Sarah

16 And I will bless her, and give thee a son also of her: yea, I will bless her, and she shall be a mother of nations; kings of people shall be of her.

She changes from “princess,” to “Princess of many.” The “Spirit” of God is now in both the mother and father of God’s people. God tells us that He accomplishes these things through His Spirit: “Then he answered and spoke to me, saying, This is the Word of the LORD unto Zerubbabel, saying, Not by might, nor by power, but by My Spirit, says the LORD of hosts.” (Zech 4:6)

17 Then Abraham fell upon his face, and laughed, and said in his heart, Shall a child be born unto him that is an hundred years old? and shall Sarah, that is ninety years old, bear?

Abraham laughs, not out of unbelief, but out of being overwhelmed. He is satisfied with 13 year old Ishmael. The hopes and dreams of this old man are focused on Ishmael alone.

18 And Abraham said unto God, O that Ishmael might live before thee!

19 And God said, Sarah thy wife shall bear thee a son indeed; and thou shalt call his name Isaac: and I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him.

Genesis 17:15-19

In Galatians 4, we are given the deeper meaning of what has just transpired. The Covenant of the Law (Hagar) is compared with the Covenant of Grace (Sarah). It is the answer to any teacher, preacher, sect or religion, as to why we as believers, are not under the Law.

21 Tell me, ye that desire to be under the law, do ye not hear the law?

22 For it is written, that Abraham had two sons, the one by a bondmaid, the other by a freewoman.

23 But he who was of the bondwoman was born after the flesh; but he of the freewoman was by promise.

24 Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.(Hagar)

25 For this Agar ( Hagar) is mount Sinai in Arabia, and answereth to Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her children. (Are not the Arabs under bondage to the Koran?)

26 But Jerusalem which is above is free, which is the mother of us all. (He is speaking of the New Jerusalem in Heaven)

27 For it is written, Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not; break forth and cry, thou that travailest not: for the desolate hath many more children than she which hath an husband.

28 Now we, brethren, as Isaac was, are the children of promise.

29 But as then he that was born after the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even so it is now. (the descendants of Ishmael to this day persecute the people of The Book)

30 Nevertheless what saith the Scripture? Cast out the bondwoman and her son: for the son of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the freewoman.

31 So then, brethren, we are not children of the bondwoman, but of the free. Galatians 4: 21-31

The flesh is bondage, the Spirit is freedom. Does that mean believers can do away with the Law and live how ever they choose? No. What it means, is that the Law does not give life. Only the Spirit does.  As Sarah was so old, she was as good as dead – yet she gave birth to life through the power of the Holy Spirit. As we are dead in our sins, so we give birth to the new man, when we are reborn by the Power of the Holy Spirit.