Galatians 4:27

Galatians 4:27. ‘Rejoice, thou barren that bearest not,' etc. An illustration of the allegory by a passage from Isaiah 54:1, which prophesies the deliverance of God's afflicted nation from the foreign bondage of the Babylonian exile, and her restoration to freedom and prosperity, so that from a mourning widow, like Sarah, she shall become a rejoicing mother of many children. The prophet himself, in a previous chapter (Isaiah 51:2), refers to God's dealings with Abraham and Sarah, as a type of his dealings with their descendants. In the application, the barren who becomes fruitful, is the type of the Christian church, more especially the Gentile Christian church, as opposed to the Jewish synagogue. This application is fully justified by the Messianic character of the whole second part of Isaiah (beginning with chap. 40).