Title: 13
Author: Joe Griffin
Last saved by: PaulD
Company: GDC

The Church of the Living God

		09-10-15.FBC08-192 /

Hagar Represent Jerusalem Reenslaved to the Law; God Manages His Children as Human Father’s Are to Manage Theirs, Heb 12:5-13; without Restraint the Human Soul will Opt for Sin, Human Good, & Evil; Israeli Culture Ordered by the Standards of the Mosaic Law

1.	As this allegory develops we find two women: Hagar and Sarah, two sons: Ishmael and Isaac, two covenants: Mosaic and Palestinian, two mountains, Sinai and Zion, and two Jerusalems: “present,” and “above.”
2.	In verse 25, we see Hagar and her offspring Ishmael representing the Jerusalem of the first century which has reenslaved itself to the Law which comes from the mountain in Arabia called Sinai.
3.	Over the course of Israeli history the Jews were first put under the dominance of the Mosaic Law.  If it were kept then they would be blessed; if not they would be disciplined.
4.	PRINCIPLE: Trust precedes blessings.
5.	The more a person submits to divine guidance, the more he can be trusted.  This is how parents manage children.  Dependent upon their physical age and mental attitude there are certain areas where children cannot be trusted.
6.	Without guidance and training children at certain ages cannot be trusted with, for example, the management of money, the custom of dating, the operation of a vehicle, or the possession of a firearm.
7.	The parent guides and trains in these areas and when progress is observed then some restraints are removed.  Progress includes not only increased proficiency in the requirements of the task but also compliance with the responsibilities associated with it.
8.	As proficiency and responsibility increase, the more freedom the parent allows.  Some children earn their freedom more quickly than others, the major reasons being proficiency and mental attitude.
9.	For example with money: there is the act of buying, giving, or investing but the mental aspect controls each of these.  One must be responsible in each area: to buy prudently, give wisely, and invest sensibly.
10.	Dating requires both physical and mental proficiencies.  Physically, two people agree to meet at an appointed time and to remain with each other for a designated period of time.  Mentally the male must respect the woman and resolve to guard her, body and soul, while in his custody, allowing nothing untoward to intrude upon her privacy in either area.
11.	Driving a car is much more than mechanics.  Young drivers most often have accidents either from carelessness or lack of timing, the inability to judge distances at various miles per hour, awareness of traffic around them, and the tendency to be easily distracted.  Parents know these things and that’s what makes them nervous when teaching a child how to drive. 
12.	It’s easy to point any firearm and pull its trigger.  But once done the projectile leaves the weapon with deadly force.  Awareness of gun safety is imperative.  No gun should ever be assumed unloaded and then handled as if it were.  Once confidence is gained by a parent that the child knows how to handle a gun then he can trust him to shoot it.
13.	Blessings in these areas of function follow the demonstration of competence in the execution of them.  This concept is the subject of Hebrews 12:5-13.
Hebrews 12:5 -	You have forgotten the exhortation which instructs you as sons, [ Proverbs 3:11-12 ] “My son, do not make light of the corrective discipline from the Lord, nor become discouraged when you are reproved by Him;
v. 6 -	“for whom the Lord loves He disciplines and skins alive with a whip every son whom He receives.”
v. 7 -	Because the discipline is constructive, endure it.  God deals with you as adult sons.  For what son is there whom his father does not discipline?
v. 8 -	But if you are without constructive discipline, of which all believers have become partakers, then you are bastards and not sons of God.
Hebrews 12:9 -	Furthermore, we used to have human parents when we were young for our discipline, and we respected them.  To a greater degree, you will become subordinate to the Father of our human spirits and continue living [ avoidance of the sin unto death ].
v. 10 -	For our parents disciplined us for a short time according to what seemed best to them.  But God disciplines us for our profit so that we may share in His integrity [ discipline is designed to make corrective adjustments in the life of the positive believer and result in the acquisition of spiritual integrity ].
v. 11 -	All discipline while in progress appears not to be an occasion for happiness, but rather an occasion for sorrow.  However, afterward, it pays back with interest from righteousness [  blessings down the grace pipeline ] to those who have been trained by it.
v. 12 -	Therefore, restore to power the weakened hands that hang down [ rebound ] and the enfeebled knees [ strengthen the soul through resumption of serious Bible study ],
v. 13 -	and be making straight wheel-tracks by means of your feet, in order that the lame limbs will not be out of joint [ status quo carnality ], but rather let them be healed [ restored to fellowship ].
14.	These illustrations emphasize the point that it is God’s desire to bless the believer and to accomplish this objective it is often necessary to guide the believer through discipline.
15.	The human race is fallen in the sense that each individual has a sinful nature which can only be consistently controlled by knowledge of God’s will and which can only be learned by Bible study.
16.	Without this restraint, the human soul will inevitably choose to follow the dictates of the body’s sinful nature.  When this restraint is removed in a person’s youth, then broad wheel-tracks of wickedness are developed by adulthood and facilitated into FLESH: five-lane express super highways.
17.	All the sin nature needs to rule the life of an individual is for the conscience to be granted permission to submit to its temptations with assumed impunity.  This occurs throughout the country in sex-education classrooms, through various media, e.g., music, television, radio, DVDs, and the Internet, through the complicit rulings of the federal courts, and atrociously poor patenting.
18.	The way the Lord sought to organize the Israelites into a people and a nation with integrity was by means of the Mosaic Law.  It was designed to become the foundation of a culture that could be utilized by Him to lead many sons into glory.
19.	To accomplish this, the Jews needed to be given guidelines and directives in many areas of human function:  military doctrine, domestic relations, property rights, civil and criminal law, treatment of animals, diet, legal procedures, and methods of punishment.  These pertained to the establishment codes of the client nation.

© 2009 by Joe Griffin Media Ministries.  All rights reserved.	www.joegriffin.org