This is what I am saying: When young children inherit all that their father owned, they are still no different from his slaves. It doesn't matter that they own everything.
But now you know the true God. Really, though, it is God who knows you. So why do you turn back to the same kind of weak and useless rules you followed before? Do you want to be slaves to those things again?
My sickness was a burden to you, but you did not hate me or make me leave. Instead, you welcomed me as if I were an angel from God. You accepted me as if I were Jesus Christ himself!
You were very happy then. Where is that joy now? I can say without a doubt that you would have done anything to help me. If it had been possible, you would have taken out your own eyes and given them to me.
Abraham's son from the slave woman was born in the normal human way. But the son from the free woman was born because of the promise God made to Abraham.
This true story makes a picture for us. The two women are like the two agreements between God and his people. One agreement is the law that God made on Mount Sinai. The people who are under this agreement are like slaves. The mother named Hagar is like that agreement.
So Hagar is like Mount Sinai in Arabia. She is a picture of the earthly Jewish city of Jerusalem. This city is a slave, and all its people are slaves to the law.
The Scriptures say, "Be happy, woman—you who cannot have children. Be glad you never gave birth. Shout and cry with joy! You never felt those labor pains. The woman who is alone will have more children than the woman who has a husband."
But the other son of Abraham, who was born in the normal way, caused trouble for the one who was born by the power of the Spirit. It is the same today.
But what do the Scriptures say? "Throw out the slave woman and her son! The son of the free woman will receive everything his father has, but the son of the slave woman will receive nothing."