The Two-Hundred-Thirty-Fifth (Galatians Part 8)

We’re continuing this week in Paul’s letter to the churches in Galatia with the remaining portion of chapter four that we left out last week, and a connection to a verse of the next chapter.  As is typical when we dig in, we’re going to find some interesting word choices by Paul as well as connections to themes found elsewhere in scripture.  So, let’s get started and see what they are!  

Starting with verse eight, Paul goes into a recounting of the reader’s pagan history as well as his personal history with them specifically (Galatians 4:8-20).  He points out that when they didn’t “know” YHWH, they were slaves to those that are not gods, and it’s worth it to look briefly at what he’s talking about here.  The word he used for “know” is the Greek word that means literally to see with physical eyes.  However, it’s used in scriptural context to mean perceiving, knowing, or comprehending, and what’s interesting is that our HELPS Word-studies friend calls it a “gateway” to grasp spiritual truth, which HELPS also calls reality, from the physical plane.

So, what Paul is saying is that prior to becoming believers, the Gentiles of Galatia did not grasp the spiritual existence of YHWH, which is reality, from seeing the physical aspects of creation.  In that same verse, he also mentions they were enslaved to “those” that are not gods, but what does that mean?  Who were they enslaved to?  Clearly they were performing actions for some type of being because the nature of the language Paul uses is referring to beings vice some sort of enslavement to inanimate objects.

If we look to other places where Paul talks about what the Gentiles were doing before they became believers, we see that they were performing religious rituals and sacrifices to what he deemed “so-called gods” (1 Corinthians 8:5).  In that reference, we see that he’s talking about sacrifices to idols, but is he meaning the inanimate objects that were the representations of these idols?  Looking in the same letter, we find that what he’s referring to are demons (1 Corinthians 10:20).  

We’ve covered demons a long time ago, so if you need a refresher you can find the multi-part study we did starting here.  The point to keep in mind here is that Paul is acknowledging that despite what you might typically think of when you see the word “idol,” what the pagans were doing was actually the will of the spiritual beings called demons.  They weren’t just pointless acts that didn’t have any effect, they were acts that had a very real spiritual effect.  That effect was spiritual enslavement that was shown physically as their religious rituals.

This is an important thing to understand as we go through this portion of the chapter, because otherwise we’re going to get all twisted around in some of his follow on statements.  He calls those religious rituals “weak” and “worthless,” and the interesting thing there is the Greek word for worthless.  We’ve looked at this word before, but as a reminder, it’s ptochos, and it’s derived from the word that means “to crouch” or “to cower.”  In other words, it’s representing the idea of being poor, destitute, a beggar.  The interesting part is when that idea gets applied to the religious rituals Paul is talking about.      

Paul uses the word stoicheion, which we looked at a couple weeks ago, to refer to those religious rituals, meaning their basic, elemental principles.  So, what is a “destitute” principle?  It’s a principle that is lacking the “resources” it needs in order for it to be worth anything.  In this case, it’s spiritual resources.  In other words, those rituals and the principles behind them lack the spiritual resources from YHWH that would make them mean anything good, or anything worthwhile, for those who perform them.

Now, here’s where we could get confused and twisted around.  Paul wrote a statement next that many use as justification for not observing the Sabbath, Feasts of the Lord, Jubilee years, etc.  He seems to tie those things to the same “weak and worthless” principles of the pagan rituals the Gentiles conducted prior to becoming believers.  However, this is the absolutely wrong conclusion to come to!

The first, and most obvious, proof that it’s the wrong conclusion is the sources of these two things.  The rituals Paul was just talking about were ones that originated from demons.  Clearly, that source is evil!  The observance of the special days, months, seasons, and years came from YHWH Himself!  He is the source of all that is good and right in creation! (James 1:17)  If you don’t think that lines up with what Paul was thinking, jump ahead to verse 17.  We’ll cover this more in a moment, but what Paul does there is show that the Galatians were turning to the weak and worthless principles derived by man (the former Pharisees we talked about a few weeks ago).  He wasn’t talking about the pure and righteous things given by YHWH, from the Law which Paul himself even called “holy, righteous and good” (Romans 7:12).

The second proof that this is the wrong conclusion is the fact that if you were to take this statement at face value, you have no choice but to hold all of Christendom in condemnation for what Paul is talking about.  In fact, when you read some of the commentaries about that verse in particular, written by renowned theologians throughout history, you’ll come across one statement that is almost comical in its “hand-waving” on the matter.  What’s common to all these commentaries is that they agree that Paul is talking about the Jewish days, months, seasons and years.  That’s not surprising, considering this whole letter is Paul talking about the Galatians turning to those Jewish rituals (and I use that word purposefully to mean the Pharisaical requirements to observe YHWH’s commandments).

What all these commentaries leave out, with one notable exception, is the fact that not only are the Christian observances of things like “the Lord’s Day,” Christmas, Easter, etc., connected with the pagan festivals Paul was talking about, they’re also connected to the "Jewish" observances (the Feasts of the Lord)!  Just look at the timing of those events during the year.  They’re strikingly coincidental to feasts like the Feast of Tabernacles, and Passover, aren’t they?  So, how can we as Christians call their observances unique or separate from the ones Paul is referring to in this letter?  Just because they’re Jews and we’re Christians?!

Elicott’s Commentary for English Readers actually quotes one of the “church fathers,” Origen, regarding this question.  Shockingly, in Origen’s statement, he references Christians during his time observing the feasts of Passover and Pentecost and the day of Preparation!  The reason he writes this statement is to address the fact that Paul is writing about the Galatians observing these things and therefore the question naturally comes up that Christians during Origen’s time are doing the exact things Paul seems to be chastising the Galatians over.  So, don’t let anyone tell you that Christians never observed the feasts!  And from my experience, whenever man gets involved in trying to adjust or institute anything from YHWH, it always goes towards the worse and not for the better.  So, also don’t let them tell you that over time all the current holidays became more true to YHWH’s desires or intentions!

How does Origen get out of this sticky situation?  Not very well, if you ask me.  Essentially, he says that those that are not in the “advanced class” of Christian (yes, he used that exact term), by which he means those that are “unceasingly preparing [themselves] for the true life,” among other things, don’t need these seasons, feasts and observances.  He states that the majority of believers are not of that “advanced class” and so they need to have these observances to keep the spiritual things from “passing away altogether from their minds.”

What are your thoughts on that justification?  To me, it leaves a lot to be desired.  Especially based on the fact that in the context of who Paul is talking to, they absolutely would not be considered in the “advanced class” of Christian.  So if Origen was correct, Paul should absolutely have encouraged the Galatians to observe those holy days and times.  In Origen's statement, he argues that someone who’s always preparing for true life and abstaining from the pleasures that lead so many astray is always keeping the Preparation Day.  One that realizes that his duty is to keep eating the flesh of the Word, never ceases to keep Passover.  One that can “truly say” that he is risen with Christ is always living in the season of Pentecost.  

While I don’t disagree that these are great examples of how we can strive to be walking in the Spirit, as Paul states that we should be (Galatians 5:16-17), the fact that Origen essentially suggests that there are “commoner” Christians and “advanced” Christians doesn’t sit right with me.  I’m certainly not saying that there aren’t those that are more well-studied and have a deeper grasp of the Word and its spiritual meaning.  Obviously, that’s true, and even Paul and Peter write about that (1 Corinthians 3:1-3, Hebrews 5:11-14, 1 Peter 2:2).  

What doesn’t sit right is his suggestion that because of a Christian being advanced, they no longer need to observe these things.  He may not have intended it this way (I can’t really ask him at this point!), but it makes it sound like “commoners” have to pay some penance because of being unskilled in the Word and the only way to get out of paying that penance is if they advance enough through study and fully embodying the life Yeshua taught.  Additionally, if this were the case, wouldn’t that mean these “lower level” Christians were left to observing those feasts/days/seasons on their own and trying to figure out how to do it?  There wouldn’t be any “advanced” Christians to help teach them because those folks aren’t doing them.  If you were to say that these “advanced” Christians would still observe them because we’re all part of the body of Yeshua and we love and help each other, you just come back to the same question we started with: why are all Christians observing these things when Paul seems to condemn observing them?

No, the answer has to be something else, and the only thing it could be is that Paul is referring to the Pharisaical observances of holy days, seasons and years.  In other words, he’s not talking about what YHWH commanded, he’s talking about all the additional things man added to those commandments.  These were things that we’ve talked about before, like picking up four crumbs was considered work on the Sabbath and forbidden while picking up three crumbs was ok.  And along those same lines, if we look at all the Christian observances today, we find they are all things that man either created himself or added to YHWH’s Word.  In some cases, those modifications even blatantly originated from pagan demonic festivals.  

Continuing on in this portion of chapter four, let’s revisit the statement that those that convinced the Galatians to follow these Jewish rituals were trying to make the Galatians zealous for them rather than for Yeshua.  If you haven’t read or listened to any of Derek Prince’s explanations of witchcraft, what Paul is saying here is exactly one of the goals of witchcraft.  Witchcraft is meant to manipulate and/or dominate someone for the purposes of controlling them.  I’m sure the former Pharisees didn’t consider what they were doing witchcraft, but that’s usually how demonic influences work.  The people involved don’t always know they’re being influenced or where that influence is coming from.  

What those former Pharisees were doing was just an extension of what they had done formerly in their Jewish religion.  Evil had gotten in and slowly shifted them from a focus on YHWH’s Word to a focus on man’s word, and the fact that they were now doing it in the Christian faith was just evil continuing to propagate its goal of turning people away from YHWH.  This is no different than what we see today in many Christian churches around the world as YHWH’s Word, or at least portions of it, is ignored in favor of “inclusion” and under the guise of “love for each other.”  I even read recently of a pastor stating that she “wasn’t sure” that Yeshua was resurrected.

Other things in this portion of the chapter that are of note are Paul’s statements regarding when he had visited the Galatians originally.  Apparently, he had some sort of illness at that time, and that was the whole reason he had preached to them.  He didn’t elaborate on what the illness was, but the fact that he mentions them being willing to tear out their eyes for him suggests that it had something to do with his eyes, or his vision in general (Galatians 4:15).  This is fascinating to me because it seems to be a theme in Paul’s life in connection with his walk with Yeshua.  The major event that resulted in him being baptized involved him being blinded by scales on his eyes after hearing the voice of Yeshua (Acts 9:1-9).  Perhaps this was a physical representation of the fact that spiritually Paul was blinded to Yeshua being the Son of YHWH, and maybe the subsequent eye-related ailment was an attack by evil aimed at preventing Paul from being able to perceive some spiritual truth based on what could be seen physically.

To close this week, it’s important to recognize the meaning behind the last couple verses of this section of the letter (Galatians 4:19-20).  Paul states that he is again in pains for these believers, and that he is perplexed by them.  As far as the latter statement, the Greek word he uses means “without a way,” essentially meaning he’s at a loss with them in terms of how they got to where they were and what he should do to help them.  Right after this statement, he goes into the Hagar and Sarah discussion we covered last week, indicating that he thought providing such an example might help.

The former statement, to me, is significant in showing Paul’s dedication to these believers.  He was thoroughly invested in their progress and trying to get them back on track.  He was in pain again, meaning he felt the same pain when he first preached to them, then he stopped because they were on the right track, and now he began to be in pain again because they had gotten off track.  We can see in the next chapter, that Paul had been keeping his eye on them and noted that they were doing well for a time (Galatians 5:7).  By the way, the word used for that pain was the pains of childbirth, meaning Paul saw these believers as Christian infants he was bringing into YHWH’s Kingdom.  

This is how we need to be, and I don’t think there’s enough of that type of dedication in Christianity today.  Paul didn’t preach to these folks and then walk away, ignoring them.  He kept track of how they were doing, and then took the initiative to write to them when he saw they had strayed.  This is not an easy task even today, but can you imagine how it must have been for Paul back then?  He had no social media to check up on them, or FaceTime or phone calls to connect with them.  Yet he still made the effort not only for them but for many other churches.  We have no excuse for not taking the same initiative Paul did with those YHWH leads us to connect with!

That’s it for now, but this week, try to pay special attention to the things you see in the world to identify their spiritual origin and whether or not it’s witchcraft.  I’ll tell you there are plenty of examples!  Also, try to embody the relationship Paul had with the Galatians, and his dedication to helping them walk in the spirit and stay true to Yeshua and His Word.  This embodiment could mean creating a mentorship connection with another believer to help them, or seeking out a mentor that will show the same dedication to you as Paul showed to the Galatians.  We hope you have a wonderful week!  Shabbat shalom and YHWH Bless you!  

-Rob and Sara Gene