What analogy does Paul use for the Law in Galatians 4?
Paul uses Hagar as an analogy for the Law: Hagar represents Mount Sinai, where the Ten Commandments were given. In Galatians 4, the Law is pictured as flesh, a yoke, and bondage, tied to Sinai and Jerusalem's Temple worship in Paul's day.
Les teaches that Paul is using the same analogy that the Law was the flesh, and it was like a yoke, and it only brought in bondage. Hagar is typically of Mount Sinai in Arabia, and the great event always associated with Sinai is the giving of the Ten Commandments. So Hagar is a picture of the giving of the Ten Commandments on Mount Sinai. Les also emphasizes chronology and history: Galatians was written about 60 A.D., and the Temple was destroyed in 70 A.D., so ten years before its destruction, Temple worship and daily sacrifices were still central in Jerusalem. That is why Paul can say Hagar speaks of the Law as it was given at Sinai, which was still indicative of Temple worship at the time Paul was writing Galatians.
Which things are an allegory: for these are the two covenants; the one from the mount Sinai, which gendereth to bondage, which is Agar.
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How does Paul describe the Law in his analogy?
Paul used the analogy that the Law was the flesh, was like a yoke, and only brought bondage.