There are at least a couple of New Testament passages that refer to both a section from the Pentateuch and the corresponding reading from the Prophets in the Semiseptennial Cycle (see chapter 10 of Lois Tverberg's Reading the Bible with Rabbi Jesus for further discussion). One of those is Gal 4:21-31, where Paul presents an analogy involving Sarah and Hagar from Gen 16 and 21 and also quotes Isa 54, which is linked with Gen 16 in Seder 14.
To understand Paul's analogy, it will help to review the probable historical setting of the epistle to the Galatians. Here I will follow the work of Mark Nanos and the insights of the scholars in the "Paul within Judaism" school of interpretation.
The primary venues for Paul's preaching of the Gospel were Diaspora synagogues (see Acts 13-14, e.g.). These were the places where he could find the people who were most interested in the message of the Bible. He announced in the synagogues that the promised Messiah had come and inaugurated the Kingdom of God.
His audiences consisted of (1) Jews and (2) Gentiles who were interested in the Bible, in adopting some parts of the Torah, and in supporting the synagogue. These Gentiles were known as "God-fearers." Synagogue communities didn't make great demands upon these Gentiles, but on the other hand didn't accept them as full-fledged members. Socially they were on the fringes of synagogue communities.
After Paul visited a particular synagogue, a subgroup of Christ-followers---people who accepted Paul's Gospel message---formed within that synagogue community. Within that subgroup the Gentile God-fearers were full-fledged members. On the other hand, more was required of them by the Christ-followers. They were expected to completely renounce the pagan activities that were expected of Gentiles in the Roman Empire, the everyday ways of honoring the many gods that were all around them in the Greco-Roman world.
Outside the community of Christ-followers, the Gentile Christ-followers didn't fit in. They weren't completely accepted by other Jews in the larger synagogue community, and their Gentile friends and relatives didn't like the fact that they had begun ignoring their civic duty to honor the gods.
In Galatia, some Jews (Nanos uses the neutral term "influencers" to describe them) were promoting a way for the Gentile Christ-followers to resolve their precarious social situation. Rather than sitting on the fence, why didn't they just go ahead and become full proselytes to Judaism? (For males, this would mean, in particular, being circumcised.) Then they would be fully accepted by the whole synagogue community and would have a legitimate reason to neglect the gods. (In the Roman Empire, Jews were exempt from obligations to the gods.)
The influencers may have told the Gentile Christ-followers that in their present situation, they were sort of in the position of Ishmael in the family of Abraham---blessed to some degree, but outside of the chosen people. Becoming full proselytes would give them the status of Isaac.
Paul strongly objected to the message of the influencers. The Gentile Christ-followers were already full-fledged subjects of the Kingdom of God. God had shown that by granting them the Holy Spirit (Acts 15:1-11). They had been accepted by God on the basis of faith, as Abram had before the covenant sign of circumcision had been introduced (Rom 3-4). For them to go on and become proselytes would be like denying what God had already done in their lives. They were already part of God's New Covenant people. They didn't need to do anything additional to earn covenant status with God.
Also, Paul believed that the days spoken of by the prophets had arrived when people from the nations would seek the God of Israel (e.g., Isa 2:1-4; Zech 8:20-23). The prophets pictured people from all nations following God, not people giving up their national identities to follow God. He wanted to follow God's will as revealed to the prophets.
In his analogy in Gal 4:21-31, Paul turned the tables on the influencers. He told the Gentile Christ-followers that they already had the status of Isaac, the son of promise. They were part of the New Covenant community, associated with Mt Zion and the future heavenly Jerusalem.
But if they through human effort decided to join the Sinai covenant, they would be like Ishmael, born through human effort, and connected to the present earthly Jerusalem, which was enslaved to Rome.
In Gal 4:27 Paul quoted Isa 54:1, seeing the prophecy as addressed to Sarah. Just as Sarah could rejoice when Isaac was born, the Gentile Christ-followers could rejoice because they were the true children of Abraham through faith in Jesus the Messiah.
In a sermon on Seder 14 on June 20, 2020, Kyle Kettering shared further thoughts on Gen 16, Isa 54 ,and Gal 4.
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