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Studies in Genesis, The Realities Of Death, Lesson 50, Genesis 23:1-20
Today in our Genesis study we come to a sorrowful time in the life of Abraham for it is the time when the earthly life of his wife Sarah ends.
The command of God to slay Isaac and his deliverance is long past, some 20-25 years prior to this event.
Isaac is 37 years old at this time, being born to Sarah when she was 90 or 91 and now his mother dies as we read in:
Genesis 23:1-20, And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in Kirjatharba (its original name); the same is Hebron (18 miles to Jerusalem) in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, 4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. 5 And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 6 Hear us, my lord: thou art a mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 7 And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, even to the children of Heth. 8 And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, 9 That he may give me the cave of Machpelah (cave of the double tombs), which he hath, which is in the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. 10 And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, even of all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, 11 Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that is therein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. 12 And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. 13 And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take it of me, and I will bury my dead there. 14 And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, 15 My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver; what is that betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 16 And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current money with the merchant. 17 And the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field, and the cave which was therein, and all the trees that were in the field, that were in all the borders round about, were made sure 18 Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 19 And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan. 20 And the field, and the cave that is therein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.
Abraham is our Father of Faith and here in Genesis, chapter 23 we are to learn how our father, dealt with the death of his most loved one, his wife Sarah.
Today it is interesting how many of us deal with death, or at least many who come to a pre-funeral viewing where sometimes it appears that a party is going on instead of a time of grieving or mourning.
Christians sometimes call this time a time of celebration for their loved ones are now in the arms of their Saviour Jesus Christ and that is certainly true for the saved, but God shows us how Abraham a man of faith dealt with this most serious event.
Grasp the teaching of this chapter and you find that two verses deal with Sarah’s death and eighteen verses deal with business, that of securing a burial plot for Sarah.
So as far as this man of faith is concerned we learn that he deals with death in faith and with realism.
The realism is easy to see for Sarah needs a burial place and Abraham gets busy securing that for her.
But we learn of the aspect of faith not in this chapter but in the faith chapter of the New Testament, that of:
Hebrews 11, verses 13-16 where we learn, These (and that includes Sarah) all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
And as Hebrews 11:10 tells us, Abraham was one whose faith brought him to look for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God.
Abraham shows us that we need to deal with death by faith and also realistically.
We are to remember that Christ dealt with death realistically for He abolished death meaning He broke its power over believers.
Christ’s resurrection triumphed over death, but that victory will not be fully realized until He returns to give us resurrection bodies like unto His own.
Until then death is our enemy, a reminder of the consequences of sin, the wages exacted by God for rebellion against Him.
This cannot be ignored when the time comes to bury our loved ones for death brings pain and hurt, death brings hard realities, the reality of loss and the reality of grief.
As we see here in our Genesis passage it is a time of weeping, for never again on earth will our loved be present, present for those times of joy or present for those times of despair.
Jesus, the manliest man who ever lived wept at the tomb of Lazarus.
Paul tells us to weep with those who weep.
When a woman loses her husband, or a man loses his wife it is a time to respond in like manner as those who are suffering loss.
Death, even to those of us who know Christ and know our loved one upon leaving this earth will be with Him, will still bring loneliness and heart ache.
That one who was by your side, beside you in your bed, the one whom your eyes beheld the first minute when awaking is gone, never to return.
Death is still the enemy, in the now and now.
Abraham and Sarah had spent most of their lives together for she had been with him when he left Ur of the Chaldeans by faith.
No doubt she had felt along with him fears and anxieties as they moved into the promised land.
Together they waited long years for the son that God promised and now that son had grown into a man, a man now 37 years of age.
As any man can attest who lost his wife, Abraham, was left with an empty part of him that could not be filled for death brings the pain of loneliness into life.
We are given to know from this passage that nothing has changed as to the financial realities of death with regard to the costs associated with the burial of loved ones.
And it is also given that the carrying out of this business is normal in the midst of mourning and grief.
What a reminder this is that life must go on during trying times.
God has made things such that we are to rise from our grief and deal with the practical matters of living.
The duty of work helps us not to grieve beyond what is healthy and to get on with the process of establishing a new life for ourselves after our loss.
But before that new life the practical matter of where to bury Sarah was before him but no doubt the question that Abraham asked himself in this matter was, Where shall I be buried?
For as it is in our day when a burial plot is purchased for the first partner another is bought alongside for the surviving partner.
This was the land of promise that when Abraham decided upon the burial place for Sarah, he also determined the place of his burial and that of his descendants for God’s promises are so connected.
God had promised him the land but now he found himself in a position of having to buy land from the Hittites from whom it would eventually be taken for God had said “Unto your seed I will give this land.”
So, the majority of chapter 23 is devoted to the description of a Hittite legal transaction involving the purchase of a burial plot in Canaan and most likely conducted at the city gate where most legal transactions took place.
The request takes place first of course, with Abraham requesting the sons of Heth to provide him a place to bury his wife.
He verifies his status as a stranger and sojourner among them meaning that he was not a property owner and had no permanent burial plot.
Abraham’s request seemed as though he was only asking for the use of a burial place, a borrowed site if you will.
And Abraham was considered a prince of God and therefore such a request was not to be refused.
But Abraham was not to be satisfied with a borrowed grave for he was interested in a long-term use not only for Sarah but for him and his descendants.
In this Abraham by faith knew that this land was to be his not temporarily as a sojourner but as a permanent possession.
He therefore asked the people to urge Ephron to sell him the cave of Machpelah, which was at the end of his field and was not be a gift but a purchase at full market value.
Ephron the Hittite was sitting at the city gate among the city’s leaders and responded to Abraham’s plea with a modification of the quantity of land to be purchased.
Abraham had asked only for the cave at the end of Ephron’s field, but Ephron specified that the transaction was to be a package deal, so along with the cave the field was attached.
Abraham agreed with this modification and therefore only the price was now to be negotiated.
Within all these negotiations the offer of a gift of the land was included but Abraham shunned this offer but note how Abraham was moved into paying full price of the cave and field by the pressure made by the gift offer.
Ephron persisted in his offer to give Abraham the land free of charge, but he also placed a value on the gift that is offered.
This accomplishes two things: it names the price, yet in a very generous way, and it makes it almost impossible for Abraham to bargain over the price.
If Ephron is so generous as to offer to give the land to Abraham, how could Abraham be so small as to dicker over the price?
Abraham paid the established price, and both men went away with what they had hoped for.
And included in this land transaction even the trees of the field are mentioned in the deeding of the property for the trees had great value and could have been retained by Ephron.
So, with the matter concluded and the burial site procured, Abraham proceeded to lay his wife’s body to rest.
Abraham’s purchase of the cave of Machpelah expressed his faith in God as we read from the passage in Hebrews 11.
In this transaction he had staked his claim in the land which God had promised.
The land he had left was no longer his homeland for the land he was to be buried in was to be the homeland of himself and his descendants.
This was the land of promise and was also to be the land of his burial.
Abraham, to this point was a sojourner and a sojourner does not own property but now Abraham did, of necessity.
This of course plants him deeply in God’s promise that this land was to be his and his descendants.
Strangers and sojourners do not have as great an involvement or obligation as do citizens and property owners.
According to Hittite law Abraham became obligated to the king when he purchased the field.
In doing this he extended his worldly obligations.
Abraham’s purchase thus gave him a dual citizenship.
This of course, we as born-again believers well know, for while we may be strangers and pilgrims we still are citizens of this world.
Abraham, walking by faith, knew what Peter would write 2000 years later regarding this dual citizenship.
I Peter 2:11-14, Dearly beloved, I beseech you as strangers and pilgrims, abstain from fleshly lusts, which war against the soul; 12 Having your conversation honest among the Gentiles: that, whereas they speak against you as evildoers, they may by your good works, which they shall behold, glorify God in the day of visitation. 13 Submit yourselves to every ordinance of man for the Lord's sake: whether it be to the king, as supreme; 14 Or unto governors, as unto them that are sent by him for the punishment of evildoers, and for the praise of them that do well. 15 For so is the will of God, that with well doing ye may put to silence the ignorance of foolish men: 16 As free, and not using your liberty for a cloke of maliciousness, but as the servants of God. 17 Honour all men. Love the brotherhood. Fear God. Honour the king.
Abraham, our father of faith, was a citizen of two worlds.
His inheritance was in heaven and while he looked for a city whose builder and maker was God he was now also involved in the matters of this world.
Abraham lived in the present in the light of the future.
His future inheritance did not lessen his present responsibility, it established his priorities.
Abraham’s purchase of a burial plot provided Israel with roots in the promised land.
Jacob, who died in Egypt, was buried in the cave which Abraham purchased.
When the Israelites were freed from Egyptian bondage where else would they return but to their fatherland, a land in which none of them were born?
When Moses wrote this book of Genesis the promised land had not yet been possessed but Moses knew the promises.
He knew of the beginning plot of land purchased by Abraham, the cave of Machpelah and the field of Ephron, a kind of the earnest of his inheritance.
No doubt this moved greatly the armies of Israel as they marched into Canaan to possess the land promised to Abraham hundreds of years prior.
God is indeed faithful! |