Genesis 22:18-23:20

If someone wants a 1000-word article written in Hebrew to be translated to English it’ll end up being around 1300 to 1400 words in English, depending on the content. For example the phrase “What am I?” comes out as “What I?” in Hebrew and even that is in modern Hebrew which is different again.

For example, just one of the number of differences is that In the Ancient Hebrew language, tense had no importance. There was no past, present and future. But in Modern Hebrew, there’s a clear distinction between the past, present and future.

So when we read the scriptures, particularly the Old Testament, we’re reading the English translation of languages that are unique and carry far more meaning in each word than English.

This is why verses in the Old Testament that are referred to in the New Testament are often much more detailed than the Old Testament version. Even the New Testament language was predominantly Koine or common Greek which itself has many more descriptive words than English. Add to that the great differences in culture between the Old Testament times and today. When we look at these verses from the Old Testament in light of the New, we should remember that the writers were, for the most part, skilled in the use of Hebrew.

They were Jews who were bought up with the language as children. When they read the Old Testament they instinctively knew these enhanced meanings, meanings that we as modern day believers have shadows of.

Everything we need to know about God and His plan of redemption is clearly laid out for us no matter what language of the 6500 languages in the world we speak. However, there’s a rich reward for delving deeper into the whole story from start to finish. Mostly these treasures are hidden and it is the glory of God to reveal them to those that search.

The incredible chapter of Proverbs 2 explains this.

Let me quote just verses 4 to 6 If you seek her (talking of God’s Words of Wisdom and understanding) If you seek her as silver, And search for her as for hidden treasures; Then you will understand the fear of the LORD, And find the knowledge of God. For the LORD gives wisdom; From His mouth come knowledge and understanding.

Also, Colossians 2:2-3 reads, and attaining to all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the knowledge of the mystery of God, both of the Father and of Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.

When it seems like the biblical texts don’t really fit in with the way we communicate today and when we just glance through the books of the bible quickly, we should remember that The Lord told us to study to show ourselves approved of God and if we give the bible a chance and recognise the cultures and times in which it was written we’ll be rewarded with a rich understanding of God and our purpose in His plans.

Now let’s learn about the death of Abraham’s beloved Sarah.

We’ve just come down from Genesis 22:1-18 and one of the highest mountains in the word of God where Abraham offered up his son, his only son as far as God was concerned, for a sacrifice based on nothing else but God’s Word.

Not only have we come from one of the highest mountains in scripture but we’ve also hit bedrock as well. On that bedrock is where the foundation stone of the entire Bible is built.

And, what is that foundation? That in God nothing is impossible and all scripture is based on whether we as humans, beloved of God, believe that or not. Are we fully convinced that God exists and that He’s both fully able and willing to perform what He’s promised?

Time and again we’ve heard that Abraham believed God and it was counted to him for righteousness. Repeatedly we’ve heard God promise to multiply Abraham’s descendants as the stars of the heaven and as the sand which is on the seashore. We’ve seen these promises made and come to physical reality even though Abraham and his wife Sarah were far beyond childbearing age. Again and again, we’ve heard the Lord promise Abraham not only a great multitude of descendants but a great land that those descendants will inherit.

We’ve seen Abraham fall in his faith and we’ve seen him at the pinnacle of faith.

As we journey through the scriptures we’ll see this again and again through each of the 66 books. Ordinary men and women, just like you and I, become so certain of God’s existence and His inability to lie that their entire view of life is seen only through what God says.

Although the challenges of this world are real and many these people see another, far greater reality high above the see feel and touch of this world.

This is the challenge and the promise of every believer. Do we really believe God or do we believe the things of the world?

We launch off today with Genesis 22:19-20,  So Abraham returned to his young men, and they rose and went together to Beersheba; and Abraham dwelt at Beersheba. 

Now it came to pass after these things that it was told Abraham, saying, “Indeed Milcah also has borne children to your brother Nahor: 

The remainder of this chapter gives us an insight into the family of Abraham.

Abraham had left his brother Nahor way back in the land of Haran and his line won’t be followed in Scripture, but it will cross the line of Abraham a little later on and we’ll go into that when we come to it.

The remainder of chapter 22 offers quite a challenge in the pronunciation of names and for our purposes in trying to get a good birdseye view of the Bible we won’t attempt to go through the list, however, of these children of Nahor, Buz is mentioned in Jeremiah 25:23 and Job 32:2, and Maachah is mentioned in Deuteronomy 3:14 and Joshua 12:5. Some commentators say that the others may, at least in part, have been fathers of tribes later found in Southern Mesopotamia and Northern Arabia, where Job and his children lived. But the main interest in the list is in the fact that it shows the lineage of Rebekah, who becomes Issac’s wife and who was a legal granddaughter of Nahor and the daughter of Isaac’s cousin.

We begin here at Genesis 23 verses 1 and 2,  Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. 

So Sarah died in Kirjath Arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan, and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. 

We should notice here something we already noted in the last episode. Sarah’s age is given as 127 years old when she dies. She was 90 when Isaac was born, which means that at the time of her death (which took place after the offering of Isaac, probably several years after ), Isaac was 37 years old at this time.

Sarah is the only woman in the Bible whose age at death is recorded. This gives us some measure of how highly she’s regarded in the Bible.

Nowhere in the Bible are we told to look to Mary the mother of Jesus as an example of a godly woman but twice we’re told to look to Sarah as such an example in Isaiah 51 verses 1-2 and 1 Peter 3 verses 3-6.

We’re told that Sarah died in Kirjath–arba, which is Hebron.

Abraham even had to buy a cave in which to bury his dead in the very land that God had given to him. Why didn’t he take Sarah somewhere else to bury her?

It’s because the hope they, the Hebrew people, have that their future is in that land.

Abraham felt his loss of Sarah deeply and wasn’t afraid to mourn, though he did not sorrow as those without hope. We’re told to be the same in 1 Thessalonians 4:13.

Abraham’s mourning was real. This man of great faith, the friend of God, wept for the loss of Sarah’s companionship. There was nothing weak or unbelieving about the tears of this man of faith.

To weep for a loved one is to show that we’ve been close and that the loss is strongly felt. We’ll greatly miss that person’s company and often we’ll feel like a piece of ourselves is now missing. Death is an enemy, and sin has brought its horrible punishment onto the human race.

Now to verse 3,  Then Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, 

“I am a foreigner and a visitor among you. Give me property for a burial place among you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” 

Abraham calls himself a stranger and a sojourner even in the Promised Land which God had promised to give to him.

Sarah had been Abraham’s wife, a believer in the true God, in spite of all her weaknesses, and the mother of all believing women. He’d loved her dearly, as a faithful husband should, and she was his even in death. But now he speaks to the children of Heth, the Hittites, who were living there. Hebron was located in Hittite country. As a stranger and a nomad in their midst, he now negotiated for a burial place.

Abraham admits to these people that as a sojourner and a stranger, he has no base in Canaan that he can call his natural home and he basically admits that he has no right to a parcel of land by his natural birthright so he’s offering to buy a parcel of land and he already knows the parcel he wants as we’ll soon see.

Now to verses 5 and 6 and we are, of course, in Genesis chapter 23,  And the sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, “Hear us, my lord: You are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our burial places. None of us will withhold from you his burial place, that you may bury your dead.”

This is a very generous offer made by the children of Heth who live in this land.

It’s a beautiful scene of politeness, simplicity, kindness, frankness, humility and modesty.

There’s no greediness or animosity.

They probably said to Abraham, “Just pick your burying spot in any of our sepulchres—that’s it. We’d be delighted to have you.” Abraham had made a tremendous impression. They call him “a mighty prince.” They see him as a prince of God right there in their midst This man’s influence counted for something. It makes you wonder how these people could exalt Abraham so highly. Well, of course, his epic examples of faith and God’s response to them were known far and wide.

The children of Heth tell Abraham that all he has to do is pick a spot out of any burial place which might suit his fancy, and they would feel honoured in having him accept it as a gift.

In his travels around Canaan, Abraham had earlier lived in this area and built an altar to God here as we saw in Genesis 13:18. He knew this cave and was willing to pay the full price for it.

We move to verses 7 to 9, Then Abraham stood up and bowed himself to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. 

And he spoke with them, saying, “If it is your wish that I bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and meet with Ephron the son of Zohar for me, that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he has, which is at the end of his field. Let him give it to me at the full price, as property for a burial place among you.”  

The cave of Machpelah was the place Abraham chose, but he wanted to buy it; he wanted nothing given to him. In other words, until God gives him that land, he’ll buy what he needs and wants. So now he actually buys a burying place.

Again we ask the question: Why didn’t Abraham take Sarah somewhere else to bury her? He buried her here because it’s in the Promised Land, and the hope of the future is here.

As we go through the Bible, we’ll find that God has two great purposes and two great hopes. He has an earthly purpose and a heavenly purpose.

His earthly purpose is that this earth on which you and I live is going into eternity.

It’ll be transformed into a new model but there will be a new heaven and a new earth and it’ll be inhabited throughout eternity.

This is the promise that God gave to Abraham and to those after him.

God’s not going to exterminate it. The new earth will go into eternity, and there’ll be people to inhabit it. This was the hope of Abraham. Abraham wanted to be buried in that land so that, when the resurrection came, he and Sarah would be raised in that land. He never knew how many were coming after him, but there are going to be literally millions raised from the dead. This is their hope. It’s an earthly hope, and it will be realised.

In the Upper Room, our Lord said this to His disciples who were schooled in the Old Testament and who had the Old Testament hope: “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.” that’s John 14:1-3.

He’s speaking of the New Jerusalem which He’s preparing today and which is the place to which the church will go.

The New Jerusalem will be the eternal abode of the church. This teaching was brand new to the disciples, and sadly it’s brand new to many Christians today.

God never told Abraham that He would take him away from this earth to heaven. Instead, He kept telling him, “I will give to you and to your descendants after you, the land of your sojournings, all the land of Canaan, for an everlasting possession; and I will be their God.” Genesis 17:8 and many other chapters.

Abraham believed God, and that was the reason that he wanted Sarah buried in that land.

It became the place for him to bury his dead. He himself intended to be buried there, and he is buried there.

The exact location of Abraham’s burying place is at Hebron, about twenty miles south of Jerusalem.

I’ve not been there but I’m told there’s a Muslim mosque built over that spot today. Apparently, you can look through a hole in the floor and down into the cave where Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah are all supposed to be buried. They’re all buried in Israel because of their hope of being raised from the dead in that land. It is an earthly hope.

Our hope as New Testament believers is a heavenly hope.

That’s why this burial was so important to Abraham. Abraham now makes a deal to buy the cave. Notice the transaction.

Now we read verses 10 to 12, Now Ephron dwelt among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the presence of the sons of Heth, all who entered at the gate of his city, saying, “No, my lord, hear me: I give you the field and the cave that is in it; I give it to you in the presence of the sons of my people. I give it to you. Bury your dead!” 

Then Abraham bowed himself down before the people of the land; 

Notice the courtesy of Abraham and these Hittite inhabitants of Hebron and in particular this man Ephron.

Abraham bargained with them for the purchase of the cave of Machpelah as a burial place and it was to be his only purchase of real estate during his long life of pilgrimage.

The passage gives a priceless description of the bargaining that’s so typical in Eastern lands even today. At first, the Hittites invited Abraham to choose any one of their burial places.

We read now from Genesis 23:13 t- 16, and he spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will give it, please hear me. I will give you money for the field; take it from me and I will bury my dead there.” 

And Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, “My lord, listen to me; the land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? So bury your dead.” 

And Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out the silver for Ephron which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, currency of the merchants. 

That is, Abraham paid for the field and cave in the legal tender of that day.  At first, Ephron offered not just the cave but the entire field as an outright gift, but Abraham understood that this was just a polite gesture. With overflowing courtesy, Abraham refused the gift and insisted on paying full price for a cave owned by Ephron who had no intention of giving it away. When Abraham countered by insisting on his desire to purchase it, Ephron suggested a price of four hundred shekels of silver, pretending that this was a great bargain. Actually, it was an extortionate price, and ordinarily, the buyer would have continued to haggle, so it was a surprise to everyone when Abraham agreed to Ephron’s first asking price. Abraham didn’t want to be indebted to an unbeliever, and neither should we.

Arriving at verse 17 we read from there to verse 20,  So the field of Ephron which was in Machpelah, which was before Mamre, the field and the cave which was in it, and all the trees that were in the field, which were within all the surrounding borders, were deeded to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. 

And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah, before Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. 

So the field and the cave that is in it were deeded to Abraham by the sons of Heth as property for a burial place. 

The field of Machpelah and the cave that was in it were quote, “deeded to Abraham as a possession”.

This property was Abraham’s land by deed, not only by the promise of God.

If this purchase of the field and the cave as a burial site for Sarah was the only piece of land Abraham ever owned in that land it testifies to his unshakeable faith that Canaan will one day become his property, according to God’s promise.

God’s promises don’t end with death. With this purchase, he takes an advance on the possession of the whole land.

So, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in that cave of the field of Machpelah and this is where Isaac and Ishmael buried Abraham himself and we’ll see that in Genesis chapter 25. Isaac and Rebekah were both buried here and Jacob buried his wife Leah here as we’ll also see in Genesis chapter 49 and Joseph buried Jacob here in Genesis 50.

That cave in the field of Machpelah (near Hebron) was the great tomb of the Patriarchs.

Now we come to chapter 24 where Abraham sends his trusted servant to get a bride for Issac back in Mesopotamia in the land of Heron. He’s successful in securing Rebeka and it brings us to one of the most beautiful chapters of the Bible and it’s a lovely story. We’ll begin this chapter even though we won’t get far into it today. It’ll show that God is very interested in the one we marry.

Genesis chapter 24 verse 1, Now Abraham was old, well advanced in age; and the LORD had blessed Abraham in all things.

We’ll have to save the next part till next time my friends and until then may God be with you and keep you and bless you richly.