Buried with Promises - Pastor Tom Loghry
In Genesis 23, we see the death of Sarah. Sarah lived a life waiting on God's promises; she received Isaac and awaits more. She is buried with promises and so are we.
Transcript:
She died at Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. And Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and weep over her. Then Abraham rose from beside his dead wife and spoke to the Hittites. He said, I am a foreigner and a stranger among you. Sell me some property for a burial site here so I can bury my dead.
The Hittites replied to Abram, Sir, listen to us. You are a mighty prince among us. Bury your dead in the choices of our tombs. None of us will refuse you his tomb for burying your dead.
I love baking. Not doing the baking myself, of course, but reaping the benefits. I even love the process. When my mom or grandma were making a cake, I remember how they would pop off one of the metal mixers from their electric mixers so I could lick off the frosting or the cake batter. It was a wonderful treat, very sweet and full of promise. Because as good as the frosting or the batter was, the cakes or cookies were even better. This was just a foretaste of what was to come. In Genesis 23, we have come to the moment of Sarah's death. We are impressed by anyone who lives past 100. She goes a leg further, living to 127 years old.
Our time with her in the text of Genesis has covered 62 of those years. We don't know much about her first 65 years. We know that she endured the terrible irony of being named Sarai after the queen of the Akkadian moon god, the moon god who was supposed to bring blessings of fertility, and yet, for 65 years, she could never have a child.
We know that at 65, she followed her husband Abram out of the city of Haran, leaving everything familiar behind because the true God, Yahweh, had told him to leave for the land of Canaan. God had promised to give them this land and had promised to bring forth a nation from Abram. In other words, this God was promising them a child.
It was not easy following Abram. He's worried about his safety in strange lands filled with powerful men. And on at least two occasions, Abram seems to suggest this is something that he did maybe even more often than that, he made her say that she was his sister. She was nearly made a wife of Pharaoh and king Abimelech.
It was also not easy trusting God. She desperately wanted a child. To the point that she even. Convinced Abram to take her servant Hagar as a wife, to have a child through her. She ended up regretting that decision, it became a point of tension in their household. God made it clear to Abram this wasn't his plan.
And to make his point, he changed Abram's name to Abraham and Sarai's name to Sarah. In doing so, he was reminding them of the promises that he had made. As he was directing them away from the notion that Hagar's child would fulfilled this promise. The name Abraham means father of many. The change from Sarai to Sarah is not so clear.
It retains its royal rootedness in the idea of a princess. But we can speculate that maybe this change now sweeps away the pagan connection. God is telling Sarah that she is in HIs plan by giving her a new name. God was insistent on his promises, but the years rolled on. Sarah was 90, and still waiting. One day, three visitors showed up at their tent. As she prepared a meal for them in the tent, it became clear they were a mysterious bunch, for sure. One of them said she would give birth to a son by that time next year.
She laughed at the notion that this would happen now at 90. It seemed even less feasible than when she was 65. Somehow, the speaker heard and knew her thoughts even, and called her out on it. This was a visitation from God himself. It came to pass exactly as he said. She did have a son, and in obedience to God's command, and fitting the response that everyone had when they heard that she had given birth to a child.
She named him Isaac, which means he laughs. God had kept his word. After Sarah weaned Isaac, Hagar and her son Ishmael left their household for good. We are given no more details about the approximately 34 years that followed. I think the silence signals to us the peace and satisfaction that she enjoyed.
At last, at last, she was a mother. And Sarah got to raise him to be a man. God had promised this son and given her this joy. And yet, there was more that had been promised. Children upon children. And a land they could call their own. She did not live to see her grandchildren. She died without a speck of dirt to call her own.
She got a lick of the frosting, but is still waiting on the cake. In these opening verses of Genesis 23, we see that she died at Kiriath Arba, that is, Hebron. Basically their home site. Again, they did not own any property. We can see on a map, I have here, Abram that's there, just a little to the west of the Dead Sea.
I find it interesting that it says that Abraham went to her. Now perhaps, he was in very close vicinity to her. Maybe just in the next room over in their tent or something, but it makes me wonder whether he was out in the fields, out with his men and he received news of her passing. And he went to her.
And we have this picture of him going to her and just weeping over her body. Abraham's heartbroken. I mean, think about, we don't know what age they got married, but there's a good chance maybe they were married for over a hundred years. Incredible to think about. And as he's mourning, he must now deal with the very practical question of where he would bury her.
See, he didn't have any land of his own to bury her. And the practice that continued into the time of Christ was often that you'd place a body in a cave, and there the body would be allowed to decompose. And then they would gather the bones afterwards and put them in a ossuary, which was kind of like a pottery container. They removed them to a further place in the back of the cave so that other family members would also be able to share the same space when their time to die had come. Abraham did not have such a space for his wife Sarah. He was a foreigner in the land. The writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11: 9 reminds us of this.
He says, By faith he, Abraham, made his home in the promised land like a stranger in a foreign country. He lived in tents, as did Isaac and Jacob, who were heirs with him of the same promise. See, Abraham lived a nomadic life. He had herds, and he did well for himself in that. But just because he did well for himself in that did not mean that he was a land owner. That was something that was a little bit more difficult to obtain.
Abraham knows that he is a foreigner in the land, but he also knows God's promise that he was to inherit this land. That the land of Canaan was promised to him. He also knew, however, that there was difficulties that were going to come along the way. God tells him this very clearly in Genesis 15, verses 16, 13 through 16.
It says, the Lord said to him, Know for certain that for 400 years your descendants will be strangers in a country not their own, and that they will be enslaved and mistreated there. And what God's talking about here is the time that the Hebrew people were in Egypt. But I will punish the nation they serve as slaves, and afterward they will come out with great possessions.
You, however, will go to your ancestors in peace, and be buried at a good old age. And the fourth generation, your descendants will come back here, for the sin of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure. So Abraham knows that he's going to have a burial place for himself. He's supposed to be able to go to his death in peace, but he knows that his descendants are going to run into some trouble.
And so the horizon has some uncertainties in it, even as God's promise remains, despite these difficulties. Abraham is in a difficult position here. He has no land, and he needs to convince some of the locals to sell to him. And besides this, he knows that whatever land he gets will be in limbo for those 400 years his grandchildren will be enslaved.
He must trust that God will basically turn this small land purchase into the inheritance of Canaan, just as he must trust that God will turn Isaac into a nation. So he gets up from his mourning to make a deal with his neighbors. So we continue on in verse 3. And it says that he rose from his wife and he spoke to the Hittites.
Now the Hittite people have been kind of their traditional land has been located in Anatolia, which is modern day Turkey. Not sure if this is just different people with the same name or whether these are kind of migrants from this area. But they were the ones who were occupying the land. And when Abraham comes to them, he admits his status among them.
He says, I am a foreigner and stranger among you. And he makes this plea. Sell me some property for a burial site so I can bury my dead. And then what follows from this initial request is a very nuanced negotiation, which is really difficult for us as 21st century Americans to follow, but you have to understand that there's some like social courtesies going on here in the way that they go about working out this arrangement.
Now the Hittites are prepared to try to help Abraham out. They call him a mighty prince. Elohim Nasi, and which means, in the original language, Prince of God. So they recognize that God's hand is upon Abraham. And it seems as though maybe they're going to go along with what he said, but you have to pay very closely, close attention to the details here.
Because they do not agree to sell anything to Abraham. They just say, bury your dead in the choices of our tombs. None of us will refuse his tomb for burying your dead. And if you understand that the way that the tombs work, that they could be reused, you can understand. They're basically saying, yeah, you can use our tomb for Sarah to take care of her.
But they basically skirted around his request to sell him something. They don't really want to give him a stake in the land. Now, of course, this is a nice offer, but it leaves Abraham at the mercy of the Hittites when it comes to the burial of his family. If the land is not purchased, it could be taken away just as easily as it is given.
So Abraham persists, and we pick up in verse 7. It says, Then Abraham rose and bowed down before the people of the land, the Hittites. He said to them, If you are willing to let me bury my dead, then listen to me. Intercede with Ephron son of Zohar on my behalf, so he will sell me the cave of Machpelah, which belongs to him and is at the end of his field.
Ask him to sell it to me for the full price as a burial site among you. Ephron the Hittite was sitting among his people, and he replied to Abraham in the hearing of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of his city, No, my lord, he said, listen to me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it.
I give it to you in the presence of my people. Bury your dead. So now we have a little bit of a fuller picture of the scene that is playing out here. This is happening at the city gate of Hebron. And this is where a lot of official business was conducted in ancient times. At the city gate, this is where the elders of the city would be gathered.
So you imagine Abraham's there with all kinds of leaders of the city. And among them is Ephron the son of Zohar. Now, again, the reason why Abraham doesn't just address him directly is out of social courtesy. It would be kind of embarrassing for him to say, hey, won't you sell me your land? Instead, he says, I would like it if Ephron would consider this, please intercede on my behalf.
He's trying to show him respect. And Ephron recognizes his request and replies to him. Directly. Now again, a Abraham's approach here is completely humble. He's recognizing, he's a foreigner, a stranger in the land, and he, he goes so far as to bow before them, even though they have recognized him as a respectable man, as a mighty prince.
He bows before him, before them to make this plea, and what he is requesting very specifically is the cave of Machpelah, which is at the end of a field that Ephron owns. Now, to be specific here, Abraham had been only requesting the cave. When Ephron responds though, he mentions, I give you the field as well. He's throwing that into the mix here.
Now, the thing that's difficult for us to pick out here is, what exactly Ephron's offering here, whether he's saying, yes, I'll sell you the, the cave and I'll just throw in the field with it, or whether he's trying to suggest if I'm going to sell it to you, I want to sell both of them, or if I'm going to, or even if he's saying I'm going to give both of them to you for free, it's kind of difficult to pick that out here.
But the plain matter is, is that it seems in some way he's trying to give Abraham some sort of discount, perhaps. And the reason why he wants to include the field into this deal is it seems like taxation at that time would have included the field so it's no benefit to Ephron to separate the cave from the field.
It's really interesting that they had those kind of specifications back in that day, but, yeah, they had taxes back then, too. So for Ephron, from Ephron's viewpoint, it's like, this is a an all or nothing deal. I'm not just gonna give you the cave. Like, you gotta take the whole bundle, basically.
But once again, if, if in fact, what Ephron's doing here is trying to give Abraham a good deal, once again, Abraham refuses to take any favors, and so the dance of negotiations continues. We pick up in verse 12. It says, again, Abraham bowed down before the people of the land, humbling himself. He said, he said to Ephron in their hearing, listen to me, if you will.
I will pay the price of the field. Accept it from me so I can bury my dead there. Ephron answered Abraham, Listen to me, my Lord. The land is worth four hundred shekels of silver. But what is that between you and me? Bury your dead. Abraham agreed to Ephron's terms and weighed out for him the price he had named in the hearing of the Hittites.
Four hundred shekels of silver according to the weight current among the merchants. So this business, again, is being conducted before all these witnesses. And Abraham wants to pay the full price of the field here, in order that, in the eyes of the Hittites, they would understand that this is a completely fair purchase, and that this land truly belongs to Abraham. So, Abraham does the courtesy of, of welcoming, you know, Ephron's setting the price.
Kind of leaves it open ended. I'll just pay the price of the field. And Ephron does this kind of, again, a unique kind of social courtesy move. He says, listen to me, my lord. The land is worth 400 shekels of silver, but what is that between you and me? Bury your dead. It's kind of like he's just kind of saying, like, oh yeah, you know, the Kelley Blue Book value on the car is like 8, 000, but what is that between you and me?
You kind of make it seem like He's, he's kind of throwing out there what he'd really want, but he's like playing the courtesy game of like, oh, that's nothing. So, but Abraham agrees to it. He doesn't really care what the price is. He may have overpaid here, but again, he wants the people to see that he has a full legitimate stake in this land.
And so he pays 400 shekels, that's about 10 pounds of silver. Really difficult for us to know what that would be, the value of that would be in today's terms, because values fluctuate over time. But in any case, the deal is set in verses 17 through 20, gives the details of what Abraham got. It says, so Ephron's Field in Machpelah near Mamre, both the field and the cave in it, and all the trees within the borders of the field were deeded, was deeded to Abraham as his property and the presence of all the Hittites who had come to the gate of the city.
Afterward, Abraham buried his wife Sarah in the cave in the field of Machpelah, near Mamre, which is at Hebron, in the land of Canaan. So the field and the cave in it were deeded to Abraham by the Hittites as a burial site. It's kind of interesting how the passage kind of goes almost three times over and saying like this was Abraham's land.
It was deeded to him. He had the witnesses. It's interesting also that it includes the trees here. The trees are Abraham's too. Because again, they had, they specified everything. Because it was understood, even today, trees can be of value. And in that time, trees were certainly of value. And they wanted to make it clear that, yes, the trees also belonged to Abraham as well.
And so Abraham buries Sarah there. And he himself will be buried there as well. I've got a couple pictures of the traditional site of where this is. In Hebron, it's kind of got the features of a mosque because that's what it is. There's, different groups have kind of constructed over the site.
You have Christians, Muslims, and, for a long time the Jewish people couldn't even visit this site. They were forbidden from visiting it until, I think, in the past 50 years or so. And so now it's under kind of an interest divide between Muslims and Jews. It's a very tense situation there. If you go to the next picture you can kind of see, one of the things that's difficult when you go to the Near East and you visit lots of these sites, it's just so ornate, and you're like, this looks nothing like a cave, and it's just, it's not, it doesn't help your imagination at all, but you can appreciate it was done to protect the site.
So, here is supposed to be the spot where Abraham's remains are, and if you look down that vent, if you could stand over and look down it, you'd be able to look down a shaft to the cave below, supposedly, to kind of the subterranean area where, those remains are, because you have an accumulation of dirt over the ages.
It's not on level ground anymore. So, pretty interesting. I've never been there, but if you have a chance, it'd be interesting if you went and got some pictures for us. But, not just Abraham and Sarah are buried there, but also, his son Isaac and also Jacob. We hear in Genesis 49, Jacob making this request, giving this instruction when he was in Egypt. it says, then he gave them these instructions. I'm about to be gathered to my people. Bury me with my fathers in the cave in the field of Ephron the Hittite. The cave in the field of Machpelah near Mamre and Canaan, which Abraham bought along with the field is a burial place from Ephron the Hittite.
There Abraham and his wife Sarah were buried. There Isaac and his wife Rebekah were buried. And there I buried Leah. The field and the cave in it were bought from the Hittites. So, all's well in that regard. Abraham has found a burial place for Sarah. But again, we kind of go back to where we began, in which, yes, Sarah saw the promise of the son being born, but there's so much more that was promised that she didn't see, and also that Abraham himself would not live to see. And we get some commentary here from the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11. We're gonna read verses 13 and 16 and then jump to the end of the passage, which includes not just Abraham and Sarah, but all the prophets of the Old Testament. the writer says this, he says, all these people were still living by faith.
When they died, they did not receive the things promised. They only saw them and welcome them from a distance, admitting that they were foreigners and strangers on earth. People who say such things show that they are looking for a country of their own. If they had been thinking of the country they had left, they would have had opportunity to return.
Instead, they were longing for a better country, a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for He has prepared a city for them. These were all commended for their faith, yet none of them received what had been promised. Since God had planned something better for us, so that only together with us would they be made perfect.
So what the writer is saying here is that they did not live to see these promises fulfilled, because God has always intended that we would be included in those promises. And Christ has not yet returned because there remains others who are to be included in that promise. We are born, we live, and we die, awaiting the full completion of these promises.
We're looking forward to a better country, a heavenly one. Now, I want to make, a special distinction here. We're not talking about heaven as such. Because there's a difference, there's an important difference between our intermediate state, and our final anticipation. When I say intermediate state, I mean the time between you dying and you being raised from the dead.
Now whether, you know, Advent Christians believe that people are unconscious during that time, but whether you believe that or not, and there's, it's not something that's absolutely clear. Whether you're unconscious or conscious before the presence of the Lord, that's not the final place we're going to be in heaven.
That's not our final hope. Our hope is the resurrection of the dead, and the city which is to come. And the scriptures make this clear. In Hebrews 11: 10, so just earlier in this passage, it says, For Abraham was looking forward to the city with foundations, whose architect and builder is God. So the writer of Hebrews is saying that even Abraham had this sense of something greater that lay beyond the immediate promises that were on the horizon in terms of, you know, a son and being the father of many people, but that there was something greater that was to come.
And then we learn more about this city as we go further in Hebrews, and then we look to Revelation. Hebrews 13, verses 13 through 14, says, Let us then go to Jesus outside the camp, bearing the disgrace he bore. For here, he's talking about this world, we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come.
The city that is to come. We are not going to that city. We're looking forward to the city that is to come. And then when we get to the book of Revelation, we see exactly the manner in which that city is to come. In Revelation 21: 10, it says, And he carried me away in the spirit to a mountain great and high, this is the Apostle John speaking, and showed me the holy city of Jerusalem coming down out of heaven from God.
See, the Christian hope is, is this, is that God is going to restore all things. That's, that's why it's important to understand this, is that God is not abandoning Earth. He's not abandoning His creation. He's redeeming and restoring what He has created. And so what our hope is, is we're looking forward to that day when Heaven and Earth are going to meet together.
And God is going to make His home on here, here on Earth with us, and we're going to dwell with Him forever.
We must remember that there is more to come. This is our hope. In our lifetimes, we might have some nice licks of frosting. But there is so much more that awaits. And we need to remember this to avoid despair. Because the truth is, is that this world is not baking us anything sweet. At the end of the day, it all ends in despair.
And that's not sweet at all. We might catch glimpses of the heavenly country, but this is no heaven. But so many people out there are trying to create heaven on earth. Whether it be in the halls of government, or in their own backyard. It's not happening. You can't make it. You won't find it. There is no heaven on earth without God.
There is no unshakable kingdom until, until Christ rules the earth as king. So, live like you believe that. Live like you believe that. We won't be satisfied until Christ returns and our faith becomes sight. We are foreigners in the land. But we can have the peace of Abraham and Sarah as we face death. We can enter our rest knowing that God keeps His promises.
And that though we die, we will live to see them fulfilled. Let's pray.
Father, we are amazed by the testimony of Sarah's life. Of how you brought her along to trust in you, to trust in your promises. And sometimes when we see a story like hers, Father, we can see how can we compare with her. We don't feel very important, but we see, Father, that we do share things in common.
That she faced death and did enter her rest and that from, for us, unless Christ returns, that's our prospect as well, Father, that we too will die. And though we share this in common, Father, this death, we are given hope because we also share in the promises which were hers, which were Abraham's. This promise, that we would live to see this city, which is to come.
This promise that we would be counted among the children of Abraham. In fact, Father, be counted as your children. And so, Father, our prayer this morning is that we would fix our eyes on that hope. That you'd give us peace, trusting in your promises, trusting in your goodness. So that we would not chase after false hopes.
So that we would not waste our time trying to make heaven on earth. But that instead, Father, we would just simply be faithful. Being faithful and obedient to do what is right today. To be your children, peacemakers, those who do good. But ultimately, Father, resting in the knowledge that it is only you who can bring complete restoration.
What a relief that is, Father, that we can trust in that promise. Help us to rest in it. We ask this in the name of Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.
Hey there, Pastor Tom here. I hope you enjoyed this sermon I offered to Rockland Community Church. Rockland Community Church is located at 212 Rockland Road in North Scituate, Rhode Island, just around the bend from Scituate Public High School. We invite you to join us this Sunday, as we continue our sermon series looking at the Bible's account of Abraham.
It's our joy to welcome you into our community.
Intro/Outro Song
Title: River Meditation
Artist: Jason Shaw
Source:http://freemusicarchive.org/music/Jason_Shaw/Audionautix_Acoustic/RIVER_MEDITATION___________2-58
License:(CC BY 3.0 US)