Sarah’s Death and Burial

WEBVTT 1 00:00:00.280 --> 00:00:06.120 Beloved. Let's turn to Genesis Chapter Twenty three and hear a God's word from 2 00:00:06.200 --> 00:00:27.500 this foundational book of the Bible, Genesis Twenty three. The grass withers and 3 00:00:27.620 --> 00:00:32.140 the flower fades, but the word of God stands forever, it lives forever, 4 00:00:32.219 --> 00:00:36.570 it is living and active. Let's give our attention to it as such. 5 00:00:39.490 --> 00:00:43.729 Sarah lived a hundred and twenty seven years. These were the years of 6 00:00:43.810 --> 00:00:48.490 the life of Sarah and Sarah died at carry off Arba, that is Hebron, 7 00:00:48.850 --> 00:00:53.240 in the land of Canaan, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah 8 00:00:53.679 --> 00:00:58.799 and to weep for her and Abraham. and Abraham rose up from before his 9 00:00:59.039 --> 00:01:03.840 dead and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and foreigner among you. 10 00:01:03.430 --> 00:01:07.709 Give me property among you for a burying place that I may buried my 11 00:01:07.909 --> 00:01:12.670 dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered, Abraham, hear us, 12 00:01:12.790 --> 00:01:18.620 my Lord, you are a Prince of God among us, bury your dead 13 00:01:18.700 --> 00:01:22.700 and the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his 14 00:01:22.939 --> 00:01:27.819 tomb to hinder you from burying your dead. Abraham Rose and bowed to the 15 00:01:27.900 --> 00:01:33.090 Hittites, the people of the land, and he said to them, if 16 00:01:33.170 --> 00:01:36.930 you are willing that I should bury my dad out of my sight, hear 17 00:01:37.090 --> 00:01:42.129 me and entreat for me, fron the son of Zohar, that he may 18 00:01:42.250 --> 00:01:47.049 give me the Cave of Machpelah, which he owns. It is at the 19 00:01:47.090 --> 00:01:49.239 end of his field, for the full price. Let him give it to 20 00:01:49.319 --> 00:01:55.439 me in your presence, as property for a buy, for a burying place. 21 00:01:56.920 --> 00:02:00.430 Now efron was sitting among the Hittites, and fron the hittide answered Abraham 22 00:02:00.469 --> 00:02:05.510 and the hearing of the Hittites, all who went in at the gate of 23 00:02:05.629 --> 00:02:08.469 his city. No, my Lord, hear me. I will give you 24 00:02:08.590 --> 00:02:12.830 the field and I will give you the cave that is in it, in 25 00:02:12.949 --> 00:02:15.710 the side of the sons of my people. I give it to you bury 26 00:02:15.780 --> 00:02:20.620 you're dead. Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land and he 27 00:02:20.740 --> 00:02:23.139 said to Ephron, in the hearing of the people of the land, but 28 00:02:23.219 --> 00:02:27.139 if you will it, but if you will hear me, I give the 29 00:02:27.219 --> 00:02:30.530 price of the field. Accept it from me, that I may bury my 30 00:02:30.689 --> 00:02:34.889 dead there. Efron answered Abraham. My Lord, listen to me. A 31 00:02:35.050 --> 00:02:38.090 piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver. What is that between you 32 00:02:38.250 --> 00:02:45.199 and me bury, you're dead. Abraham listened to fron and Abraham went out 33 00:02:45.319 --> 00:02:50.719 for went out from fron or, I'm sorry, weighed out for fron the 34 00:02:50.800 --> 00:02:53.759 so over that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites, four hundred 35 00:02:53.879 --> 00:02:59.389 shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. So the 36 00:02:59.430 --> 00:03:04.469 field of Efron in macpela Makola was which was to the east of Mammor, 37 00:03:05.150 --> 00:03:08.870 the field which the field with the cave that was in it and all the 38 00:03:08.990 --> 00:03:13.780 trees that were in the field throughout its whole area, was made over to 39 00:03:13.939 --> 00:03:17.819 Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went 40 00:03:17.979 --> 00:03:23.340 in at the gate of his city. After this, Abraham Buried Sarah, 41 00:03:23.419 --> 00:03:27.210 his wife, in the Cave of the field of Machpala, east of Mammor, 42 00:03:27.530 --> 00:03:30.530 that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. The field in the 43 00:03:30.610 --> 00:03:35.969 cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a burying 44 00:03:36.129 --> 00:03:53.080 place by the Hittites. Well, we see in this passage. One of 45 00:03:53.159 --> 00:03:59.229 the things that we see in this passage is something that we considered previously, 46 00:04:00.509 --> 00:04:04.990 I'm the great success of Abraham, even though he was a pilgrim in a 47 00:04:05.030 --> 00:04:11.219 land that was not yet his. He was like a Joseph, a Daniel. 48 00:04:11.419 --> 00:04:15.300 He was one who was a child of the Lord, who had been 49 00:04:15.379 --> 00:04:21.019 promised on things from the Lord, and yet I found himself not in a 50 00:04:21.180 --> 00:04:29.129 place that was his, a place of strangers. God had blessed his pilgrim 51 00:04:29.250 --> 00:04:32.769 life, but it was still a pilgrim life, and we see that in 52 00:04:32.930 --> 00:04:39.800 this very practical, or not practical, a concrete, real, visceral sense, 53 00:04:41.000 --> 00:04:45.600 the strange set of circumstances in which rich, powerful Abraham, and what 54 00:04:45.720 --> 00:04:50.000 the hit tights recognize him, is a Prince of God right. His wealth 55 00:04:50.240 --> 00:04:57.430 is amazing, he is clearly one of their equals, perhaps even they're better 56 00:04:57.589 --> 00:05:04.430 in some cases. And yet this great, rich, powerful person is landless. 57 00:05:05.389 --> 00:05:13.500 He doesn't even have a place to bury his own wife. A strange, 58 00:05:13.620 --> 00:05:18.220 I'm set of circumstances indeed, and it reminds us of the many strange 59 00:05:18.300 --> 00:05:24.649 circumstances that we, a pilgrim people as well, often find ourselves in. 60 00:05:25.490 --> 00:05:30.810 People who have received all kinds of spiritual and material blessings from the Lord and 61 00:05:30.290 --> 00:05:35.600 yet often feel out of place in the world and not quite sure how it 62 00:05:35.720 --> 00:05:42.120 is, how we ought to act. It requires wisdom, it requires trust 63 00:05:42.399 --> 00:05:47.759 in the Lord. As we see here, Abraham has the body of his 64 00:05:47.959 --> 00:05:57.790 wife. What will he do? He desires to bury her. One of 65 00:05:57.829 --> 00:06:01.470 the things that will see Abraham doing is holding on to the promises that have 66 00:06:01.550 --> 00:06:06.740 been given to him by grace, and it is something that is worth our 67 00:06:06.860 --> 00:06:15.180 reflection. To just make clear a little bit of what the particular events are 68 00:06:15.420 --> 00:06:18.769 here in this story, what we see is Abraham going to the people of 69 00:06:18.850 --> 00:06:25.329 the land. That's a phrase that's used in several places and probably refers to 70 00:06:25.490 --> 00:06:30.050 not merely just general people of the land, but probably to some kind of 71 00:06:30.250 --> 00:06:35.759 council sometime, some kind of assembly, and we know that from the official 72 00:06:35.839 --> 00:06:42.120 way it's spoken of and many and repeated in many times. We also know 73 00:06:42.319 --> 00:06:45.959 that from the way in which they're doing all of this business. They are 74 00:06:46.000 --> 00:06:49.910 at the city gate. That's mentioned many times, this place where contracts are 75 00:06:50.029 --> 00:06:56.069 made, where deals are done, judgments are made. You remember, it 76 00:06:56.269 --> 00:07:02.339 is boas who goes to the city, to the gate, to make these 77 00:07:02.420 --> 00:07:09.459 decisions regarding the redemption of roof. This is a common in a common image. 78 00:07:11.699 --> 00:07:14.620 So here he is and we also see that there is it's is a 79 00:07:14.779 --> 00:07:18.410 public transaction. There is this is a very legal kind of chapter going on 80 00:07:18.689 --> 00:07:24.250 here. There are witnesses called on, there's negotiations, this kind of bowing 81 00:07:24.290 --> 00:07:27.850 back and forth. My Lord, good sir, what will we do as 82 00:07:27.930 --> 00:07:32.439 they try to determine the best course of action here? And ultimately, what 83 00:07:32.560 --> 00:07:39.879 Abraham is able to do is he is able to buy property. He is 84 00:07:40.000 --> 00:07:45.910 able to buy property in the land of Canaan. Now, remember that's not 85 00:07:46.149 --> 00:07:49.069 just any land, this is the land, this is the promised land. 86 00:07:49.149 --> 00:07:55.589 This is why he has come out. He, or God, has called 87 00:07:55.670 --> 00:07:59.939 him out from his previous place to this place that he might possess it. 88 00:08:00.779 --> 00:08:03.379 Well, he is possessing it in a way, but perhaps not in the 89 00:08:03.459 --> 00:08:09.660 way that he might have preferred, at least initially. The scripture doesn't get 90 00:08:09.660 --> 00:08:13.089 into all of that, but what we do see is that Abraham, I'm 91 00:08:13.209 --> 00:08:18.449 here, is purchasing land that had already been promised to him by God. 92 00:08:20.970 --> 00:08:26.879 Now in this we can come. We can safely assume that the devil was 93 00:08:28.040 --> 00:08:33.919 actively at work, as he always is when the people of God are being 94 00:08:35.039 --> 00:08:41.590 tested. Death is a reality in Abraham's life, just as this isn't, 95 00:08:41.789 --> 00:08:46.909 as it is in all of ours. And God tells us in Hebrews that 96 00:08:46.029 --> 00:08:50.789 devil, that the devil, through the fear of death, holds people in 97 00:08:50.029 --> 00:08:54.870 slavery and those that he doesn't hold slavery. He surely would like to. 98 00:08:54.350 --> 00:08:58.059 He likes to make us afraid, he likes to make us feel frustrated, 99 00:08:58.379 --> 00:09:05.340 particularly in the fulfillment of the promises of God. So think about things from 100 00:09:05.379 --> 00:09:11.490 Abraham's perspective. Here. He was prout, promised a land, this land 101 00:09:11.610 --> 00:09:16.370 of Canaan, and what he has is nothing except his wife, who is 102 00:09:16.529 --> 00:09:24.440 now dead, and no place to bury her. Is it possible that Abraham 103 00:09:24.639 --> 00:09:28.960 would have effaced some struggle here? The scriptures don't go into that and it's 104 00:09:28.000 --> 00:09:31.679 not, I don't, think, to be our primary focus, but I 105 00:09:31.799 --> 00:09:37.440 think it is something we can relate to. Death is very difficult, there 106 00:09:37.590 --> 00:09:43.590 is sorrow, as we see in Abraham. There is complication and death. 107 00:09:43.710 --> 00:09:48.870 There is a wonder sometimes has Christ really done what he promised to do? 108 00:09:48.149 --> 00:09:54.940 Has God really promised what he has promised to do? Throughout the book of 109 00:09:54.980 --> 00:09:58.620 Genesis we see this over and over, either the seed as being tested, 110 00:09:58.700 --> 00:10:03.460 God's promise regarding the seed, or the question of the land. Will Abraham 111 00:10:03.620 --> 00:10:09.850 inherit the land, and that's a present here as well. And so Abraham 112 00:10:09.610 --> 00:10:15.889 goes about this and he goes about it in a very godly way, as 113 00:10:16.049 --> 00:10:18.409 one who has not yet been given these things by God. He seeks to 114 00:10:18.490 --> 00:10:24.519 deal with them in the normal terms of the world and he trusts the Lord 115 00:10:24.240 --> 00:10:31.759 to work it out. And indeed the Lord does notice also the way that 116 00:10:31.879 --> 00:10:35.110 Abraham does this. He does it in a way to secure this, this 117 00:10:35.870 --> 00:10:41.710 land fully. That's what this business about the full price is likely about. 118 00:10:41.070 --> 00:10:46.470 He doesn't want any question about who this land will belong to in the future. 119 00:10:46.070 --> 00:10:50.820 This is going to be his place in the Promised Land, at least 120 00:10:52.539 --> 00:10:56.100 for now. And so he negotiates this full price. He pays the full 121 00:10:56.220 --> 00:11:01.299 price and there are witnesses and it's all very clear what has happened. And 122 00:11:03.580 --> 00:11:07.649 so is Abraham. Pays that full price, he secures this land and ultimately 123 00:11:07.769 --> 00:11:11.529 not only Sarah will be buried there, but also him and his son and 124 00:11:11.769 --> 00:11:16.090 his wife and his grandson and his wife, all buried in this this place. 125 00:11:18.720 --> 00:11:22.480 Now, as we see Abraham Holding fast to the promises of God, 126 00:11:22.799 --> 00:11:30.679 even as he even as he perhaps struggles in some ways to see them fulfilled. 127 00:11:30.720 --> 00:11:33.789 At this particular moment, we see him waiting and doing what all the 128 00:11:33.909 --> 00:11:41.549 people of the Lord are called to do as Christians. Death is a reality 129 00:11:41.710 --> 00:11:48.460 in our lives. If it's not a reality, it should be, because 130 00:11:48.460 --> 00:11:54.539 until the resurrection there is this painful sorrow that is in us all. A 131 00:11:54.659 --> 00:11:58.700 lot of times death is we would like to push it off from our minds, 132 00:11:58.740 --> 00:12:03.250 but usually when we face it it's longer than we'd like it to be, 133 00:12:03.929 --> 00:12:09.250 more complicated than we'd like it to be. In death we find ourselves 134 00:12:09.450 --> 00:12:13.450 often at with great losses, at a great loss in knowing what to do. 135 00:12:15.720 --> 00:12:20.159 Death happens and it feels so flinal. There's all kinds of unresolved issues, 136 00:12:20.480 --> 00:12:24.240 things that were unsaid, things that remain undone, and that's all there 137 00:12:24.360 --> 00:12:30.269 is, it would seem. This is an issue we face all the time 138 00:12:30.309 --> 00:12:33.389 and we have to learn to how do we think about this, how do 139 00:12:33.470 --> 00:12:37.470 we think about our own deaths and the deaths of our loved ones, when 140 00:12:37.549 --> 00:12:41.789 we do not yet have possession of the land, when we do not yet 141 00:12:41.830 --> 00:12:50.659 fully have not yet fully been placed in the new heavens and the new earth? 142 00:12:52.700 --> 00:12:56.659 One of the things we can think about, as Abraham does here are 143 00:12:56.779 --> 00:13:03.210 the promises of God. And what does God promise to us? He promises 144 00:13:03.250 --> 00:13:09.169 US hope in the resurrection of Christ through Jesus's death and resurrection. He promises 145 00:13:09.250 --> 00:13:16.600 to us that living will happen again, that the sting of death is gone 146 00:13:16.679 --> 00:13:22.360 and that these temporary, frustrating things, these ways in which we find ourselves 147 00:13:22.399 --> 00:13:26.190 having to navigate in a difficult world without really all the kind of resolution that 148 00:13:26.269 --> 00:13:33.029 we would want, God will give us that resolution. We see it at 149 00:13:33.070 --> 00:13:35.470 beginning with Jesus and his resurrection and from the dead, and we see it 150 00:13:35.590 --> 00:13:41.309 in his promise to raise all of us from the dead as well at his 151 00:13:41.389 --> 00:13:46.539 second coming. And so I want to close just with this thought. When 152 00:13:46.580 --> 00:13:54.500 we consider with the work of Jesus, notice the price that he pays and 153 00:13:54.740 --> 00:14:00.250 what he gains as a result. When Abraham pays the full price for this 154 00:14:00.409 --> 00:14:03.649 field, he is able to bury his dead wife, and no doubt this 155 00:14:03.769 --> 00:14:09.330 would have been quite a high price to pay. He buries her in faith, 156 00:14:09.370 --> 00:14:13.799 he carries her and trust that God will ultimately fulfill these promises and not 157 00:14:13.960 --> 00:14:18.399 just this portion of land, but all the land, indeed even the heavenly 158 00:14:18.440 --> 00:14:24.389 land, will belong to them. What is Jesus do? Well, Jesus 159 00:14:24.429 --> 00:14:28.669 doesn't just pay a high price. Jesus pays with his own life. And 160 00:14:28.830 --> 00:14:35.149 what does Jesus get for that price? He gets everything. For Sarah, 161 00:14:35.309 --> 00:14:41.700 for example, she will not just have a place for her dead body to 162 00:14:41.860 --> 00:14:46.940 rest, but she will have a place to live forever in her alive and 163 00:14:48.179 --> 00:14:54.090 glorified body. This is what Jesus accomplishes for us gee things that are are 164 00:14:54.210 --> 00:15:00.970 anticipated here what we see in these early promises, in Genesis and the new 165 00:15:01.049 --> 00:15:05.169 covenant. They come together and they flower in a most wonderful way, and 166 00:15:05.330 --> 00:15:09.960 when we face our own deaths and when we face the burial of those who 167 00:15:11.480 --> 00:15:16.600 we love, it's right for us to remember these things as well. Yes, 168 00:15:16.759 --> 00:15:20.200 there will be sorrows, yes, there will be things that are unfinished, 169 00:15:20.279 --> 00:15:24.549 undone, not quite right, not quite settled, but that's of course, 170 00:15:24.549 --> 00:15:30.669 how God intends it. Things will be finished and completed when Jesus returns, 171 00:15:31.309 --> 00:15:35.940 and he will return and said all things right according to the price that 172 00:15:35.019 --> 00:15:39.460 he paid on the cross. Let's pray