Abraham, a man of Challenge, Faith and Promise
By Death Comes The Inheritance
Reading Genesis 23:1ff
In the record and the narrative of the life of Abraham, we are now looking at the closing years of his life. When Sarah dies she was some 127 years old, and Abraham was about 137 years old, Isaac is now about 37 years old. Abraham had been in the land some fifty years, and what is quite remarkable is that it was still a land of promise to him. They had no actual title to any land, he had lived with the inhabitants for over fifty years, his relationship with them was a good one, but he still did not hold title to any of the land.
Not only the people of the land viewed him as a mighty and good prince, but he had also been able to walk into the courts of Kings and Pharaohs as an equal. He however he still did not have title over any of the land. It was to take the death of his wife Sarah before even a small piece of the land was to be truly his and his decedents. We read of his desire to bury his wife in land that they could truly claim to be their own, and of the details of the arrangements in its purchase. We are not going to follow the text in any detail but we are going to look at the purchase of our inheritance and our moving into that inheritance.
This land that Abraham was purchasing was his by promise, the LORD had said that wherever he was to place his feet would be his and to his decedents. Yet there were others who lived in this land. Others who had taken up residence and cultivated it. So there was this conflict between the promise and the reality, the promise said it was yours Abraham; the reality was others held the title over the land. The way of resolve for this was to be found in the actions of Abraham. The promise of God to whole of mankind is that there is eternal life and that we can have dominion over this world. The reality is that there are millions who do not have the assurance of eternal life and that creation is out of control because man is out of control.
There is also the truth that the promise can only be a reality because there has been a death. A death on our behalf so that we can live as people living in our destiny of eternal life. The death was that of Jesus Christ and the reality is we can live in the might and power of the Holy Spirit and see this generation won for our Lord. This is so because what Jesus achieved in his death, the shedding of His blood and in His resurrection, is still as relevant and as powerful today as it was some two thousand years ago. Jesus when He died upon that cross, not only purchased the title deeds off our lives, but also has made it possible for them to be transferred from the vaults of the host of darkness and death, and transfer them into the safe hands of the Almighty God.
We have from time to time noted a tendency in human nature, to attempt to reverse biblical principles and then wonder why they do not work. What is sad about such a practice is that when one persists there is the constant feeling that nothing one does works. This leads to the notion that God is not listening, that somehow He is not that interested in me, so why bother. It is true that it does not work, but the reason for it not working is that we are incorrectly applying biblical principles, and not that God has somehow lost interest. Yet unless we face up to such issues there sets in a despondency, a since of frustration, even a since of futility, which in turn leads at best, the taking of a back seat but what all too often happens is we simply give up. There is the biblical principle of laying down one’s life to receive life; Jesus said, ”unless a grain of seed falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit. He who loves his life loses it, and he who hates his life in this world will keep it for eternal life.” John 12:12+25
Jesus is saying, “If you stop serving the world and all its way, if you lay your life down and take up Mine, then you will find not only fulfillment but life and life eternal at that. But if you retain your life to yourself, then you will loose it.” The reality of the situation is that each and everyone of us knows what happens when we live for ourselves, we loose something.
In the land where Abraham was there were others who were going to have to be dislodged. Yes Jesus has won the battle, yes the victory has been secured, but we need to move in and occupy the land.
