Finishing Strong (Genesis Pt. 39)
Text: Genesis 23:1 – 20
By: Ken McKinley
(Read Text)
Well in last week’s sermon, we saw how Abraham’s faith has reached a new height. We saw how he was willing to trust God, even though he didn’t fully understand what was happening. He trusted God to the point, where he knew that even if Isaac was killed, God would raise him up in order to keep His promise.
And if you remember; prior to this chapter, when God had made that promise to Abraham, and told him that he would be the father of many nations; God also told him that He would give Abraham a land for his descendants. And up until now, Abraham hasn’t owned any land whatsoever. But in this chapter, we finally see this promise begin to be fulfilled.
You know; father’s day was awhile back, and MariJo got me a great gift. She bought me a 1’ X 1’ plot of land in Scotland. And so… your pastor is now an official Scottish Laird. Not a “lord”, a “lord” is a title of nobility, but a “Laird” is the term for land owner. I own a 1 ft. by 1 ft. plot of land in Scotland.
Well in this chapter, Abraham becomes a land owner as well. And this land that Abraham buys is… like I said, a down payment on God’s promise. And it’s important that we see that. Over and over again we read that all of this takes place in the land of Canaan. Sarah dies in Canaan, she’s buried in Canaan, the land that Abraham buys to bury her in is in Canaan, and he buys it from the Hittites – who lived in Canaan. So what Moses is doing here, by inspiration of the Holy Spirit, is documenting ownership. He’s going to make a point that this is Abraham’s land, and its indisputable.
So if we look at verses 1 & 2, we see that Sarah dies in the land of Canaan – which is the land of promise, but she’s only had one son, and no grandchildren yet. She had lived to be 127 years old. That would mean that Isaac was about 36 or 37 years old. So God graciously had allowed her to see her son grow up, and she got to see what kind of man he would be, but she didn’t get to see all of God’s promises to Abraham fulfilled. That should make us think of Hebrews 11:13 which says, “these all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth.”
Sarah died, but she died in faith.
One other important thing about Sarah that’s interesting. Sarah is the only woman in Bible whose age at death we know. The Bible doesn’t mention the ages of any other women when they died. Not even Mary’s – we don’t even know when Mary died. But it tells us Sarah’s age. So that kind of lets us know how important she was in God’s plan. We’re also told in Scripture… 1st Peter 3:3-6, that Sarah is a role model for wives. Let’s turn there and read that really quickly (Read 1st Peter 3:3-6). Sarah is a role model. Just think of all the things that Abraham put her through. Packing up and leaving, traveling all over the Middle East, almost giving her away TWICE! And yet she stayed with him, and submitted to him.
But now she’s gone. And I think this was probably pretty tough on Abraham. He and Sarah had been together a long, long time.
They’ve traveled together for most of their lives, leaning on one another and trusting one another – through good times and bad. They had probably been married for more than 100 years. But now she’s gone, and Abraham is faced with the issue of burying her.
In verses 3 – 11, he comes to the sons of Heth (that’s the Hittites), and he asks to buy a place so that he can bury Sarah. And you notice immediately they say, “Abraham, you are a mighty prince among us, none of us will withhold our land from you. Bury her where you like.”
Now it’s important that we understand the historical context here and the history behind all of this. Because in just a general reading of this passage, it sounds like the Hittites are being generous to Abraham. But what you don’t know, unless you know the ancient Hittite laws, was that if Abraham had accepted this offer of free land, then at any point in the future, if the one who made the offer wanted that land back, he could come and take it. It was more like borrowing rather than a gift. The Hittites also had a provision in their laws that said, once Ephron had died, if his children wanted the land back, they could come and take it as well. So Abraham wanted to make sure that the land was secured for himself and his descendants, and so he persists, and insists on buying it.
Now look at verse 15 (Read). 400 shekels of silver. That’s either a huge chunk of land, or Ephron’s trying to cheat Abraham in some way. 400 shekels is a lot of money. About 1500 years after this takes place we’ll see Jeremiah buy a field for 17 shekels of silver. And in 2nd Samuel 24:24, when King David goes to buy the land where the temple was going to be built, he only paid 50 shekels of silver. So most likely, Ephron is trying to get Abraham to take the first offer, knowing that at some point in the future, if he wanted he could repossess the land from Abraham or his descendants. But Abraham doesn’t even bother haggling over the price, he just forks out the silver and buys the land. And you notice that again Moses writes that this entire transaction took place in-front of the whole council. Again, he’s making sure that anyone who reads this will know that this was a legal transaction, and that it couldn’t be disputed.
Once Abraham has the land, he buries Sarah. I’ve told MariJo that I’m hoping to go before she does. And I probably will. Men usually don’t live as long as women, and I’m actually about 7 years older than she is. But the reality is; neither of us knows who’s going to go first, or even how long we have left on this earth. None of us do. So we’ve got to make every day count. Don’t waste your lives. Live for the Lord every second of every day. None of us will probably make it as long as Sarah did, and definitely not as long as Abraham. But we can live lives marked by faithfulness.
Again; people will read this and bring up the point that Sarah didn’t see the full fulfillment of God’s promises. But guess what? Abraham didn’t get to either. He saw the beginning of the fulfillment, but he didn’t get to see the promise fulfilled completely. And that causes some people to think that there’s a discrepancy in God’s Word. They say, “Well God didn’t keep His promise to Abraham.” And that’s because they misunderstand what the Bible is saying. The promises that God made were to Abraham and his Seed; and that Seed is none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Galatians 3:16-18. We looked at it last week, but I want to read it again (Read).
Galatians 3, Romans 9 – 11, Hebrews 11… they are all dealing with and touching on the same issue. They are all saying that Jesus is the promised Seed of Abraham, that all the promises that God made to Abraham are fulfilled in Christ. And guess what? If you’re in Christ, those promises are yours. You receive them by faith. Just like Abraham did.
This field that Abraham has bought is just a picture of things to come.
Now if you know the Book of Genesis, then you know that Abraham dies 38 years after Sarah. And you know that he gets remarried and has more children and then he dies, and he’s buried in the same tomb as Sarah. And then Abraham’s son Isaac, he marries Rebekah and lives a long life and then he dies, and is buried in the same tomb. And Abraham’s grandson; Jacob, when he dies, he’s buried in the same tomb. And it goes all the way down to Joseph, Abraham’s great grandson. When he’s in Egypt, his last request, in Genesis chapter 50:25 is that he be brought back to Canaan and be buried with his fathers. And if you were to go to this place today, you can still see Abraham’s tomb.
Interestingly enough, today it’s a Muslim shrine. Devout Muslims make pilgrimages to it to honor Abraham.
The Jewish people also look at as somewhat of a sacred place. The father of their faith is buried there. But for us as Christians… it’s not the tomb of Abraham that we look to. Our faith recalls a different tomb.
You see; everyone knows where Abraham’s tomb is. It’s in Hebron. But they can’t tell you for certain where Jesus was buried. And the reason for that is because He didn’t stay buried. He arose from the dead, so it really didn’t matter which tomb He was laid in. And sometimes skeptics will try to use that against us and say, “Well you can’t even go to the tomb that Jesus was buried in…” And my answer to that is, “I don’t need to. He’s alive! I don’t need to go to a tomb, I’m going to go where He is today, not a tomb.” Our faith doesn’t rest in a tomb where the dead are buried, instead we look to a tomb where the dead rose.
And I think that if you were able to talk to Abraham on the day that he buried his wife, he would’ve told you that he didn’t mourn like those who have no hope. He trusted in God. He knew that Sarah was going to be with the Lord, and that he would too someday. And yes; I’m sure Abraham had some regrets. I’m sure he regretted giving Sarah away twice. I’m sure he regretted the whole Hagar incident. But he trusted in God, and he knew that Sarah was going to be with Him. Their lives hadn’t been perfect, and Abraham hadn’t been the perfect husband. And for that matter; Sarah wasn’t the perfect wife. But they were perfect for each other, because they were the ones that God gave to each other.
You know; I don’t know if any of ya’ll do this, or if you ever have, but every night in my evening prayers, I pray for Leslie’s and Gabriel’s future husbands. I don’t even know who they are, but I believe that God has someone for them. So I pray for them. I pray for their relationship with the Lord, and that they will be good husbands and godly husbands.
And that’s what we see in the lives of Abraham and Sarah. We see that they persevered. That the finished strong. Yeah; we see that they stumbled and faltered from time to time, but when they did, they knew where to turn to. And we can look at their lives and see the faithfulness and provision of God. Even when Abraham and Sarah messed up, God remained faithful. So no matter what you’re going through in life, no matter how bad things might get for you, or your family. Press on. We are to fight the good fight of faith. We are to lay aside every weight and the sin that so easily besets us, and run the race with patience, looking unto the Author and Finisher of our Faith.
I pray we do that today, and every day
LET’S PRAY
