July 29, 2004

Reading through the Bible in one Year: John 1-2

Weekly Memory Verse: Hebrews 4:12

Good Evening Brothers and Sisters,

Genesis 23:1-20 (NASB95)
¹ Now Sarah lived one hundred and twenty-seven years; these were the years of the life of Sarah. ² Sarah died in Kiriath-arba (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan; and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. ³ Then Abraham rose from before his dead, and spoke to the sons of Heth, saying, ⁴ “I am a stranger and a sojourner among you; give me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” ⁵ The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, ⁶ “Hear us, my lord, you are a mighty prince among us; bury your dead in the choicest of our graves; none of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead.” ⁷ So Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth. ⁸ And he spoke with them, saying, “If it is your wish for me to bury my dead out of my sight, hear me, and approach Ephron the son of Zohar for me, ⁹ that he may give me the cave of Machpelah which he owns, which is at the end of his field; for the full price let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site.” ¹⁰ Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth; and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth; even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, ¹¹ “No, my lord, hear me; I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it. In the presence of the sons of my people I give it to you; bury your dead.” ¹² And Abraham bowed before the people of the land. ¹³ He spoke to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, saying, “If you will only please listen to me; I will give the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.” ¹⁴ Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, ¹⁵ “My lord, listen to me; a piece of land worth four hundred shekels of silver, what is that between me and you? So bury your dead.” ¹⁶ Abraham listened to Ephron; and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearing of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, commercial standard. ¹⁷ So Ephron’s field, which was in Machpelah, which faced Mamre, the field and cave which was in it, and all the trees which were in the field, that were within all the confines of its border, were deeded over ¹⁸ to Abraham for a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth, before all who went in at the gate of his city. ¹⁹ After this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field at Machpelah facing Mamre (that is, Hebron) in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ So the field and the cave that is in it, were deeded over to Abraham for a burial site by the sons of Heth.^[1]

Abraham went to the Hittites and requested a burial site.  He was not asking for it for free, he was asking that it be given to him to purchase so that he could possess it.  The Hittites were willing to give the cave over to him free of charge, but Abraham wanted the land to be his forever. Then the bargaining was not an argument over whether or not Abraham would buy the cave, it was a dickering over the price.  Abraham wanted to buy a burial cave.  The Hittite wanted to sell the cave as well as the land around it.  In the end, the purchase was made for the cave and the land around the cave.  It has been noted that the ancient culture would not seek profit from the death of another person.  That was considered taboo, but it was ok for them to sell a parcel of land which contained the burial cave.  In modern times we have broken that standard, it's very expensive to get buried.

In verse 6, they call him a "mighty prince", according to the NASB footnotes; this could be literally translated as "prince of God".  This is a play on words since Sarah means "princess", this also points out that Abraham served the King God. 

Isn't it interesting that the first piece of property that Abraham owned was a burial cave?  This was the only part of the real estate in the Promised Land that was deeded over to Abraham.  Consider that Abraham knew by faith that he would posses the land.  God had promised the land to him, and he went forward with that promise.  Otherwise, he would have returned to his homeland to bury Sarah.  That cave is still in existence today, the Moslems have built a mosque over it, and are careful to preserve the site.  Remember, Ishmael was Abraham's son also, and the Arabs, (the Moslems) trace their lineage back to Abraham.  Sarah wasn't the only one buried there; it was also Abraham's resting place. 

The first piece of real estate was a cave which was used to bury people in the Promised land.  Jesus came and made it possible for us to enter the Promised Land of heaven through death on a cross, and through being buried in a cave.  Abraham knew that the land that God had given him was going to belong to his descendants, as a result of that promise; He purchased the resting place for Sarah and his family in the Promised Land.  Through the death on the cross and resurrection to new life, Jesus has gone to heaven to build for us many mansions.  Abraham looked forward to his descendants owning the land, we look forward to living with Christ in Heaven. 

Considering the age that Sarah died at makes Isaac about 37 years old.  He wasn’t married yet, we will cover that in the next chapter. 

Question for thought:

Why didn't Abraham accept the gift of the cave?

Father, as we consider Your word today, give each of us wisdom as we study Your word.

In Him,

Joe Turner.