January 17 Sermon: A Cave in Machpelah

As we look at Genesis 23 today consider these questions:

1. How does Pastor Mark emphasize the significance of hope in the face of death, both in terms of personal mortality and the loss of loved ones? How does this perspective align with the Christian belief in the resurrection of the body?

2. What three key points are highlighted in the passage regarding Abraham's response to Sarah's death and his actions afterward? How do these actions demonstrate Abraham's faith in God's promise and his commitment to living with integrity?

3. How does the story of Abraham's negotiation for a burial plot in the promised land reflect his unwavering faith in God's promises, even though he knows he won't live to see them fully realized? In what ways does Abraham's approach to this transaction serve as an example of living with integrity and faithfulness?

Transcript:

Sometimes the greatest thing that we have is hope. When things are bad, it is often the only thing that we have. At no point in the human experience is this more apparent than when we encounter death. Whether this is the loss of a loved one or coming face to face with the inevitability of our own demise, all we really have is hope. Will we see our loved one again? Is our final breath the end of us?

‌The great Christian hope is that the grave is not the end and we not only hope in this we confess it when in the words of the Apostles’ Creed we acknowledge that we believe in the resurrection of the body.

‌We have gone on quite a journey with Abraham and Sarah and in our passage for today Sarah’s journey has come to an end. The response of Abraham to the death of his beloved wife not only shows us his trust in the promise of God but also that he has a hope that death is not the end.

‌And so we come to this passage and we are going to break into up into three points to draw out the poignant truths that lie within it.

‌First, we see that Abraham grieves. Now, this is pretty obvious but it is an important observation for us to have. Even though Abraham has faith and trusts God he still grieves the loss of his wife. We will see that he has hope for something beyond this life but he still grieves the loss he is experiencing in this life.

‌Secondly, Abraham desires plot of land to bury Sarah. Now, because we aren’t exactly familiar with the names and places in this passage we might miss how significant this is. This isn’t just any plot of land. It is in the land that God has promised to him and his ancestors. This purchase shows that Abraham believes the promise of God.

‌Finally, we see that Abraham does everything above the board. Not only does Abraham desire this land to bury Sarah but he makes sure that everything about this transaction is legal and that it will be a plot of land that he can truly lay claim to.

‌As we are bring our time in the story of Abraham to a close this week I find it interesting how much ink is used here to tell this story. Without our understanding of the greater story and the promises of God it would seem quite out of place. But, with all we have seen so far in view it shows us the significance of the promise and Sarah’s role in it.

‌As we start looking at our first point and see the grieving of Abraham there is something unique and interesting that we find here. We have seen numerous genealogies telling us that people have died and quite a few of them have also told us how old these people were when they died. This is the first time we have a woman named and the only time in the entire Bible that we see the age of a woman given at her time of death.

‌This is significant because it drives home the point we have been seeing as we have moved through the story of Abraham. The promise isn’t just about Abraham. It was also about Sarah. Remember back to the two times that Abraham let Sarah be taken into the household of other men. God put a curse on those households until Sarah returned to Abraham. Also, think back to when Ishmael was born. Abraham had a son and it could have easily seemed that the promise of God was finally fulfilled but no, the promise was only to be fulfilled through Sarah.

‌And so we see with this statement about the death of Sarah that she was a righteous woman and she is to be an example of faith to us. This would have been especially true for the original audience of Genesis. They would have been reading of their ancestors and they are grieving along with Abraham that the mother of Isaac has died. Abraham is the patriarch of their family and their faith and Sarah is the matriarch. The story of her death is important.

‌We also see in the giving of her age at death that she lived a full life and even though she did not give birth to Isaac until she was in her nineties, she lived to see her son Isaac come to adulthood. We also are reminded that she and Abraham were husband and wife through thick and thin for a very long time and Abraham is mourning for the loss of his wife.

‌We are going to see that Abraham has a hope of resurrection but he still grieves. Often I think Christians struggle with properly grieving. When we shed tears at our loss and mourn the death of a loved one we think that we somehow are not showing faith in God. Our struggling to let go is somehow showing a lack of faith.

‌The truth of the matter is that the tears of Abraham and our tears at the loss of the loved one show a great truth. It acknowledges that the world is broken and that the world is not as God intended it to be. The separation we experience in death is a reminder of the curse and how the sin and rebellion of our first parents has plunged the world in despair. While we are surely mourning the loss of our loved one we are also grieving what sin has done to creation and it shows our longing for not only our redemption but the redemption of all of creation.

‌The weeping of Abraham lets us know that the pain experienced in death and the hope of redemption is universal. In transcends time and even the heroes of the faith from of old felt the same pain and desires that we did and even in their despair we can find hope for we know that just like us they were looking for something beyond this life and God provided it for them by faith in salvation through the promised Messiah, just as he has done for us.

‌With that important truth established we move on to more of this chapter and we see some details of the story that show us the faith and hope that Abraham has.

‌‌He is looking for a place to bury Sarah. We have learned from the previous chapters that he is a sojourner. God has promised that his family will inherit a specific tract of land but he has not taken possession of it. His family is to possess the land of Canaan and while Abraham has been in the land for a time he has never truly had ownership of any of it. As we have seen since Isaac has been born he has received the promise of a child but not the promise of the land and yet he still has hope of that it will take place.

‌Like I said when I was introducing the passage, we might read through this whole story and miss the big point because we don’t know all the important details regarding people and places.

‌I’m going to simplify it as much as possible. Abraham wants to buy a spot to bury Sarah in the promised land. He is a nomad and wandering around with his people and herds but he wants a plot of land in the place that God has promised him.

‌The idea is that he wants to put a deposit down on the promised land. He so deeply believes that God will give his ancestors the land that he wants to place Sarah there and ultimately himself. He knows that he is an old man and they will not take full possession of the land that God has promised in his lifetime and he wants a resting place that will be where he knows his family will be.

‌I think that I tend to spend a little more time in cemeteries than the average person. When I go to a cemetery for a funeral I see many familiar last names on the tombstones. Often when you arrive at the place of the burial you will see the names of the recently deceased family in the same general area. When I was younger my grandfather was on the cemetery board in Lennox and so I would ride out there with him occasionally and while he was talking with someone I would wander over to where I knew my other grandparents were buried. In the adjacent plots was my uncle and at the time there was an empty plot but now my father is buried there.

‌In our transient society we often find that people often buy burial plots in communities where they haven’t lived in a very long time. There is a sense that even though you are dead you want to be home. You want to be around those that you love.

‌We see this here. Abraham wanted Sarah to be where he knew their family would be and this shows that Abraham has come to believe God. It was a struggle to get here. He seemed to question the promises of God at nearly every turn while they were waiting for Isaac but now he believes God even for a promise that he knows will be far off.

‌Essentially he is putting the promised land on layaway even though he knows he will not be the one to make the final payment. He has bought an acre for his dream home even though he won’t even see the foundation laid. As we read in the book of Hebrews, he trusts the promise even though it is far off. This is what faith is.

‌And we see in this section of the text that Abraham is well respected among the people he is looking to acquire the land from. They refer to him as a prince of God. In other words, they know that God is with him. They know this from the possession and people he sojourns with but also I’m sure they have heard the stories of how he has been rescued and how he has rescued others and so they believe that he is blessed by God.

‌Abraham requests land and he lets them know that he wants to pay full price but there is some negotiating to do.

‌And so we have seen that Abraham is grieving the loss of his wife and that in faith he desires to bury her in the promised land and as the passage concludes we find that he wants everything to be legal and done in good order as he acquires this property.

‌Now if we read through this negotiation section too fast, we might miss what is going on here because it seems like inconsequential details of the story but this info is important.

‌As we look at verses 10 and 11 here you might think this is a great opportunity. Free land. It seems like this is a good arrangement. He offers this in the presence of witnesses too. You would think this would be an offer that Abraham would jump on but as we move on to the next section of verses we see that Abraham refused the offer.

‌‌And while doing so he asks for the price. He wants to pay the full price and in the negotiation we get a hint of what is going on here.

‌The response of Ephron is ah, take it, what is 400 shekels of silver between us. Now for us, this doesn’t mean much but compared to other transactions we know of in the Bible this is an outrageous price. The book of Jeremiah shows a piece of land purchased for 29 shekels of silver and then factor in what Abraham is actually buying here. It’s a cave. His livestock won’t be feeding here. On top of it all Ephron doesn’t come out and say this is the price. He floats it out there casually. I’ll give you this for free, why in the world would I accept your money, I mean, what is a huge amount of money between us.

‌You’ve probably been a part of transactions like this. I think back to trading sports cars with my friends. I would study the price guides endlessly and knew what they valued my best cards at. When I would get together with my friends and people would offer to trade I would respond similar to Ephron. You like that Bo Jackson card there. I’m not a big fan of his so I’d happily trade with you and then I would casually drop that I knew what it was valued at so they would know they weren’t getting an easy deal from me in trade.

‌Ephron says he wants to give it away but this 400 shekel comment lets us know he’s looking to profit off the very affluent Abraham.

‌And we see that Abraham doesn’t care. This isn’t a sign that he is super wealthy and he can just drop anything on whatever he wants. It shows us that he is 100% committed to this and he is going to lay hold of a piece of the promised land legally at any cost. No one will come in after Abraham has died and say they own this cave and they have a right to it. It is all above the board and it is done in front of witnesses.

‌Abraham wants to do it right and again this shows us that he believes the promise of God. At any cost, he wants the bones of Sarah and his bones to reside in the land that his family will possess.

‌​‌And this is precisely what happens. As this chapter concludes we find that Abraham takes legal claim to the cave in Machpelah and he buries Sarah there.

‌We are moving on from Genesis for awhile and returning to Hebrews but when we come back to Genesis and finish it out over time we are going to find that this cave is referenced again. Abraham will be buried there and as Joseph is dying in Egypt he makes his sons promise that when the people of Israel possess the promised land that they will bring his bones back.

‌Again, that seems rather odd to our modern sensibilities but it is a sign of faith and a trust in the promise of God. As we read in Hebrews these pillars of the faith were looking to a promise that was far off. They couldn’t see it but in their words and actions they fully trusted that God was good to keep his promise to his people.

‌And there is something else we need to stop and consider before we find application in this passage.

‌Clearly Abraham has hope for the future. He is looking to that promise that is far off. This is more than just hoping in a better life for his descendants than he had. This is more than just believing that a land will some day belong to your children’s children. Last week we saw in the book of Hebrews that Abraham believed that God could resurrect Isaac from the dead if he were to sacrifice him and so we know that he had a hope beyond this life. It is often said that there isn’t much hope in the Old Testament and that the idea of a resurrection is a New Testament thing but in stories like this we see that the pillars of the faith had a hope beyond what they could see. They didn’t burn their dead as many pagans have done throughout history. Instead, Abraham put the bones of his beloved in the ground and made sure that Sarah would remain in the land of the promise. He had a hope beyond this life.

‌And so do we. We trust in a hope beyond this life. We regularly stand in this place and confess the resurrection of the body. We have faith that God will be good to his promise to resurrect his people and bring us to the new heavens and new earth. And our trust is not in ourselves to do this but we trust in the work of Jesus for us. We believe that in his life, death, resurrection, and ascension we have a true and living hope that the curse no longer has the last word but that Jesus has won the victory over sin, death, and hell for us.

‌And so, with this great hope we come to this passage and look to see how we can apply it to our lives.

‌The first thing I want to challenge you with is to assess how tightly you cling to the things of this world. As we see in our lives on a regular basis the world is broken and it is vain to value the temporary things of this life. We see that Abraham grieved the loss of Sarah, as well he should, and as well as we should grieve the losses in our lives but he had a greater hope. He had a hope in the promises of God and it was a hope that he was not going to see in his own lifetime. He trusted that the promise of the promise land was good even though he wouldn’t possess it himself and so he looked to the promise of God and let that be the source of his hope.

‌We can experience loss in so many ways in this life but we must never lose sight of the promise that God has blessed us with. No matter the effects of the curse on us we know that because God has blessed us with faith in the crucified and resurrected Christ this world is not our home. We are looking to the new heavens and the new earth and Jesus has paid the ultimate price as the guarantee that we will possess it. His sacrificial death to satisfy the wrath of God for our sin pays the price for our sin and his resurrection shows us that we too will receive the resurrection of our bodies.

‌Secondly, Abraham’s actions show us how to live with integrity. While Abraham is a pillar of the faith often his actions are shifty and show a lack of faith in God. In this story toward the end of his life we see him not only acting in faith but he transacts business above the board. He makes sure that he does everything with integrity. In this he shows these people who know that God is with him, how a servant of God should go about their lives.

‌Whether it is a land transaction, a business deal, or just in how we treat our neighbors we should always be mindful of who we represent. We are the people of God and he calls us to live holy and sanctified lives and this permeates all areas of our lives. It would have been easy for Abraham to take the land for free. It was one day going to be the land of his descendants anyway. It would have been easy for him to act in a shifty way and take possession of it through other means. Instead, he does everything in the proper way and we should take this example to heart and desire to live with integrity in all that we do.

‌And so we come to the end of our look at the life of Abraham with the death and burial of Sarah and as we look back on it is my hope that you have come to a deeper appreciation for what it means to have faith in the promise of God. For this promise was not just to Abraham and Sarah. It is a promise to be a God to all his people and to their children. May we live in faith as Abraham did. Hoping not in ourselves but instead, trusting in that promise of salvation that is far off that has been secured for us in the work of Jesus Christ on our behalf. Amen.