A Believing Husband Buries His Wife

Let me, invite you, this morning to turn in your Bibles to Genesis chapter 23. Genesis 23 for a time of study in the word this morning. Solomon, once wrote, It is better to go to a funeral than to a party. For death is the destiny of every man, and those who are living should take this reality to heart.

And so the good news is we're going to a funeral today. Here in Genesis chapter 23. And if you want to give a title to the message this morning, it would be a believing husband buries his wife. A believing husband buries his wife.

Couple of weeks ago, I got a text from my daughter, Brianna, who is now living in Tucson. And this was the text that she sent me. She said, you're doing OK today? I had a horrible dream about you last night.

So after carefully pondering her text to me, I replied with this text, I'm by the side of a desert road in a ditch. With 2, with 2 broken legs, I'm trapped in the car. I have no more water to drink and a mountain lion is sniffing around me. Tell the family I love them and thanks for checking in.

OK. She replied by saying, oh my goodness, the sight of a desert road, were you on your way to see me? Best of luck with the mountain lion. We texted a little bit more, but eventually I, I asked her what she had dreamed and so she texted what she had dreamed.

This is what she wrote. You were sick and didn't tell anyone but mom. You then passed away while you were at work. Mom couldn't speak when she found out, so I didn't know what was going on for about an hour except for the fact that everyone around me was crying.

Then I found out and it was terrible. The family then tried to go to the church to see you, but California was suddenly hit with a tsunami. So we had to walk there and I woke up before we got there. She followed that text with the final one, saying, no joke, I woke up with tears in my eyes.

I guess I love you. Well, that put tears in my eyes too, and I thanked my daughter for mourning my death. And was left seriously pondering the reality of death. For me and for those that I love.

Right now, death, my death is a nightmare to my daughter. It's something she dreams. But one day, if the Lord does not return first, her nightmare will likely become a reality because death comes to all of us and it comes to those that we love, right? And when death comes to those that we love, It hurts.

Deeply It wounds us. Life shuts down. For a time, the world actually becomes a less interesting place to us. Sometimes our faith in Christ even takes a hit, especially if the death is unexpected.

And in such moments, we have to go deep and decide, what do I believe? I've watched many of you. grieve in the midst of the losses of your precious loved ones, and I've seen you go deep. And then rise up, waxing bold in your faith in Christ.

And I've seen you plant your banner in the ground, in the middle of such a season of your life, and basically say, yes, I grieve, but I grieve with hope, and I'm looking to the future with hope and the promises of God. We see something similar from Abraham in Genesis chapter 23. In this chapter, we're told about the death of Abraham's wife, Sarah, whom he had probably been married to for over 100 years. So imagine, Losing your wife of around or over 100 years.

And what follows in Genesis 23 is the story of how Abraham responds to Sarah's death and ensures how he goes about ensuring that she receives a proper burial, and he does all of this in a way that evidences, exhibits his unwavering faith in God, even in the midst of tragedy. You might be interested to know that this is actually the first description in the Bible of what somebody does with the body of a deceased person. It will actually end up being the only passage in all of the Bible that speaks specifically of the burial of a woman.

In fact, observe the language of burial that is used in This passage, we have burial site, bury my dead, burying your dead, bury my dead, burial site, bury your dead, bury my dead, bury your dead, buried burial site.

Using my interpretive skills. I decided that that's the theme of this passage, burial, as Abraham tends to his wife's burial in this chapter. And this chapter as you read it at first blush, feels weird and out of balance. Of the 20 verses in this chapter, verses 1 and 2 tell us that Sarah died.

And that Abraham mourned her death. That's the 1st 2 verses. The next 18 verses in this chapter are all about Abraham acquiring a burial plot and then burying her. But as we work through the passage this morning, I hope that you'll see that there's something deeper going on than just a burial.

The Jewish rabbis viewed this moment in Abraham's life as one of the great tests of his faith. And in this chapter, we will see him passing this test and demonstrating. A vigorous and very much alive, forward looking faith in God, even in his moment of deep sorrow. And we will see all this on display as Abraham goes about the process of grieving his wife and burying her after she dies.

The way we'll frame our study this morning is we'll observe 9 developments in the story of Abraham in his moment of sorrow and loss, rising in faith and burying Sarah in the land. of Canaan, the land of promise. The first development that we observe here is that Sarah dies in the land of Canaan. Observe how the story begins in, in verse one.

It says, now Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. Sarah died in Kiryat Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. It might interest you to know that Sarah is the only woman in all of Scripture whose age is ever given.

And whose lifespan is given. Normally, the Bible, probably for good reason, refrains from telling us the ages of women, but this is the lone exception to that rule. Sarah, we're told, died at the age of 127. Moses tells us that she died in Hebron, which is about 23 miles south of the city of Jerusalem.

And he's careful to tell us that she died in the land of Canaan. And if you don't mind marking your Bible, underline or mark those words in the land of Canaan because you will see those words again near the end of the chapter. Sarah dies in the land of promise that God had called her and her husband to the land that God had promised to give to their descendants. According to the writer of Hebrews, she died in faith, having not seen the fulfillment.

of the promises that God had made, but she at least dies in the place that God had called her and her husband to go. She breathes her last. In the location where she was supposed to be. And I wonder, where will you be when you draw your final breath?

Will you breathe your last sight of God's will? Or outside of his will. Where you're supposed to be or will you die? In a place where you were not supposed to be.

Sarah dies in the place where she was supposed to be in the land of Canaan. How does Abraham respond to Sarah's death? This brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham rising in faith and burying his wife in the promised land of Canaan. That is number 2, Abraham mourns Sarah's death.

He mourns Sarah's death. Look at what happens. What Abraham does in verse 2 says, and Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. The word mourn means to bewaille.

and it's used in the Old Testament to speak of mourning the dead, bewailing. The dead with all the ways that people in this day would do that, sitting in dust and ashes, trimming, cutting their beard. rending their clothes, a variety of expressions. Abraham is going through this process of mourning, bewailing his wife, and the text also tells us that he went in to weep for her, meaning to shed tears.

Over the loss of his precious wife. Notice also that the text tells us that he went in to do these things. In other words, he, he mourned and he wept in the room where Sarah's dead body lay. This is the Bible's first funeral.

For whatever it is worth, this is actually the first reference in scripture to a grown man crying. In the Bible. In chapter 21, we saw Hagar crying and we saw her young son crying, but this is the first time we see a grown man crying in the Bible and very appropriately, it is a man who is weeping over the loss of his wife. I think we can safely imagine some of what Abraham must have been feeling at this point as he sat in the room with the body of his wife and mourned her.

I'm sure he is reliving, reliving many memories. He had known Sarah since he was 10 years old, first as his half-sister, and then as his wife for many decades. I'm sure he's remembering many memories through the years, happy and sad. I'm sure he remembers Sarah's former beauty.

Which was one of the great wonders of the world of his day. I'm sure he remembers Sarah as his partner who stood by his side and agreed to leave her father's house and to go with Abraham away from their homeland to follow the call of God. She was his steady partner for many decades, possibly as many as 10 decades. In the adventure of faith that Abraham was on.

I'm sure Abraham is remembering her many years of agony over being barren, unable to have children, and he's surely remembering the day when she gave birth to Isaac and couldn't stop laughing. I'm sure Abraham is also thinking about the times that he failed her, when he lied about her being his sister. And she got taken by Pharaoh. And by Abimelech on two different occasions, Pharaoh one occasion, Abimelech another.

I'm sure Abraham remembers taking Sarah up on her idea to sire a child through Hagar and how that once Hagar got pregnant through Abraham, she began to despise Sarah and cause much distress. To Sarah's soul. I'm sure Abraham is sitting here mourning and wishing that he could have some of those moments. A failure back and loved Sarah differently and better than he did.

I'm sure he looked at the wrinkles on her face as her body lay there and wondered which ones, if any, he might have caused. And if she died, Because she had physically become worn down. Perhaps Abraham was asking himself if he was the cause of even the tiniest fraction. Of that weariness.

That led to her death. Who of us knows what all Abraham was thinking as he grieved, what we can know for sure is that no one on earth meant as much to Abraham as Sarah. He knew no greater joy than her. And however dear Sarah was to Abraham in this life, in his lifetime, that's exactly how deep his pain is right now in losing her.

This is the fate. Of about half of all people. That get married The experience of seeing their beloved spouse pass away, and some of you have known. This sorrow or have watched one of your parents go through this sorrow.

We don't know how long Abraham sat before the body of Sarah and wept and mourned for her. I'm sure at times he wept alone. I'm sure there were times when others were in the room and they wept and they reminisced. With him I'm sure Abraham.

is seeing I'm sure much of that time, Isaac was also in the room and Abraham sees how heartbroken Isaac is over his mother's passing. We know that Sarah's death deeply affected Isaac. We know this guys, because it's not until the end of Genesis 24, 3 years later, after her death. That it is finally said that Isaac was comforted.

After his mother's death. And I'm sure that Abraham watching Isaac's grief doubled Abraham's grief. He's grieving the loss of his wife, and he's grieving his son's pain. But eventually, Abraham.

Moves into action. He cannot sit here forever and mourn. And this brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham burying Sarah in the promised land of Canaan. Number 3, Abraham requests a burial site from the Hethites.

Look at verse 3, it says, then Abraham rose from before his dead. Ray Steadman, the commentator, says that such a rising up of Abraham signified a squaring of the shoulder, a lifting up of the eye, affirming of the step, and a facing of life again. At some point after a loved one dies, we have to reach a point where we make a decision that we're going to get up. We're gonna draw a deep breath and we're gonna start putting 1 ft in front of the other and get back to the business before us.

Even if it's not something that we would prefer to do. And the fact is that Abraham has some work to do. He's got some issues to deal with. First of all, he has to decide what am I going to do with the body of my wife.

And the following verses make it abundantly clear that Abraham has already made a decision in his mind that he will not be taking her body back to of the Chaldeans, his former homeland. Which was hugely significant. Keep in mind that in this day it was customary for people to be buried in their ancestral homeland. Where they would be laid to rest with their ancestors in their native land.

At the very end of the prior chapter, Genesis 22, Abraham has just heard about his brother's family back in their homeland, yet Abraham doesn't even consider transporting Sarah's body back to That homeland for burial. He wants her buried in the land of Canaan, and so he rises up and begins the process of acquiring a burial site for Sarah in the land of Canaan. Commentators rightly say that in doing what Abraham does in this chapter, Abraham is engaging in his final act of renouncing his former homeland.

Evidently and wonderfully, the death of Sarah does not cause Abraham to draw back.

From the promise or to waiver in faith, it causes him to actually rise up and seize the moment. And demonstrate his belief with a forward look in the promise of God. So he decides to bury Sarah in the Land of Promise, but the problem is Abraham owns no land upon which to do so after being in the land of Canaan for 60+ years. So observe what he does in verses 3 and 4, says he spoke to the sons of Heth.

These are Canaanites, these are descendants of Heth. Who descended from Canaan. In the line of Noah's son Ham. These are Canaanites, and he spoke to them.

They were living in Hebron, saying, 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. Now, first of all, notice the first words out of Abraham's mouth is a self-description here. At the beginning of verse 4, he says, I am a stranger and a sojourner among you.

There are two ways in which we rightly should understand this statement by Abraham. On one level, Abraham is clearly making a statement about his status in the land of Canaan. The word stranger speaks of someone who is away from their homeland, the land of their fathers, and who is seeking refuge in another land. The word sojourner speaks of someone who owns no land.

They're simply a temporary dweller, a tenant, or a renter on property and in a land that they own no piece of. As a stranger and a sojourner in the land of Canaan, Abraham is at the mercy of the inhabitants of this land, which is why he actually has to approach them here at the gate of the city in order to even gain permission to bury his wife in their land. So that's clear enough. Clearly, Abraham means that much.

But there's a deeper interpretation of Abraham's words here, and we know this deeper interpretation because the writer of Hebrews in Hebrews 11 gives us this interpretation. In Hebrews 11, the writer of Hebrews refers back to this very statement of Abraham, and he tells us what to make of it. In Hebrews 11:13, And following, he speaks of Abraham and others as having confessed that they were strangers and exiles on the earth. And here's the writer of Hebrews interpretation of this statement by Abraham.

Those who say such things make it clear that they are seeking a country of their own, a better country that is a heavenly one. Therefore, God is not ashamed to be called their God, for he has prepared a city for them, a heavenly one. In other words, what Abraham is saying here is a confession of faith. He knows that even the land of Canaan.

is not his permanent home. Abraham is aware of his own mortality and he's looking beyond this life, and he's looking for the city whose builder and maker is God. That's the homeland that Abraham is away from right now. And you can bet that this forward looking heavenly perspective.

Gave Abraham the perspective that he needed. As he mourned Sarah's death. As Ray Steadman says in his commentary on this passage, had Abraham not remembered that he was a pilgrim and a stranger, his heart would have been crushed to despair by the death of his beloved life's companion, but Abraham lifts his eyes beyond this to the light from the city beyond. He remembers that nothing in this life was ever intended to fully meet the needs of the heart of the pilgrim stranger passing through.

He confesses that fact here in his hour of grief. What all this indicates is the wonderful fact that Abraham doesn't lose his faith during his hour of loss. He clearly didn't just trust God during the good times and then during the bad times lose all faith and say, why me? According to the writer of Hebrews, Abraham's first recorded words after the death of Sarah is a confession of faith.

Made by a man who is looking to heaven and saying, that's my homeland. And I am merely a pilgrim here on earth. On top of that, Abraham, speaking to the sons of Hath states his desire to bury Sarah in the Land of Promise. Look at what he says to them in verse 4.

He says, give me a burial site among you that I may bury my dead out of my sight. We lose a little bit in our English translations, literally, the Hebrew reads, as you see on the screen, give possession. Of a burial place or a tomb that I may bury my dead. And that word possession that is there in the Hebrew text tells us That Abraham is not asking for a loan.

He's not asking for them to allow him to merely use space. In their tombs or in their land, he's not wanting to rent a space. He's asking them to let him buy and take ownership of possession of a tomb that would belong to him so that he can bury Sarah in it. So how do they respond?

This brings us to the next development in this story of Abraham rising up in faith and burying Sarah in the land of Promise. Number 4, the Hethites offer Abraham the use. of their best tombs to bury Sarah. Notice how they speak to Abraham, starting in verse 5.

The sons of Heth answered Abraham, saying to him, hear us, my Lord, you are a mighty prince among us. Notice the respect that they show to him. Abraham refers to himself as merely a sojourner and an alien, but they speak to him as my Lord, and they literally in the Hebrew say to Abraham, you are a prince of God. Among us Which is probably their way of recognizing Abraham's connection with God that was observable to them as they watched his life.

Given the high esteem that they have of Abraham, they actually want to help him in his hour of grief. They want him to have a place to bury his wife. So listen to what they say in verse 6. They say, bury your dead in the choicest of our graves.

None of us will refuse you his grave for burying your dead. They're being very kind here. And guys, when you read the word graves, just think tomb, not grave in the modern day sense of the term that's below the ground, a single burial plot. They're actually offering here to let Abraham bury Sarah in any one of their own family tombs.

That are housing the bodies of their ancestors. And saying you're welcome to lay your wife's body in any of our tombs, just take your pick. Now, on the surface, what they're offering to Abraham, is a wonderful gesture, but as generous as their offer is, It falls short of what Abraham wants. It leaves him without a burial site, without a tomb that he can call his own.

That would serve his family in the generations to come. Think about Abraham's situation right here. Sarah's death is highlighting for Abraham the fact of his own mortality. He knows that he's going to die eventually, sooner rather than later, and he is going to need to be buried somewhere.

So he's not just right now looking for a place to bury Sarah, he is also looking for a place to be buried himself when he dies. He doesn't want Isaac to have to go through what he is going through right now, having to rely on the good graces of the Canaanites to let Abraham be buried in their land. Abraham is actually doing advanced planning here. He is taking the long view and he wants to purchase the Abraham family mausoleum for himself and for the coming generations.

To use Because of this fact, Abraham does not accept the offer that the sons of Heth make to him. He doesn't want to lay Sarah's body in their family tombs beside the dead relatives of these Canaanites, only to have later generations who did not know Abraham remove her body and discard it. Somewhere. So Abraham rouses himself and presses for more and this leads us to the 5th development in the story of Abraham's burial of Sarah in the land of promise.

number 5, Abraham requests to purchase Ephron's cave for a burial site. By the way, is this interesting to you guys? Yeah. Look at what Abraham does here.

So Abraham rose and bowed, mark the word rose again, this is the 2nd time he rises. Abraham rose and bowed to the people of the land, the sons of Heth, 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, that he may give, or this could be translated sell. May the cave of Mac Palla, which he owns, which is at the end of his field for the full price, literally the Hebrew is for full silver.

Let him give it to me in your presence for a burial site.

Evidently, Abraham has been eyeing this particular cave. It is the cave of Makpela. We're not sure what the word Makpela means, but it represents what people called the area where this cave was. This cave we know here is owned by a man named Ephron, and it lies at the end of Ephron's field, and a field that he owns.

And note that Abraham here is not even asking for the field. He's only asking for the cave, and he's offering to buy the cave at full price. Why would Abraham want this particular cave? We learn in verse 19 that this cave was facing Memra.

Which places it near the place where Abraham first settled in the Land of Promise back in Genesis chapter 13. It was here, guys, that many of most of God's promises were actually made to Abraham. This is the place of promise. For Abraham and Sarah.

At the very least, the primary reason he wants this cave is because it's in the land of Canaan, and he wants to bury his wife in the land of Promise. So Abraham says, sell me that cave of Magpela and I'll buy it at full price. Well, how does Ephron respond to Abraham's offer? This brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham rising in faith and burying his wife in the promised land.

Number 6, Ephron offers to gift. Not just give, but to gift, to give as a gift, Abraham, the cave and its field as a burial site. It turns out that maybe Abraham did not know this, but Ephron was actually gathered with the leaders of the city on this occasion at the gate of the city where these kinds of transactions happened, and he hears Abraham saying what Abraham has just said. So he speaks up and responds in verse 10, look at verse 10.

Now Ephron was sitting among the sons of Heth and Ephron, the Hittite or the Hethite, Answered Abraham in the hearing of the sons of Heth, even of all who went in at the gate of his city, saying, Here's his answer to Abraham, 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.

Notice that Ephron begins his reply by saying no. No, my Lord. In other words, he's rejecting Abraham's offer to purchase the cave at full price. And instead, he says, I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it.

A couple of things are happening here. First of all, Ephron is offering both the cave and the field. Abraham only asked for the cave. Ephron says no.

I'm going to give you the cave and the field, and secondly, he's offering it to Abraham for free. That's a good deal. Right? Imagine trying to negotiate with someone and you say, I would like to buy this cave at full price, and they respond and say absolutely not.

I want to give you this cave and the field where it is for free as a gift. That would be an amazing offer. But Abraham doesn't like it. And here's why.

First of all, just a few things for us to ponder here. the Jewish commentator, Nehem Sarna says it this way, one of the problems with a gift or a donation like this is that donations are notoriously insecure in law. They may be challenged by heirs or by other members of the family or community or even by the donor himself should his goodwill wane. On top of that, as another writer says, Abraham realizes in this moment that a gift, as opposed to a sale, places the recipient under obligation to the donor.

So if Abraham accepted the cave and land as a free gift from Ephron, he could find himself indebted to Ephron in Other ways, and Abraham does not want any ongoing sense of obligation or that he owes Ephron anything. He knows the way that quote unquote gifts operate in his culture and the obligations it imposes on the recipient. There's also another fascinating possibility here which writers suggest. And that is that Ephron is merely engaging in a negotiation tactic that actually still occurs to this day in the Middle East.

The tactic is to publicly offer something. To a potential buyer as a gift. Then when the buyer refuses publicly to take it as a gift and says, I, I don't want to take it as a gift, what would you sell it to me for, then the buyer really can't say no to your price after you state your price. Think about it.

How could they tell you that you're now charging too much when you just offered them the property for free? And you only stated the price because they asked you for it. So that's a possibility here. some commentators, it's interesting, take a very cynical view of what Ephron is doing here.

I'm not prepared to go there and to do that, but I will acknowledge that there's a lot going on here. Beneath the surface, and I'm just glad Abraham was smart enough to find his way through all of this and do the right thing. What we can know for sure is that Abraham is looking at what Ephron is saying and offering, and it's less than what Abraham is asking for. The price is too low.

So Abraham counter offers, and this brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham rising in faith and burying Sarah in the promised land of Canaan. Number 7, Abraham insists on paying full price for Ephron's field. Look at his response in verse 12. And Abraham bowed before the people of the land.

Not the respect there. 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 you the full or the price of the field, accept it from me that I may bury my dead there. Evidently, Ephron hears Abraham say this and accepts his offer, so observe what he does in verse 14. Then Ephron answered Abraham, saying to him, My Lord, listen to me.

A piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that between me and you? So Barry, you're dead. There's some discussion amongst commentators about whether 400 shekels is a legitimate price.

To charge for a plot of land like this. Some think this is an excessively high price, and they accuse Ephron of gouging Abraham in his moment of grief. But there's actually evidence, of pieces of land in this part of the world going for this exact price. In archaeology.

and the truth is, guys, we simply don't know how big this field was and what land values were during this time. So we want to be careful about assuming the worst about Ephron, especially when the narrator is not giving us any negative interpretation. of what he's doing here. What we know for sure is that Abraham immediately accepts the stated price.

Look at what he does in verse 16. Abraham listened to Ephron and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver which he had named in the hearings of the sons of Heth, 400 shekels of silver, commercial standard. Keep in mind Excuse me, that they did not use coins at this point in history like we do today. Abraham would have taken the silver that he had and would have set out a set of scales, and he would have weighed out 400 shekels of silver, which was a sizable amount of money.

What follows is eventually an invoice or the bill of sale. This brings us to the next development in the story of Abraham rising in faith and acquiring a burial plot to bury his wife in the Land of Promise, and that is that Ephron's field is deeded over to Abraham at full price. Look at verses 17 and 18. Notice the details that are given.

So Ephron's field, which was in Makpala, which faced Mamra, the field and the 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. To Abraham for a possession in the presence of the sons of Heth before all who went in at the gate of the city. Now the details as we read this, I know none of you would read this in your morning devotions and just it, have it just rock your world like, wow, this is like the greatest thing.

I've got to memorize this so I can quote it to myself, in times of hardship.

this may, we read this, the whole exchange and this bill of sale, and it doesn't really overly impress us. But you just need to understand that the Israelites in Moses' day, As they're on the cusp of entering the land of Promise, would be riveted by this exchange. What happens here at this point of the chapter is a huge deal, and the Israelites, I would imagine, would have let out a thunderous cheer at this point as they're hearing the text being read. Because guys, finally, after all of these years that Abraham has been in the Land of Promise, over 60 years, he now has his first piece of land that is deeded over to him.

In a legitimate sale. That is now his possession. This transaction was legitimate in every imaginable way, being conducted in full view of the sons of Heth and the principal people at the gate of the city where these transactions took place. No one could ever contest this purchase.

The land was indisputably Abraham's, even though this piece of land isn't much. It represents God's first installment, his down payment on the full land that one day he promised to give to all of Abraham's descendants. Abraham is in the middle of mourning his wife's passing, and in this very moment, he takes his biggest leap forward. In actually acquiring his first piece of real estate in the Land of Promise.

And by the way, you can bet that this property, they didn't sell land like we do today. you can bet this property had been in Ephron's family for hundreds of years. It was a big deal for him. To sell this to Abraham.

He clearly had a lot of respect for Abraham. So now that all the business is transacted and the property is in Abraham's possession, look at what happens next and this brings us to the final development. In the story of Abraham rising in faith and burying his wife in the Land of Promise. Number 9, Abraham buries Sarah in the land of Canaan.

Look at verse 19. After this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field at Machpela facing Mamra, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. You might want to mark those words again, in the land of Canaan. In verse one, we're told she died in the land of Canaan.

Now here we're told that Abraham buried her in The land of Canaan. Obviously this location. of being in the land of Canaan is significant because in burying her in the land of Canaan, Abraham has now made his renunciation of his former homeland complete. He is staking his claim here in the Land of Promise, and this piece of property is going to serve as a marker and a burial site for the generations to come.

Abraham acting. In this moment is acting like a person who truly believes the promises of God that this land will be the future home. of his and Sarah's descendants. We can actually call this site, the Abraham family mausoleum because it turns out that Sarah will not be the only one buried in this cave.

Abraham will be buried in this cave 38 years from now. Isaac and Rebecca will be buried in this cave, and even Jacob and his wife Leah will be buried in this cave. In making this purchase, Abraham is making it such that hundreds of years from now, The Israelites will not just be coming back to take the land from the Canaanites, they will be coming to conquer the land where their forefathers are buried. On top of that, it might interest you guys to know, and I would encourage you to study this, it's fascinating.

It might interest you to know that this burial site is still with us today in the city of Hebron. some archaeological, biblical sites are disputable. We think this may be the tomb of Christ, but we're not sure. but this one is not under dispute.

Jews and Muslims who disagree on most everything totally agree on this, that this is the burial site of Abraham and Sarah, Isaac and Rebecca and Jacob and Leah. In the mind of the Jews to this day. this is the 2nd most sacred and holy site on the planet. Second only to what?

The Temple Mount or the Wailing Wall. It's just amazing that this plot of land, we still have that mark today. This transaction is the most significant transaction purchase that has happened in human history. We still are reading and studying the bill of sale.

Thousands of years later. And to make sure we get the point of all of this, Moses repeats himself with a summary statement in verse 20. He says, so the field and the cave that is in it were deeded over to Abraham for a burial site by the sons of Heth. So Sarah is buried and Abraham now has a piece of real estate.

Upon which he is no longer a sojourner. And an alien. There, there's so many directions we can go with what we learned in this passage, some of the things we've observed along the way. Let me just point out a few things as we wrap up, this morning.

first of all, from this chapter, we learned that grief is appropriate for people of faith. Abraham was a man of deep faith, yet we see him bewailing and weeping for his precious loved one, and his example teaches us that grief over the loss of a loved one is not a contradiction to faith. Jesus himself wept. And groaned when his friend Lazarus had died and was buried in a tomb.

God Himself grieves. And guys, when we grieve over the loss of a loved one, we are merely entering into the very heart of God and feeling his pain. Over our loss and over the brokenness of sin in this world. We also learn in this chapter that funerals and burials are worthwhile.

again, it's remarkable that the first two verses in this chapter about Sarah dying and Abraham mourning her, death, and then the next 18 verses are all about Abraham tending to the details of Sarah's burial. And this should give us some comfort and perspective in our times of grief as well. It often happens that when a loved one passes away, grieving loved ones left behind have to be occupied. With planning a funeral, making decisions about what needs to be done with the body, meeting with people at the mortuary, and being hit with a dizzying array of expenses and decisions that need to be made all during a time when People would rather just grieve.

And some of us have had this experience. But Abraham would understand because he does all of that here too. He rose up from grieving his wife. He put 1 ft in front of the other and he set about the business.

Of negotiating for some land. To make a purchase. So that he would have a place to bury his wife because evidently all of that was worthwhile to him. On a related note, I think we can also see in this passage a respect for the dead and for the body of the dead, in a way that's very much befitting to our faith.

Remember, this is the first passage in the Bible where we have the dead body of the deceased being cared for. and we can view what Abraham does here as instructive for us today. In fact, speaking as a Jew, the commentator Nehem Sarna says this about this passage. He says Abraham's actions are indicative of the great respect for the dead and of the importance of proper burial that remains a characteristic of the Jewish faith.

The early Christians actually carried on this tradition with even greater theological clarity and reasoning. Guys, the New Testament teaches that when a believer dies, God is not finished with their body. On the day of resurrection, God will raise the Christian's body from the grave and clothe it with immortality and with glory. And guys, because of this expectation, Christians throughout history did not just want to discard the body of their believing loved ones.

They treated the dead bodies of their believing loved ones as having a destiny. A future purpose on the day of resurrection, and they buried those bodies with honor in anticipation of that day. We see Abraham. Doing that here, as we've already seen with his eye toward the homeland of the heavenly city that he knew awaited him and Sarah.

As we study this passage this morning, we're also reminded of how blessed we are to be living at this point in human history. Sarah received a lot of promises together with Abraham, but she died in faith. Without receiving the fullness of the promises, Abraham later is going to die in faith also, and he will not see the fulfillment of the promises that God had given to him. So many others throughout the Old Testament died in faith and did not live to see the fulfillment of the promises that God had made.

In Hebrews 11, the writer of Hebrews says, and all these having gained approval through their faith, did not receive what was promised because God has provided something better for us. Feel the blessing of that. Guys, we are living on the other side of the fulfillment of so many of God's promises that Abraham and Sarah never lived to see. Hundreds of years after Abraham's day, God will bring the Israelites out of the land of Egypt and into the land of promise in the fullness of time from the Israelites will come the Messiah, Jesus Christ, who lived the perfect life and who died the death that all of us deserved.

To die, and God then raised him from the dead and seated Jesus at his own right hand. In the heavenly places. Where Jesus now reigns from on high as the sovereign Lord and King of the universe, and from that position of lordship, Jesus is giving out forgiveness, he's giving out salvation. To anyone who's humble enough.

To receive atonement for their sins through his shed blood on the cross. And today we who believe Are the envy of prophets. The envy of angels, living in the fullness of life in Christ. Having said that, It's also still true that we die in faith also, right?

We haven't seen the complete fulfillment. Of glory. We're still waiting for glory. Death is at work in our bodies and we die.

Our believing loved ones die. But we bury our believing loved ones in faith. Reminded that we are but strangers and pilgrims who are making our way through this world, on our way to another world. We grieve when we experience the loss of our precious loved ones, but we do not grieve as those who have no hope.

With tears in our eyes, we look forward to the consummation of all things, when the trumpet will sound, and when the dead will be raised incorruptible. Then there will be no more nightmares for my daughter Brianna to have. Death will be swallowed up in victory, and then that saying that has been written will come true, Oh death, where is your victory? Oh death, where is your sting?

The sting of death is sin and the power of sin is in the law, but thanks be to God who gives us this victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. We can have this comfort. Even in our moments of deepest grief and loss. And if you don't have this comfort, if you don't have this hope, It can be yours today.

If you would humble yourself before Jesus and repent of your sins and look to him and call upon him to be your Lord and your savior. If you've not done that, please do that. Today God would be pleasured to save you and forgive you. And give you an eternal home in heaven.

May God help all of us to follow Abraham's example in this passage, to believe these things in life, to believe these things in death. May we believe these things in good times, May we believe these things even as we prepare the bodies of our loved ones. For burial. When mourning the death of a loved one.

May we rise up. And faith and seize the moment. To plant our banner in the ground, as it were. And say this is what I believe.

And because of Jesus Christ, I look at the present and I look to the future with hope in Him. Let's pray together Lord, we thank you for the help that we find in your word. That gives us perspective. And our seasons of loss and grief.

And if there are any here today, Lord, that going through this passage has reawakened for them. sensitive spots of grief and sorrow, I pray that you would just love them and minister your peace and your comfort to them. I pray if there are any here who have never Believed in you, Lord Jesus. Awaken them From the dead and Give them life and enable them to see Jesus and believe in Him today.

And to be saved. We have a faith that is a tear-stained faith. We grieve But we grieve with hope. And we thank you for the hope that we have in Jesus.

We thank you, Lord, for this opportunity that we have to give of our offerings to you. Receive. These funds and do much with everything that is given in this offering for the glory of Jesus. We give ourselves to you in His name.

And all God's people said,