THROUGH THE BIBLE - Genesis..

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com. That's cornerstonerbc.com. Sarah lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah.

And Sarah died at Kirat Arba, that is Hebron, in the land of Canaan. Abraham went to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose from and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and a foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead out of my sight. The Hittites answered Abraham, hear us, my lord.

You are a prince of God among us. Bury your dead in the choices of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his turn to heal you from burying your dead. Abraham rose and bowed to the Hittites, the people of the land. And he said to them, if you are willing that I should bury my dead out of my sight, give me and entreat for me Ephron, the son of Zohar, that he may give me the cave of Maptela, which he owns.

It is at the end of his field. For the full price, let him give it to me in your presence as property for a burying place. Now Ephron was sitting among the Hittites, and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, all who went in at the gate of the city. No, my Lord, hear me. I give you the field, and I give you the cave that is in it.

In the sight of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury your dead.' Then Abraham bowed down before the people of the land, and he said to Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land, But if you will, hear me, I give the prince of the field, or the price of the field, accept it from me, and I may bury my dead there. Ephron answered Abraham, My Lord, listen to me. A piece of land boasts four hundred shekels of silver.

What is that between you and me? There are you dead. Abraham listened to Ephron, and Abraham weighed out for Ephron the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hitchhikers, four hundred shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. But the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was at the east of the Mamre, the field with the cave that was in it, and all the trees that were in the field throughout its whole area was laid over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites, before all who went in at the gates of the city. And this, Abraham buried Sarah, his wife, in the cave of the field of Machpelah, east of the Mamre, that is heaven, in the land of Canaan.

The field and the cave that is in it were made over to Abraham as property for a buried place by the Israelites. Amen. This is the Word of God. Well indeed, this is a sad chapter in the Book of Genesis. We've been following the flow of events of Abraham from when God called him out from Ur of the Chaldeans with a promise that he would become a great nation and all the families of the earth would be blessed through him.

This patriarch has seen nothing but generous and gracious supply of protection and blessings, time after time, from the hand of the covenant-keeping God. Many dangers and hazards he faced, many due to his own sinfulness, yet even still Yahweh had proven to be ever faithful to His promises. We've no doubt also seen Him grow in His maturity, and we've seen Him grow in His faith. even willing to offer Isaac as a sacrifice to God. As heart-wrenching as that would have been, Abraham knew God could be trusted, even with the impossible.

Even if he did sacrifice in Hebrews chapter 11, that Abraham believed God would even resurrect him in order to fulfill his promises. That's faith. But God provided a substitute and spared Isaac's life. Our brother explained for us last week, it's a picture of our great substitute, Jesus Christ. He's the one who sacrificed on our behalf.

And so Abraham is given a life. The life of his son, Isaac. But now in this chapter, Abraham has a life taken away from him. The life of his beloved, Sarah. Living by faith doesn't always mean you won't suffer hardship.

Now confronted with the grief, the grief of being separated from his beloved Sarah, and experiencing the anguish brought about by her death, we're told in verse 2, he mourned and wept over her. The consequence of sin is death, and it hurts beloved. This means that unless the Lord returns first, all of us will experience this sorrow in our lifetimes too. But it's not like we have a Saviour who can't sympathise on our behalf. It's not like we have a Saviour who cannot see us through that dark alley.

The distress of death is familiar to him, not only experientially in his own life, in his own death upon the cross, but also knowing the pain felt when a loved one dies. We're told in John chapter 11, Jesus wept. He wept upon seeing the hurts. but when the passing of Lazarus happened and it brought pain and suffering to his family. Jesus knows and he's able to pull us through all circumstances, even the most difficult circumstances, the death of a loved one.

And he does this by giving us eyes to see beyond the here and the now. Physical death is but a doorway existence with our great God for those who trust in Jesus Christ. So although it's good and right that we mourn over our loved ones, we must remember death is not the end. I believe Abraham had this hope. Because we're told in verse 3, Abraham rose up and began to arrange for Sarah's burial.

He still had life to live, 38 years to be precise. And although he may have felt the pain of his loss for many years to come, his hope was not in the temporal state of affairs. So he picks himself up and he sets his We read the rest of the narrative and we see the negotiations that take place to acquire a land in Hebron, that's the promised land, to bury his wife. There's much that we can learn in regards to how the godly should deal in fairness and equity in their business relationships within this world. And now the mature Abraham example is, I think, he was well respected amongst his neighbors and known for his godly beliefs even called the Prince of God.

His reputation preceded him and the text tells us that his dealings were both fair and unlawful. But I don't think that's why Moses has dedicated a whole chapter to the circumstances surrounding the burial of Sarah. I believe the overarching message of this chapter is to hit home to the people of God that we ought to act by faith and not by sight. They ought to place their hope in the ever-faithful promises of God, whilst being reminded to be content in knowing they are but strangers in a foreign land. Strangers awaiting something better to come.

You see, Abraham's words to the Hitchhikers in verse 4 are so telling. He only says, I am sojourner and a foreigner among you Give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. Give me a property. It wasn't a suggestion to be gifted a property without charge. It's just the way that the people in the ancient Near East would do business.

But you know what it's amazing to me to think? That Abraham and all his wealth, in the words of Stephen in Acts chapter 7, he did not even have a foot print. He recognized that he was a soldier, a stranger in a foreign land, as one who passes through from one place to another. For him, he was all temporary. It's amazing to think that time has passed.

Isaac is now 37 years of age. Abraham is getting richer and richer. God is blessing this man immensely with cattle, gold, silver, servants, you name it. He did not even have a foot of land to bury his wife. And he's okay with that.

He doesn't grumble or complain. You see, Abraham has learned to trust completely in the promises of God. And that love is enough. God has always been faithful to Abraham. He fulfilled his promise in giving him Isaac by a miraculous means as though he had given a child to two people which is described in the word whose bodies were as good as dead.

And so Abraham also believed that God would remain faithful to his descendants and give the land of Canaan. He also needed only to wait and trust. He needed to trust in God because God's timing would always be perfect. So by faith, he and his family dwell in tents, as strangers, in the very land that God had defined. But it's more profound again, because the truth goes far beyond the physical.

Abraham's heart never was on a parcel of land stretching east or west of the Jordan to the Mediterranean Sea. Hebrews 11 again, by faith he went, speaking of Abraham, he went to live in a land of promise as in a foreign land. living in tents with Isaac and Jacob, bears with him the same promise. For he was looking forward to a city that had foundations, whose designer and builder is God. Beloved, Abraham was by faith looking beyond Canaan.

Canaan was a city established by Canaanites, not by God. We're told in Deuteronomy chapter 6, and when the Lord your God, speaking for the people of Israel, when the Lord your God brings you into the land that He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you with great and good seeds that you did not build, and houses full of all goods that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant. This was a city, beloved, built by human hands. But the city Abraham was longing for is a heavenly city, the designer and builder being God himself. His eyes were now fixed upon the eternal dwelling for the people of God, so he recognized himself as a stranger in the land.

This is where our hearts ought to be also. Sure, we have obligations here and now, and we should not neglect those obligations. But Beloved, where is your heart? God may choose to bless you with physical blessings, as He did with Abraham, but He also may choose not to bless you with physical blessings. The question is, where is your heart?

Do you consider yourself a stranger in a foreign land? Is this earth considered by you as a moment passing by, or do you feel right at the moment? Our Savior said, for where your treasure is, your heart will be also. And finally, many commentators describe the 400 shekels of silver charged by Ekron Hittite to the cave and the field to be outrageously cold. Although when you read the narrative, it sounds like such a gracious person.

And so you might wonder, why did Abraham haggle for a better price? Haggling was the way to do business in those days. It was perfectly ethical. The seller would start at a high price, and he would get haggled down by the buyer until they reached an agreement. But that didn't happen here.

I think this is important. for us the condition of Abraham's heart. By giving the full price, he was conveying a message that he would gladly exchange earthy riches to show his complete trust in God. Abraham was putting his money where his faith was. He wasn't motivated by selfish desire to hold a title with his name on it.

No, that wasn't it. But rather, he was Knowing God is a covenant keeping God, he purchased the plot so that his whole family, not just Sarah, would be buried in the land that God would one day give to the people from his own loins. He trusted God and acted upon that trust. Beloved, faith with our works is there. You know what I'm talking about.

Has now matured in his faith. Now trusting in the promises of God is what drives this man's decisiveness. May the Lord mature in our faith, so that we too will trust explicitly in all the promises of God, all the promises that are yes and amen of Jesus.