Read: Genesis 23
This chapter
begins with the death of Sarah and tells of how Abraham buys a cave in Hebron
to be her burial place. This is
significant for the children of Israel as it marks the ownership and future
rights to the land of Canaan. Sarah is
the only women in the Bible whose age, death and burial are distinctly
noted. Isaac’s age at the death of Sarah
would have been 36 years old. Abraham
wept for Sarah (v. 2) and asked the Hittites to sell him land so that he could
bury his dead (v. 4). The Hittites
recognize his special relationship with God by calling him “prince of God” (v. 6) and they
generously offered him one of their best tombs for Sarah’s burial (v. 6). Abraham did not want to bury her in any tombs
owned by somebody else, he wanted to bury her in a place that he could claim as
his own. He had been wandering for 62
years in Canaan and still had no permanent location of his own. Yet God had promised him many times that his
descendants would possess all the land of Canaan. Abraham rather asks to buy the cave of
Machpelah, paying the full price (v. 8-9).
The owner of this cave, Ephron, offers it to Abraham free of charge (v.
11). Abraham declines the free offer and
once again offers to pay the full price (v. 13). They agree on a fair price, Abraham pays and
the field now rightfully belongs to Abraham (v. 15-16). It was important for Abraham to buy the
property because that would be the only way to ensure that the land legally
belonged to him. The transaction was
completed in the presence of the Hittites (v. 18). God is providing witnesses to this
transaction. Abraham then buried Sarah
in the cave, in the land of Canaan (v. 19).
Verse 20 concludes by repeating that Abraham owned the field and
cave. We’ll see later in the book of
Genesis that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Rebekah and Leah will all be buried in this
cave.
Prayer and Journaling
1. In
this story we can see the sovereignty of God in Sarah’s death. It was God’s plan to give Abraham’s
descendants the land. God used Sarah’s
death to accomplish a purpose. Abraham
bought the land giving the Israelites full rights and claim to it. Ask the Lord to show you a time in your life
where He was accomplishing a purpose but you were feeling hardship and
adversity, maybe even a loss of a loved one.
Ask God to speak truth into this situation and show you His sovereignty
over all things. Praise Him for His sovereignty. Thank Him for being in control of your
life.
2. In
the time of Abraham people customarily buried their dead with their
fathers. By purchasing this burial
place, Abraham indicates his commitment to the Lord’s purposes. Ask the Lord to show you 1-2 purposes that He
has for you right now, in whatever place He has put you. Are you fulfilling those purposes well? Ask Him for some steps that you can take in
order to fulfill those purposes well!
3. God
gave the Promised Land to Israel, they rightly own the land and have full
rights to it. Yet there exists in our
world today much conflict over this land.
There is no two state solution!
The land rightfully belongs to Israel!
Pray for Israel to stand strong in the midst of pressure to give up the
land. Pray that many Jews would accept Jesus as the Messiah and make Him the
Lord of their lives. Pray that the
church across the world would stand with Israel and support them as a nation. Ask the Lord to grow in you a heart of love
and compassion for the nation of Israel and for the Jewish people.
