Genesis 23:1-20 The Discipline of Faith

Genesis 23:1-20

The Discipline of Faith

May 5, 2019

Lynchburg, Virginia

EXHORDIUM

         There is a lot of laughter surrounding Sarah. God speaks to her about having a baby in her old age and she laughs and unbelieving laugh. She thinks she knows her body better than God. The angel chastises her and she comes around to faith. She gets pregnant at 90 years old and laughs, hardly being able to believe it. Isaac is born and she calls him, ‘he laughs’, knowing that God has done a great thing and given her laughter.

         Abraham laughed when God said he would have a son in his old age. He was disciplined to believe when God spoke. He couldn’t believe it either but it was the laugh as to why would God bless him so, not the laugh of unbelief at God’s ability to do so.

         Sarah and Abraham laughed together at the blessing of Isaac, coming to agree that God had poured His blessing upon them. They believed God and their belief was reckoned as righteousness.

         In chapter 23, Sarah is now quite old, 127 and at the end of her life. God had promised her descendants and land. She had a son, Isaac, who is now 37 years old and yet unmarried. She does not have grandchildren but must believe that what God said He would do, He would fulfill. Sarah and Abraham. still have no land of their own. They are sojourners in a foreign land. And so she must believe God for this promise as well.

         

EXEGESIS

And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these werethe years of the life of Sarah. ² And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same isHebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 

Sarah had Isaac when she was 90 years old. She passed away when she was 127. Isaac is 37 at this time. Isaac is unmarried at this time. So, while Sarah saw the promise of bearing a child in her old age, she has not seen the blessing of the continuation of her line in grandchildren.

Abraham loved Sarah and mourns her death.

Burial Plot Negotiation

³ And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, ⁴ I ama stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight. ⁵ And the children of Heth answered Abraham, saying unto him, 

Abraham is dwelling among the Hittites, very people that God will one day take the land from and give it to the sons of Abraham. This negotiation of a burial plot is a claim to the land. It will be the burial home for Sarah, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

Abraham says he is a stranger and sojourner. He still does not have a homeland. Thus, he did not own any land to bury his dead.

David first ruled in Hebron before he went to Jerusalem.

⁶ Hear us, my lord: thou arta mighty prince among us: in the choice of our sepulchres bury thy dead; none of us shall withhold from thee his sepulchre, but that thou mayest bury thy dead. 

Abraham is a mighty prince. We know that in previous years, he had at least 318 fighting men, plus their households that traveled with him. He was a small nation. This is now many years since he rescued Lot and it his influence has grown considerably in that time. He is a king among kinds but one without his own homeland.

The Hittites offer him a burying site among their sepulchers but Abraham wants his own land.

⁷ And Abraham stood up, and bowed himself to the people of the land, evento the children of Heth. ⁸ And he communed with them, saying, If it be your mind that I should bury my dead out of my sight; hear me, and intreat for me to Ephron the son of Zohar, ⁹ That he may give me the cave of Machpelah, which he hath, which isin the end of his field; for as much money as it is worth he shall give it me for a possession of a buryingplace amongst you. 

         Abraham had a particular property in mind, the one belonging to Ephron the Hittite. He offers to purchase the land from Ephron and a negotiation opens. It is important that Abraham sought to purchase the land rather than simply bury Sarah in an already owned burial place. He wanted to own the land, not just be a sojourner in the land. This was part of his great faith, looking to the time when the land would be owned by his descendants.

¹⁰ And Ephron dwelt among the children of Heth: and Ephron the Hittite answered Abraham in the audience of the children of Heth, evenof all that went in at the gate of his city, saying, ¹¹ Nay, my lord, hear me: the field give I thee, and the cave that istherein, I give it thee; in the presence of the sons of my people give I it thee: bury thy dead. 

Ephron offers to give the cave and land to Abraham as a burial place. Abraham’s answer makes us wonder if Ephron had still hoped to maintain some of the rights of the land, namely the trees. 

Furthermore, this is not likely an offer to give Abraham the land for free but rather, the opening salvo in a negotiation. Abraham is a great prince and the Hittites were looking to prosper from his wealth.  This is fine by Abraham as he is not looking to get the land for free but is interested in paying the full fair price so that there is no doubt at all as to who owns the land.

¹² And Abraham bowed down himself before the people of the land. ¹³ And he spake unto Ephron in the audience of the people of the land, saying, But if thou wilt give it, I pray thee, hear me: I will give thee money for the field; take itof me, and I will bury my dead there.

Abraham offers to purchase the land so that he can do as he pleases with land.

¹⁴ And Ephron answered Abraham, saying unto him, ¹⁵ My lord, hearken unto me: the land is worthfour hundred shekels of silver; what isthat betwixt me and thee? bury therefore thy dead. 

The land was about 30 acres. Ephron sets the price at 400 pieces of silver. Abraham hears the price and agrees to purchase the plot.

¹⁶ And Abraham hearkened unto Ephron; and Abraham weighed to Ephron the silver, which he had named in the audience of the sons of Heth, four hundred shekels of silver, current moneywith the merchant. 

This was a public contract. The agreement was heard among the audience of the sons of Heth and the money transaction accompanied by a merchant. All land transactions should be part of the public record for the purpose of solving future disputes.

¹⁷ And the field of Ephron, which wasin Machpelah, which wasbefore Mamre, the field, and the cave which wastherein, and all the trees that werein the field, that werein all the borders round about, were made sure ¹⁸ Unto Abraham for a possession in the presence of the children of Heth, before all that went in at the gate of his city. 

The land included the trees that were on it. Thus, Ephron retained no ongoing rights to the land. The Jews first possession in the promised land was this property, which included a cave for burying the dead.

¹⁹ And after this, Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah before Mamre: the same isHebron in the land of Canaan. ²⁰ And the field, and the cave that istherein, were made sure unto Abraham for a possession of a buryingplace by the sons of Heth.

Sarah is buried here. Later Abraham is buried here, Isaac and Rebekah, and Jacob and Leah.

EXHORTATION

         When I was growing up, it was a common saying that Christianity is a relationship not a religion. People would ask you if you knew God. In our circles, many have corrected that by emphasizing the fact the Christianity is a religion. We are required to do many things religiously. We worship religiously, pray religiously, tithe, read our bibles. We have rituals we call sacraments, and we have certain high days on our calendar. That is religious and there is a particular kind of discipline in that sort of religion that is helpful. So, Christianity is too a religion. 

But the concept that we must know God and be known by God is most certainly true. It is particularly true as we consider the discipline of faith. Think about that Great Faith chapter in the New Testament in Hebrews 11. Listed at the top of the list is Abraham, the man of faith. There are many other great saints there, as well, who believed God.

         

         Heb. 11 ⁸ By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. ⁹ By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as ina strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: ¹⁰ For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker isGod. ¹¹ Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. ¹² Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many^sas the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. ¹³ These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. ¹⁴ For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. ¹⁵ And truly, if they had been mindful of that countryfrom whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. ¹⁶ But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.

         

         ³⁹ And these all, having obtained a good report through faith, received not the promise: ⁴⁰ God having provided some better thing for us, that they without us should not be made perfect.

         This verse is quite amazing. Those great faith characters did not receive the promise. They waited on God but the realization of the promise was yet future. However, they did not waver because they knew Him who made the promise. 

How is Faith a Discipline? It is not something we possess as much as something that we do.

Heb. 12 Wherefore seeing we also are compassed about with so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which doth so easily beset us, and let us run with patience the race that is set before us, ² Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of ourfaith; who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is set down at the right hand of the throne of God. ³ For consider him that endured such contradiction of sinners against himself, lest ye be wearied and faint in your minds.

⁴ Ye have not yet resisted unto blood, striving against sin. ⁵ And ye have forgotten the exhortation which speaketh unto you as unto children, My son, despise not thou the chastening of the Lord, nor faint when thou art rebuked of him: ⁶ For whom the Lord loveth he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. ⁷ If ye endure chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the father chasteneth not? ⁸ But if ye be without chastisement, whereof all are partakers, then are ye bastards, and not sons.

Ways to Learn Discipline

1.   Experience- Sarah had seen God work since He called them out of Ur.

2.   Other People- Sarah’s husband showed God’s faithfulness. Sarah got a front row seat.

3.   Word of God- God had spoken to Abraham directly. Sarah knew it was God’s Word and therefore was obligated to believe. This is the only sure way.

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