Sermon Tone Analysis

Intro:

In last week’s lesson, we saw how Abraham’s faith has reached a new height.

We saw how he was willing to trust God, even though he didn’t fully understand what was happening.

He trusted God to the point, where he knew that even if Isaac was killed, God would raise him up in order to keep His promise.

Well in last week’s sermon, we saw how Abraham’s faith has reached a new height.

We saw how he was willing to trust God, even though he didn’t fully understand what was happening.

He trusted God to the point, where he knew that even if Isaac was killed, God would raise him up in order to keep His promise.

And if you remember; prior to this chapter, when God had made that promise to Abraham, and told him that he would be the father of many nations; God also told him that He would give Abraham a land for his descendants.

And up until now, Abraham hasn’t owned any land whatsoever.

But in this chapter, we finally see this promise begin to be fulfilled

Sarah’s Death

So if we look at verses 1 & 2, we see that Sarah dies in the land of Canaan – which is the land of promise, but she’s only had one son, and no grandchildren yet.

She had lived to be 127 years old.

That would mean that Isaac was about 36 or 37 years old.

So God graciously had allowed her to see her son grow up, and she got to see what kind of man he would be, but she didn’t get to see all of God’s promises to Abraham fulfilled.

That should make us think of

Sarah died, but she died in faith.

One other important thing about Sarah’s death that’s interesting.

Sarah is the only woman in Bible whose age at death we know.

The Bible doesn’t mention the ages of any other women when they died.

Not even Mary’s – we don’t even know when Mary died.

But it tells us Sarah’s age.

So that kind of lets us know how important she was in God’s plan.

Sarah’s Example

We’re also told in Scripture… ,

Sarah is a role model for wives.

But now she’s gone.

And I think this was probably pretty tough on Abraham.

He and Sarah had been together a long, long time.

Just think of all the things that Abraham put her through.

Packing up and leaving, traveling all over the Middle East, almost giving her away TWICE!

And yet she stayed with him, and submitted to him.

But now she’s gone.

And I think this was probably pretty tough on Abraham.

He and Sarah had been together a long, long time.

They’ve traveled together for most of their lives, leaning on one another and trusting one another – through good times and bad.

They had probably been married for more than 100 years.

But now she’s gone, and Abraham is faced with the issue of burying her.

Picking up the Pieces

Abraham comes to the sons of Heth (that’s the Hittites), and he asks to buy a place so that he can bury Sarah.

In verses 3 – 11, he comes to the sons of Heth (that’s the Hittites), and he asks to buy a place so that he can bury Sarah.

And you notice immediately they say, “Abraham, you are a mighty prince among us, none of us will withhold our land from you.

Bury her where you like.”

They immediately say, “Abraham, you are a mighty prince among us, none of us will withhold our land from you.

Bury her where you like.”

Historical Context:

In just a general reading of this passage, it sounds like the Hittites are being generous to Abraham.

But what you don’t know, unless you know the ancient Hittite laws, was that if Abraham had accepted this offer of free land, then at any point in the future, if the one who made the offer wanted that land back, he could come and take it.

It was more like borrowing rather than a gift.

The Hittites also had a provision in their laws that said, once Ephron had died, if his children wanted the land back, they could come and take it as well.

So Abraham wanted to make sure that the land was secured for himself and his descendants, and so he persists, and insists on buying it.

Now look at verse 15

400 shekels of silver.

That’s either a huge chunk of land, or Ephron’s trying to cheat Abraham in some way.

400 shekels is a lot of money.

About 1500 years after this takes place we’ll see Jeremiah buy a field for 17 shekels of silver.

And in , when King David goes to buy the land where the temple was going to be built, he only paid 50 shekels of silver.

Most likely, Ephron is trying to get Abraham to take the first offer, knowing that at some point in the future, if he wanted he could repossess the land from Abraham or his descendants.

Abraham doesn’t even bother haggling over the price, he just forks out the silver and buys the land.

Notice that again Moses writes that this entire transaction took place in-front of the whole council.

Again, he’s making sure that anyone who reads this will know that this was a legal transaction, and that it couldn’t be disputed.

Once Abraham has the land, he buries Sarah.

EX: This day is inevitable for all of us

None of us know how long we have left on this earth.

We’ve got to make every day count.

Don’t waste your lives.

Live for the Lord every second of every day.

None of us will probably make it as long as Sarah did, and definitely not as long as Abraham.

But we can live lives marked by faithfulness.

Beginning of the Fulfillment

Sarah didn’t see the full fulfillment of God’s promises.

For that matter, Abraham didn’t get to either.

He saw the beginning of the fulfillment, but he didn’t get to see the promise fulfilled completely.

The promises that God made were to Abraham and his Seed; and that Seed is none other than Jesus Christ, our Lord.

.

Jesus is the promised Seed of Abraham, that all the promises that God made to Abraham are fulfilled in Christ.

And guess what?

If you’re in Christ, those promises are yours.

You receive them by faith.

Just like Abraham did.

We looked at it last week, but I want to read it again (Read).

, , … they are all dealing with and touching on the same issue.

They are all saying that Jesus is the promised Seed of Abraham, that all the promises that God made to Abraham are fulfilled in Christ.

And guess what?

If you’re in Christ, those promises are yours.

You receive them by faith.

Just like Abraham did.

This field that Abraham has bought is just a picture of things to come.

In the rest of Genesis, you see the decendants of Abraham returning to this field.

It serves as their cemetary.

And if you were to go to this place today, you can still see Abraham’s tomb.

Interestingly enough, today it’s a Muslim shrine.

Devout Muslims make pilgrimages to it to honor Abraham.

The Jewish people also look at as somewhat of a sacred place.

The father of their faith is buried there.

AP: As Christians, we don’t visit the remains of our founder in a tomb

But for us as Christians… it’s not the tomb of Abraham that we look to.

Our faith recalls a different tomb.

Our Savior, Abraham’s seed, isn’t in any tomb.

His tomb is empty because God raised Him on the third day.

He arose from the dead, so it really didn’t matter which tomb He was laid in.