Funeral Arrangements

 Read Genesis 23

What do you do when the scripture for the week seems to belong more on the History Channel than in the pulpit where we preach good news?

How many of you get excited when it’s time to have a funeral? OBTW—we have exceeded our quota of funerals over the past few years.  It’s time to flatten the curve.

From now on, all deaths for members must be approved 5 years in advance.  You must be at least 85 years old to apply and have the consent of 2 session members.

Yes, today we are going to talk about Abraham burying his wife.  She was only 127 years old.  It must have caught him off guard to lose her so young.

Before the flood, people lived for hundreds of years.  In the postdiluvian era, people didn’t live quite so long.  Today, people enjoy the miracles of modern medicine while we turn our food into non-food products and then eat them.

What does the Bible say about that?  Tomorrow is not promised.  Take care what you put into your holy temple.

Let’s get to the chapter.

Abraham was rich in material things.  Silver, flocks, servants, and surely more.

He was rich in faith.  God had tested Abraham’s faith and saw that he feared God, obeyed God, trusted God, and was the man of faith that God had seen from the beginning.  We had to follow the story to Mount Moriah to witness the full measure of faith that God knew was there.

Abraham had a son.  This Father of many Nations thing was finally underway.

God had blessed Abraham in so many ways but he had no land of his own.  He had the promise of the land all around him for his descendants but by most measures, he was still nomadic.

Abraham’s experience with God’s promises assured him that God does fulfill his promises.  God would deliver this land to his descendants.  Abraham’s faith—the substance of things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen—told him that this Promised Land business was a done deal. But for the time, Abraham was still a nomad and didn’t own anything as far as land was concerned.

He had stayed in this region for an extended time.  Abimelech the king knew him.  Not all encounters between these two men were good encounters, but there was mutual respect.

Abraham knew the Hittites and the Philistines.  He was at home where he lived but he owned no land.

And then his wife died.  She lived to be 127 years old.  That is maxing out your social security payments right there.

Abraham mourned the loss of his long-time spouse, but Abraham had some logistics to work out. He needed a place to bury his wife.  As we see from the encounter with the local people, any of them would have willingly given Abraham a place to bury his wife.

Abraham was like royalty.  He was respected and surely revered. Absent the times when he was passings of his now-deceased wife as his sister, he had been forthright and generous in his dealings with those around him.

And Abraham was a witness to the destruction of Sodom.  There had to be some stories to tell from that.

Abraham came from Ur in the land of the Chaldeans.  He was unique, perhaps an enigma among his present company.

Abraham was undefeated in battle.  He and 318 men defeated 4 major armies in the rescue of his nephew.

Sure, Abraham did some knuckleheaded things, but his wealth, accomplishments, and victories sort of gave him the halo effect. 

But Abraham had no land and he needed to bury his wife. The thought of this eventuality had surely crossed Abraham’s mind.  He already knew where he wanted to bury Sarah.  We don’t see that Abraham frantically searched the land far and wide and finally found just the right place.

Abraham already knew what he wanted.  He had obviously done some advanced work on this. That place belonged to Ephron son of Zohar.  Abraham sought the cave of Machpelah, but in the course of conversation, the cave expanded to the land around it.  Ephron was willing to give Abraham the land and the cave.  It was worth about 400 shekels of silver.

How much is that?  Let’s say half of a king’s ransom.  Remember, that Abimelech had made Abraham whole by the gifts of many things, among them 1000 shekels of silver for the wrong that he had not done to Sarah.

Abraham agreed to the price even though Ephron was willing to give it to Abraham.  What’s a king’s ransom between men like us?

But it seems that Abraham would be beholden to no one but God.

It also appears that Abraham did not abuse his status.  We see some of that today in our ethics, laws, and regulations.

Who gets preferential treatment?  Those who need it least—the rich and famous.

On independent duty, I was sometimes offered things being the commanding officer of the few Marines stationed in the heartland of America.  I knew to ask, “Do you offer this to all Marines?”

If the answer was in the affirmative, I could accept what was being offered.  If it was just for me, that one fell into the thanks but no thanks category.

As we look at many of our elected officials today, we see them beholden to so many individuals and groups that have enticed them from statesmanship to self-service at our expense.

Was this in Abrahams's thinking?  We saw something similar with the king of Sodom.  There would be no deal between Abraham and this king.

Abraham obviously had a dislike for the king of Sodom but we don’t see that with Ephron of Zohar.  So maybe Abraham just wanted no special treatment from men.  Abraham had been blessed by God.  He would do his best to walk blamelessly before the Lord.

We see some self-actualization in Abraham after having his faith tested on Mount Moriah.  Abraham is living the full measure of faith that God saw in him, most likely in the womb.

One other possible motive here was that this tomb was not just for Sarah.  It would be a place for Abraham to be buried as well as his son and grandson and their wives.  The tomb was thought to be a double, but as we read the history of the time, we don’t see any complaints from the occupants when a few more were added at later dates.

Hey, throw a couple air mattresses on the floor.

This is also the first ownership by Abraham and his descendants.  The land all around was promised to Abraham’s descendants, but this was the first land that Abraham owned.  The land was deeded to him.

I don’t know what that looked like that long ago, but it was official.

So, other than the history lesson, what do we take away from this chapter. 

Here is my tongue-in-cheek answer that isn’t really tongue-in-cheek.  Do some funeral planning.  Other than the handful of people who will meet Jesus in the clouds, we are all going to die a physical death and you have to do something with the body.

Some of you have watched enough CSI, that you don’t think you will even need a funeral home.  You know how to get rid of a body.

The not-so-arid lesson might be, be careful to whom you owe anything.  The proverbs warn us against debt but we should also be on the lookout for relationships that make us beholden to another.

Paul wrote that the only debt we should have is to love one another.

There is another thought here about being beholden to someone else.  What if you had to take a mark of loyalty to buy or sell or trade—to just get what you needed to survive?

Would you take the mark?

There isn’t much of a tie with that eschatological thought, but it’s enough to chew on every now and then. Consider what debts or obligations or perceived obligations we might incur in our relationships.

The chapter is the history of Abraham buying a field with a nice tomb, paying full price, and burying his wife.  Know the history, but think about being beholden to none but God.

Seek God and his kingdom and his righteousness first.

Know the history.  Seek the Lord.

Amen.