Genesis 23

0:00 Well, there's no-- secret. Here at 3rd Avenue that I am... History buff. I've always loved to read history. I've always... studied history, it's what I majored in in college, what I majored in in seminary, the whole deal. I'm a history buff. And one of the things I love most about history is seeing it, when you get to go to a certain place and sort of see history unfold before your eyes. We don't get a whole lot of that here in the United States of America, because nothing here is all that old today. I mean, we see a building like that ugly white one right out there, and it hits 60 years old, and all of a sudden it's like a historical relic, and you can't touch it.

0:35 That's not the case in Europe. In Europe it's It's totally different, right? You have buildings there that are thousands sometimes of years old. Things that go all the way back to the Roman Empire. You can see aqueducts. You can also, though, C. cathedrals. And I love you. Cathedrals. If you drop me off just randomly in some European city, you know exactly where I'm going to be headed. I'm going to be going to the center of town, and I'm going to go see whatever cathedral. is there but what gets me about the cathedrals is not just the architecture. I mean they're incredible things right? I mean they're just these soaring monuments just gigantic buildings and they're beautiful The light that pours into them through the stained glass, the way the architecture works, the way the sound rings in the building. They're absolutely beautiful, but it's not so much beautiful.

1:27 The beauty of the architecture that gets me when I stand in one of those places, it's... The history... It's what went into building those things. I mean, do you know how long... From start to finish, it took, for example, to build Cologne Cathedral in Germany. The people who started that cathedral laid the foundation stone in the year 1248. Eight. And they finished the thing in 1880. 1248 to 1880, that's how long it took to build that cathedral. It's like 632 years.

2:06 to build that building. In fact, here's the funny thing about that one. It went on for so long that the money ran out, about 200 years into it. In 1473, the city of Cologne just kind of ran out of money, and the work just stopped. And the trouble was that they were right in the middle of it. So they had one tower of the cathedral... that was built and the other one was half built and they had a crane up on top of it in 1478 that was putting the stones in place. And when the money ran out, they just left the crane up there. And the crane sat on the top of that cathedral for 300 years.

2:38 Generation after generation of people grew up just thinking that's an odd thing to put on a church. But there it was. I mean, if you look even at the historical sort of seal of the city of Cologne, the crane on top of the unfinished church actually made it onto the seal of the city of Cologne. The thing became precious to them. because they ran out of money. 632 years. I mean the cathedral in a nearby city of Ulm took 513 years. Milan in Italy started in 1386 and didn't finish the front of the building until 1965.

3:13 Almost 600 years to build that thing. It's incredible. I think my favorite story of all, though, It comes from Barcelona. The Sagrada Familia Cathedral. You know they just finished that thing a couple of months ago in June of 2026. I don't know if you saw the headlines. Well the story of it's pretty incredible this artist named Anthony Gaudi took over the building of the church in 1883 is that right? Yeah 1883 is when Gaudi took it over and he himself worked on it as the chief architect of the Sagrada Familia for 43 years until 1926 he was tragically run over by a streetcar and killed and that's how it ended and you know what he had done after 43 years of work?

3:52 On the Sagrada Familia. He had one wall built. And one part of one tower built. of the cathedral. That's all he had done. 43 years of his life... And that's all he had. Somebody in the middle of it once asked Gaudi why on earth the thing was taking so long to build. And he gave one of the greatest answers in all the history of architecture. He looked in the person's eyes and he said, the reason it's taking so long is because my client is not here. in a hurry .

4:24 And of course by his client he meant God. Well, it was finished. This past June, 100 years, they timed it, it wasn't accidental, 100 years to the day after Gaudi died. They set the cross on the top of it, the thing got consecrated, and now it's in full use, the Sagrada Crescent. Familia. A hundred and forty three years after the first stone was set. I mean, he was right. His client was not in a hurry, and clearly nobody else was either. He was not in a hurry. Here's the thing, though.

4:57 I mean, for all that math, for all that history and all those numbers and stories, here's the thing that just... blows my mind about these buildings and the amount of time they took to build. I just, it's just hard to get out of your mind when once you kind of stare into the face of one of these things and think about it. What... kind of person is willing To do that. What kind of man pours his entire heart and soul, his whole life, into building something that he knows for a forever?

5:30 Facts. He will never see finished. Who does that? I mean, that takes a certain amount of conviction, right? I mean, would you... Give your life to something. You lay the foundation stone and you know this isn't going to be finished in my life. It's not going to be finished in my grandkids' life or even their grandkids' life. This thing's not going to be finished for 600 years. And yet I'm going to pour my life out. into it. Who does that? I mean, you've got to be... absolutely certain about a couple of things, if you're going to give your life to that, right? You've got to be absolutely certain that this thing is going to come to completion, and you've got to be absolutely certain that it's going to be worth it.

6:13 Well, this morning... We're going to meet a man that does things like that. And the fact is, This man had it way harder than any cathedral builder or stonemason or architect ever lived. Because a cathedral builder, a stonemason, could at least walk out 30 years into the project and see, oh, there's actually something here. There's half a wall or there's half a tower, even if a crane is sitting on top of it. But the guy we're talking about this morning, In the book of Genesis...

6:44 could see Nothing. at all. And yet he had the same kind of conviction. So turn with me to the book of Genesis. That's where we're going this morning. We just finished up last week a series in the book of Ezekiel. And guess what? We're going to stay in the Old Testament. We're just going to go back to the front of it. So if you've got one of these Red Pew Bibles, you can turn over to Genesis.com. Chapter 23 in the Red Pew Bibles, it begins on page 16. So, excuse me, just 1-6, right at the very beginning of the Bible. We're going to be in Genesis, really, all the way through the fall.

7:17 So we're going to make our way all the way through chapter 33. That's going to bring us right up to Christmas, believe it or not. And then I promise you, in January, if the Lord tarries, we're going to head back to the New Testament. So we're not going to be in the Old Testament forever, just for the fall. Buckle up and enjoy. We're back in Genesis, and we have not been in Genesis since the spring. So let me spend a few minutes just getting you a bit caught up, because it's been quite a few weeks since we've been here. If you've been with us for this whole series, it's been actually a couple of winters that we've spent, at least two winters that we've spent in the book of Genesis. Then you probably remember what kind of organizes the entire book of Genesis.

8:04 Adam and Eve are put in the Garden of Eden. Everything is perfect. Everything is in order. There's this wonderful structure of authority. It's almost a cathedral-like structure that God puts in place in his creation. And then Satan comes in, tempts Adam and Eve. They join his rebellion. And the whole thing gets blown up from bottom to top. Satan takes the whole thing down and Adam with him through his rebellion. And the whole world falls into sin. It's chaos and cataclysm right there in the middle of Genesis chapter 3. But right after the cataclysm, in Genesis chapter 3, 15, God makes a promise that just comes like a lightning bolt in the storm. Right?

8:43 And it just lights up the whole world of darkness that's been created by Adam's sin. When God says, one day... I'm going to send another king... Adam, to do what you should have done in the first place. What you should have done when Satan tried to come in and get you to rebel against me is take his little head and put it under your foot and crush it. That's what you should have done. You should have judged him right there at the tree of judgment. The tree of the knowledge of good and evil. You should have crushed him, cast him out of the garden. You didn't do that. You rebelled against me. But I'm going to send another king.

9:17 I'm going to send an offspring of your wife Eve. Who one day is going to do what you should have done. He's going to crush the head. of the serpent. Well then, the whole book of Genesis unfolds from that one verse. From Genesis chapter 3, 15, the whole book of Genesis, and you might even say the whole book of the Bible, right? All 66 books of it. It's basically a search... for who it is that's going to fulfill Genesis 3:15. Who is this great new king that's going to crush the head of the serpent? And Genesis offers up a bunch of answers, right? Well, is it Abel? No, it's not Abel. Is it Cain? No, it's not Cain. Is it Seth? No. Is it Noah? No.

10:02 And one by one by one, they're held up, and the question is asked, is this the one? And one by one by one, they fall off, and you realize, no, this is not the one who's going to Fulfill Genesis 3.15. Always. has been going on for the last 12 chapters or so. We studied the life of Abraham. back in the spring and what we see is that the great promise of Genesis 3.15 ultimately falls into the hands of this... pagan guy from way up in Ur of the Chaldees. So that's basically Babylon. It's way up north, way over to the east. That's where Abraham comes from. And God calls him and gives him the promise of Genesis 3.15 and says, Abraham, through you...

10:45 I'm going to make this promise come to pass. And then from chapter 12 all the way up to where we are now, chapter 23, you basically just have this promise in Abraham's hands being threatened in one way after another. It just kind of passes through all the events of Abraham's life. And one thing after another happens that puts that promise in mortal life. Peril. Right? You know, it's actually been happening since the beginning of the book. The promise has been in peril. How is Genesis 3.15 going to be fulfilled? Is it going to be through Abel? No, it's not going to be Abel. Is it going to be through Noah? No, it's not going to be Noah. No.

11:24 Is it going to be somebody at the Tower of Babel? No, that whole project falls into ruin and goes away. But now it's in Abraham's hands. And even in his hands... The promise is in peril. I mean, if you're going to have a... great king that comes from Abraham, Obviously, you've got to have children from Abraham, right? You've got to have an offspring. You've got to have a son who's going to be the king. This guy's wife, Sarah, can't have children. For decades, the Bible says, she's barren. So how are you going to have a son who becomes a king?

11:57 Even worse, two different times she gets taken into the harem of these foreign kings. Like she basically gets stolen from Abraham. Well, if she winds up being the concubine of some foreign king, how is she going to have a son to Abraham who can be the great king of Genesis 3? 15. You can't. All of which is just deadly threat to the promise. Abraham even puts it in peril himself, right? He decides that the whole thing is going too slow for him. And so in chapters 16, 17, those chapters, he tries to salvage the whole thing by basically fathering a son with a slave woman. He looks at Sarah and says, you can't do it for me. So how about we put this plan together, you and me, Sarah. She's totally in agreement with it.

12:37 go into my slave woman and we'll have the son that could become a king. Well that turns out to be a disaster. And puts the promise in peril also. And then finally, What we saw at the end of the series last spring is that When finally everything was looking pretty good, When Abraham had this son, Isaac, right? The son who everybody thinks at this point in the story is going to become the king of Genesis 3.15. God tells him... Take that son... That you finally got after all these years, at like 100 years old. Take that son, walk him up a mountain, and kill him.

13:14 Plunge a knife into his heart. and kill him. And that's how the story ended. With Abraham walking up that mountain and God finally not allowing him to kill Isaac. But you see the pattern here, right? Every single moment of this story, the promise of God... is basically one half step away from total extinction. And every single time... God preserves it. No matter what the threat is. No matter who is putting pressure on the promise, God preserves it. Because once he makes a promise, he always does.

13:52 keeps it. All right, now, before we get to chapter 23, I want you to look at the very end. of chapter 22. We didn't talk about this last spring. We just kind of mentioned it because it's really set up for chapter 23. But I want you to look at how chapter 22 ends because it's really easy to skip over and it basically sets up. everything. So after the near sacrifice of Isaac, in verses 20 to 24... chapter 22 you get this this little bit of a genealogy which is basically Abraham receiving a messenger from somebody way back in his home of Ur of the Chaldees. Haran is the name of the place.

14:31 He gets this little bit of information from Haran. And the news is... Good. Abraham's brother Nahor has had 12 sons. Twelve. Now my guess is that what went through Abraham's head was a series of thoughts and a series of emotions. Probably the first one was, good for Nahor, I always thought he was a good guy. I'm glad Nahor seems to be a successful guy. He's had 12 sons and probably a lot of daughters too. The second thing that he thought was, what in the world?

15:05 world. Nahor, my brother, has 12 sons. I have one son and not one square foot of land to my name. I own nothing. Abraham's rich. He's got cattle. He's got sheep. He's got everything else, but he doesn't have land. He doesn't have a place to live. He doesn't have a place to call home. And yet his family... Back in Haran... is prospering like God. crazy. And then chapter 23 opens and Sarah...

15:39 Abraham's faithful, by his side wife... dies And that's where we pick up the story this morning. Look with me at Genesis chapter 23. Verse 1. Thank you. Sarah said, Lived 127 years. These were the years of the life of Sarah. And Sarah died at Kiriath Arba, that is Hebron. In the land of Canaan, Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah and to weep for her. And Abraham rose up from before his dead and said to the Hittites, I am a sojourner and foreigner among you. Give me property among you for a burying place that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

16:16 The Hittites answered Abraham, Here is my Lord, you are a prince of God, a mighty prince it means among us. Bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs. None of us will withhold from you his tomb. to hinder 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, hear me and entreat for me Ephron, the son of Zohar. that he may give me the cave of Machpelah 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...

16:48 And Ephraim the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of the city, No, my lord, hear me. I give you the field. 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 Ephraim in the hearing of the people of the land, If you will hear me. I give the price of the field. Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there. Ephraim answered Abraham, my Lord, listen to me. A piece of land worth 400 shekels of silver. What is that between you and me? Bury your dead.

17:26 Abraham listened to Ephraim, and Abraham weighed out for Ephraim the silver that he had named in the hearing of the Hittites. 400 shekels of silver, according to the weights current among the merchants. So the field of Ephron in Machpelah, which was to the east of Mamre, The field with the cave that was in it and all the trees that were in the field throughout its whole area was made over to Abraham as a possession in the presence of the Hittites. before all who went in at the gate of his city. After this Abraham buried Sarah his wife in the cave of the field of Machpelah east of Mamre that is Hebron in the land of Canaan. The field and the cave that is in it... were made over to Abraham... as property...

17:58 for a burying place by the Hittites. Okay, now, let's just be straight with one another. At first glance, this is an extremely odd chapter to give an entire Sunday morning to. If I were a smarter preacher, I would have combined it with chapter 24. I'm kidding. I did this on purpose. It's 20 verses, right? And it's all about the sale and buying of a piece of land. About three quarters of the 20 verses are just two Middle Eastern dudes haggling over the price of some land and doing it in, you may not have caught it, but it's a really hilarious way because neither of them really wants to come at it head on. They keep doing these sort of side things, right? And we'll talk about that a little bit later.

18:38 But stick with me as we talk about it, because I think this chapter and this story about the buying of the burial plot turns out to be way more significant than you might think at first. Now, it strikes me, even as I say that, that I basically say that about every obscure Old Testament passage that we come to. You ever notice that? It's true, and it's true. The reason I say it is because the Bible doesn't waste words. It doesn't just throw things in there because things have to be in there. When the Bible tells you something, it's telling you for a reason.

19:15 So when I go into it and I look at it for the first time, I think like many of you, wow, what in the world could this possibly be about? And then I study it a little bit more and I realize, oh, that's what it's about. Friends, there's a lesson for you even in the fact that I end up saying that so often. from up here. Anyway, here's how it breaks down. From verses 1 through really kind of the first half of verse 4, Sarah dies and Abraham grieves. That's the story of the first four verses or so. Then from the middle of verse 4 all the way to the end, all the way through verse 20, you get these detailed negotiations about the land between Abraham and this guy named Ephraim. And then finally at the end of it, you get Sarah's burial. That's the whole chapter.

20:03 Yes. Will. One day, take everything you have. Death will one day take everything you have, but it cannot touch a single thing. Death is when you're going to take everything that you've got. It's going to take your money. It's going to take your possessions. It's going to take your family. It's going to take your friends. Death will take everything. But it will not take one single thing that God has promised to you. It's a comforting thought, isn't it? It's a wonderful thought. And it's what we're going to be talking about for the rest of the time today. So three points to the sermon. Looking at this chapter, we're kind of at point one. We're kind of going to look at verses one to four.

20:42 And then in the last two points, we're going to look at the whole of verses 4 through 20. So number one, we're going to look at what death takes from us. What death takes. Number two, what faith is. does. In the face of death... And then number three... What faith sees... Beyond death. So number one, what death takes from us. Number two, what faith does in the face of death. And number three, what faith sees...

21:13 beyond death So let's look at it. Verses 1 to 4. Look with me first. This is point one, what death takes. Look first with me at the very first verse that we read. Verse 1. 127 years, and these Were the years... of the life of Sarah. Now it's easy to read over that because it's just a small detail and In a book like Genesis, you're going to get lots and lots of numbers, but I don't want you to rush past it too quickly. It turns out that Sarah is the only woman in the entire Bible who's ever...

21:45 Age at death is recorded. Now there are other women whose ages get recorded at other times in their lives, but Sarah is the only one that sort of gets the royal treatment. Right? It's a royal thing to say that so-and-so was 127 years old when he died and he was buried with his father. That's royal treatment. And Sarah gets it here. And the point that the author is trying to make to you is really a simple one. He wants you to understand that this person mattered. She was important. She was somebody in the economy and the plan of God. And so it's not surprising when you get to verse 2.

22:23 that Abraham went in to mourn for Sarah. And to weep for her. It's interesting to me that This is the only time in the whole story... of Abraham's life when he... weeps. It's the only time, and there are lots of things, if you think about it, lots of times where he could have wept. He doesn't weep when God tells him to leave his country and leave his family and leave his father's house and walk off toward this... foreign land that he's never even seen before he doesn't weep then He doesn't weep when his nephew Lot gets captured by four kings and is presumably dead.

23:00 As far as we're told, he didn't even weep when he was walking up the mountain, thinking he was going to have to plunge the knife into Isaac, his son's chest. He didn't weep then. But here... At the death of his wife, he... weeps. Why? Well, he weeps. I think really simply because that's exactly the response that death deserves. Even from people who are Christians, even from people who have their faith and their trust in Jesus Christ, death deserves salvation.

23:34 weeping. Thank you. I think about Abraham and Sarah for a minute. The two of them had been on this road together from Ur to Haran and now to Canaan. They'd been on this road together for, we don't know exactly. What we do know is that it was at least 62 years. Thank you. Since the day they dropped everything and walked out of Haran. And now she's gone, his faithful companion, she's gone. And he's standing there by himself. There's no escaping it. Death is...

24:08 an enemy. It strips. It takes time. It plunders. It steals and it never gives... anything back, not once. Look, I... I want to talk about this for a minute because I know that over the past couple of years we are a church who has buried people We've buried some of our Dear brothers and sisters over the last couple of years, we've buried people in the last couple of months.

24:40 And I know that in a church like this where... Most of us are young. And probably the vast majority of us have not really had to stare death in the face. When we do bury someone, when we do have to say goodbye to one of our brothers and sisters, it can be an odd thing. The emotions that come in can be confusing, and what you're supposed to do with those emotions can be confusing. I mean, is it okay to weep? When we lay our sister Melody in the ground, is that okay? Or as Christians, are we supposed to be these people who are just happy that Melody is in the presence of the Lord?

25:14 How do I weep about putting somebody into the ground? And yet at the same time rejoice that they're with Jesus in heaven. How do I do that at exactly the same time? Thank you. That can be terribly confusing. Thank you. But here's what I want you to see in verses 1 to 3. of this chapter. Grief is not a failure of faith. Your tears in the face of death... are not a failure of faith. They never have been.

25:46 There's nowhere, nowhere in the Bible that asks you to stand in a cemetery at a graveside and pretend that what just happened is okay or alright or good or that it's all part of some beautiful circle of life. Nothing asks you to pretend that because it's just not true. The Bible calls death an enemy. Right? It doesn't belong here. It's not supposed to be here. God didn't put death in the world. We. Put death in the world and it's an enemy. In fact, Paul says that death is the last thing.

26:18 Enemy. And enemies are to be hated. Not welcomed. I mean, think about it. You want to know what Jesus thinks about death? Go read John 11. This afternoon, go read the story of Jesus raising Lazarus from the dead. And Jesus walks to Bethany, he walks to the family's home, and he talks to the family, and then he walks out to Lazarus' tomb knowing... Like right there in that moment, knowing that in about four and a half minutes, he's going to call that man out of that grave alive. His friend is going to come out. And what does he do when he arrives at the tomb?

26:54 He is moved in his spirit. And then you get the shortest, most poignant verse in the Bible. Jesus wept. Jesus wept. In the face of death, he wept. And you know what that word underneath it, moved, is? You know what the Greek is underneath it? It means to be incensed. It means to be furious at what death has done to his friend and his friend's family. That's what Jesus thought of death. He weeps. If anybody in history ever had a reason not to cry at a funeral.

27:29 It was Jesus, the resurrection and the life, and yet he cried anyway. Friends, when you're standing at the graveside... Of somebody you loved. When you're seeing families weep, don't let anybody tell you that tears are a result of weak faith. They're not. They're actually quite the opposite. What those tears are saying is that they're our testimony that our Lord's enemy is also our enemy. And we look forward... to the day when he puts an end to it.

28:01 Forever. You know, there's another thing to say about it, though. Thank you. When you stand at those gravesides and when you lay your friends in. your family, your grandmothers, your grandfathers, your parents, Your children even. When you lay them to rest and you... Think about the day of your own death. There's nothing, if you are a believer... to fear. in that. There's nothing to fear in your own death because the only authority that death has over you as a believer in Jesus Christ is to deliver you into the arms of your Savior. That's it.

28:36 Death has one commission from the Lord of the universe, and that is go get my son, go get my daughter, and bring him or her back too. me. You know, the great preacher Charles Spurgeon. had one of his dear friends, a deacon in his church actually, who died very unexpectedly, While Spurgeon was pastor of the church, and he had to preach the funeral of this friend of his, this leader... in his church. Here's what he said. It's kind of long, but I think...

29:08 I think you'll appreciate it. Here's what Spurgeon said at this man's funeral. He said... When the believer dies... There is nothing to fear because... He does not gaze on death. He walks through the valley of the shadow of death, but he fears no evil. and sees none to fear. A shadow may be cast across my road, but I pass through it and scarcely even perceive that it is there. Why is that? Because I have my eye fixed upon a strong light beyond. And so I don't even notice the shadow, which otherwise might distress me.

29:42 Believers are so rejoiced by the presence of their Lord and Master that they don't even observe that they are dying. They rest so sweetly in the embrace of Jesus that they hear not the voice of the wailing. When they pass from one world into another, it's something like going from England to Scotland. It is all one kingdom and one sun shines in both lands. Often travelers by train will ask... When do we pass from England into Scotland? There's no jerk in the movement of the train. There's no broad boundary. You just glide from one end to the other and scarce know where the boundary lies.

30:16 The eternal life that is in the believer glides along from grace to glory without a break. We shall know when we arrive. But the passage may be so rapid that we shall not see it. From earth... To heaven may seem the greatest of journeys, but it is ended in the twinkling of an eye. One thing. Gentle sigh. The chain breaks. We scarce can say he's gone. before the ransom spirit takes its place. Before the throne. No, the believer shall never gaze on death. He shall pass it by with no more than a glance. He shall go through Jordan as though it were dry land and scarce know that he has passed a river at all.

30:57 Like Peter... The departing shall scarce be sure that they have passed through the iron gate, which shall open of its own accord. They shall only know. That they... R. free. Oh, brothers and sisters, there's nothing. Nothing. To fear. about the day of your own death. Because if you're a believer... You're going to be with Jesus. I want you to say one more thing before we move on. It's in verse 3.

31:28 Thank you. There's another detail there, and it's just as important as all that. Look what it says there. rose up from before his dead. He weeped. But then He rose up. from before his dead. You see that? Despite everything, despite the loss of his life, despite the weeping, despite the fact that he had just wept for her, he got... up. He mourned, he wept, and then he got up. Look, the fact is mourning is right.

32:00 Mourning is exactly what we ought to do in the face of death, but it can't go on forever. Mourning is right. Mourning forever isn't. See, there comes a day when the man who loved her... ...has to stand up and do the very next thing. And what's the next thing? Well... I mean, look at the next-- Words out of his mouth. Verse 4, I am a sojourner and a foreigner. He stands up. And he gets on with it. And that leads to our second point. Number two, looking at the rest of the story, what faith is.

32:31 does. So-- What does he do? Having mourned for his wife, having wept for her, what does he do? Well, that's the rest of the chapter. And I want you to, first of all, just notice, as we read it a few minutes ago, how utterly ordinary it looks. It is not what you would expect coming on the heels of Abraham weeping for his wife because basically what you have is a negotiation over a piece of land that needs to be bought. Now people have noticed throughout the centuries how brilliantly entertaining the rest of this chapter is. Starting in verse 4, running all the way through verse 20. It's just bitingly human. And it's got everything in it from humor to cringe to layered negotiating practices to even some profound meaning.

33:12 That's woven into it. So let's look at it. Look at verse 4. Abraham asks the Hittites for some property for a burying place. There were some Hittites. The Hittites were normally people who were much further away up north. But apparently there were some Hittites that had kind of made their way down south. And they'd settled around Hebron in the place where Abraham and his... His family were. And so he goes to these Hittites who have control of the land. And he wants some property. He wants to buy some property for a burying place for his family. And when you read verse 6, it sounds great. It sounds like Abraham's going to get everything that he wants. So the Hittites say to him, hear us, my Lord, you are a prince of God among us. Now, they're not recognizing Yahweh there. That's not the word. It just means a mighty prince. In other words, you're very rich. You have a good reputation. You have control of armies. You can basically take what you want if you wanted to. But you're a prince of God among us. And then they say, bury your dead in the choicest of our tombs.

34:07 Now that sounds super generous. Take your pick, Abraham. Any of our tombs, you can bury your dead in our tombs. None of us will hold back from you the right to bury your dead, but then listen to how they say it. in our tombs. You can use them But they're not going to be yours. You can have it, but only as... A lease, right? You can only have it as a kind of rental fee. You can't own it. The land is going to remain ours. What they're desperately trying to do, even as they're trying to hide it under this sort of this sort of ancient hospitality, is that they're trying desperately not to give Abraham any land. They don't want him to own it outright. They don't want him to own it legally, because if he owns it legally, then that keeps him exactly where he's been for 62 years.

34:59 Right up under their noses. And they would rather have Abraham there, not as a landowner, but as a dependent guest. who has no legal claim to be there. That's what they're trying to do, even though it sounds generous. Abraham, though, sees right through it. And he does something really, really smart immediately. When he gets the response from the people, he does something smart. He stops talking to the group and names one guy that he wants to talk to. You see that? Look at verse 8. Entreat for me, he says, Ephraim, the son of Zohar. So apparently this is a guy that had some land. Abraham knows him somehow.

35:38 people don't want this foreigner to have land in their midst, Ephraim, the son of Zohar, might be okay with it. Ephraim the son of Zohar might have a piece of land that he values less than he would value the money that he can get out of Abraham. It's a smart move, right? Because a group can have kind of group solidarity. And he's like, well, we don't want this kind of person among us. But Abraham knows if I go talk to the one guy, he might want the money. No one in the group is going to get the money, but the one guy might take the money for the land. And so he says, I want to talk to...

36:08 Ephraim. Now look at verse 10, because here's where the action happens. Ephraim was sitting among the Hittites. And Ephraim the Hittite answered Abraham in the hearing of the Hittites, of all who went in at the gate of his city, No, my lord, hear me. Now watch what happens here. You know what Abraham is asked for, right? He's asked for a cave that sits on the edge of a field. That's all he wants. He wants a place to bury Sarah and ultimately all of his family. But listen to what Ephraim does. Verse 11, no, my Lord, hear me. I give you not just the cave, I give you the whole field.

36:44 In the sight of the sons of my people, I give it to you. Bury your debt. Now Ephraim is setting up. He knows what Abraham's going to do, but he tries the same gambit that his people did. I'll just give it to you. Abraham, let's not make a contract. Let's not write it down. I'll just give it to you as a gift. And then 100 years from now or 50 years from now, when my sons or their grandsons want it back, it turns out there will be no deed of sale on it. There will be no record. This is the kind of subtext, right? There will be no legal record that you own the land. It'll just be that I gave it to you as a gift, and now we're taking it back.

37:18 But he also throws in the idea that Abraham's not going to buy just the cave, but also the field. So he's trying to upsell him, basically. He's trying to extend the offer because he knows Abraham's not going to accept the gift. He hasn't accepted that yet, and he's not going to start doing it now. So keep reading. So Abraham, verse 12... 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. It's very kind, but basically it means shut up and listen to me. That's what it means. I'm not going to rent your tombs. I'm not going to take it as a gift. I want to own it. I've already said this three times. I want to pay the price. So shut up.

37:58 up. I give the price, okay, fine, of the upsell. I give the price of the field. So accept the price from me so that I may bury my dead there. And then verse 14 is hilarious. Ephraim answered Abraham, my Lord, listen to me. And if you read the sentence just at face value, what it sounds like is that he's just being nice, just giving him the field. Of course, there's a hook in that, right? Because he won't own it. But he's trying to give it to him. But look what he throws into the middle of it. This land that I'm about to give you happens to be worth 400 shekels.

38:33 But what is that between me and you, friends? I give it to you. And Abraham's like, bring the shekels. . Now catch what happened there. Because it's just a beautiful little piece of theater, right? It's just a beautiful little piece of Middle Eastern negotiating. It's a formality... That Ephraim is offering here is the way we kind of say, oh, don't worry about it. I got it. And what you're fully expecting is for the other person to go, no, no, no, no. I got it. Right? In fact, it's a little bit jarring when you kind of reach over for the check and go, I got it. And the other person goes, okay. Okay.

39:11 you're like really that is that is not how this southern ritual works we're supposed to fight over this thing and then we know who's going to win and Like there's a pecking order and we know who's gonna win but you're not an honorable man if you just say okay. it's all formality and then he names his price right a piece of land what is it 400 shekels but what is that Well, actually, if you get right down to it, it's a lot. 400 shekels for a field is a lot. You look in Jeremiah, we don't have a whole lot of or data about ancient Near Eastern economies. But we do know that shekels of silver are pretty expensive and we know that Jeremiah bought an entire field for 17 of those buddies.

39:56 17 shekels. He got an entire field, and this guy's like 400... Abraham is being gouged and he knows he's being gouged and he pays it without one word of complaint. He doesn't even get to buy just the burial ground that he wants. The guy upsells him to the entire field and then charges him like 24 times with the axe You know, this is a typical field. He sells it for like 23 times. the real value of it. So here's the question, why does Abraham act like this?

40:28 What's he doing in all of this heckling and all of this haggling? What is he doing? In other words, how is faith operating in Abraham's life on the worst day of his life? What did it look like? What did it look like for Abraham to continue to have faith in God? I mean, did it look like this vision vision? That he had, he's had those before in his life. So does faith look like this great vision that he has? No, it doesn't look like that. Does it look like a dream? No. No. Does it sound like a voice out of heaven telling Abraham how he's supposed to go on now? No, he's heard those voices before come out of heaven.

41:03 But not here. No, on the very worst day of his life, faith looks like this. He gets up off the floor... He's courteous and kind. He's smart. He haggles. He bargains. He weighs out 400 shekels of silver in public, in front of the merchants, according to the accepted weights of the day. He's smart. And then he went and buried his wife. Brothers and sisters, sometimes faith in this life just means... That even on the worst day of our lives, we just have to do the next best.

41:36 good thing. Sometimes you just have to do the next good thing. And you've got to do the next good thing competently and without bitterness and with clear eyes even when your heart is broken. So you make the phone calls, you sign the papers, you have the meetings, you just get through Tuesdays. Is that kind of faith, is that kind of just do it faith? less than the faith Abraham showed on the mountain.

42:10 In chapter 22... No, it's not. Thank you. It's exactly where real faith puts us. It's exactly what real faith demands of us. Some of you, I'm sure, are in that exact place this morning. And I want you to hear me. If your heart is... Broken, and you're grieving about something. It is no bad thing. It is in fact a profoundly good thing that you're just going to make it through Sunday. That you're going to just do the next good thing. God is not disappointed in you for how ordinary and unremarkable your obedience to him looks right now.

42:51 Sometimes faith isn't spectacular at all. Sometimes it's just doing the next good thing. Friends, rest in that. If you need to rest in it now, rest in it now. If not, go on doing good things with all you've got, but there will come a day when you will need it. And I pray that out of the treasured houses of your heart, you can bring that up. That faith is doing the next good thing. But what makes all of that, doing the next good thing, what makes it faith?

43:24 in God. And not just... competence. Not just living life the way we have to live life. Here's what made it faith in Abraham's life. He could have just... Gone. Home. In fact, according to the customs of the day, he should have just gone home. I mean, think about it. Think about what we saw at the end of chapter 22. Everybody in the ancient world basically buried their dead with their ancestors. You don't move to another place.

43:55 And then bury your dead in this new foreign place. It's just not done. You bury your dead where your ancestors have been buried for hundreds and maybe even thousands of years. That's just what you do. So nobody would have blinked if Abraham had taken his wife's body back to Haran and buried her there with his ancestors. It wouldn't have looked weird. It wouldn't have looked like a failure. It would have just looked like piety. It would have just looked like piety. And to make it worse... Abraham's brother's family is up there thriving. He's got 12 sons, you remember, from the end of chapter 22. But the promise and the draw of Haran wasn't just family to Abraham.

44:32 Then you look at Joshua chapter 24. Thank you. Here's what's written there. Your fathers, this is Joshua talking to the Jews. Your fathers lived up there. Terah, the father of Abraham and of his brother Nahor. And they served other gods. So you see the point? The draw of Haran was not just that it's where the family was, it's where the family gods were. So the pull at the exact moment when the pull was strongest in Abraham's life wasn't just homeward, it was backward.

45:05 It was away from God. It was back toward everything God had called him from and he doesn't Go. Thank you. He does the thing that has to come next. He buries his wife, Sarah. in Canaan. Not in Haran. Look, this is an important thing to think about. This is an important thing to set down in your life before the moment of crisis comes. And I mean that. You've got to set these things down in your life before the moment of crisis comes. One of the enemy's greatest strategies is to hit us with some tragedy that makes compromise against the word of God and against our faith in Jesus look like the only choice.

45:49 okay, I guess that's it. I'm going home to Haran. My wife is dead. I'm going home. It's the only thing I can do. I can't. I just can't turn away from my son. I don't care what the Bible says at this point. I can't do that. But Abraham did. He did. He turned away from the easy route. He said no to the easy road. Because long ago, he'd already made the decision to obey and trust God no matter what happens.

46:25 Brothers and sisters, you need to make the same decision. Satan will throw some tragedy in your life and try to derail your faith. And it's going to look like the only rational choice. You need to decide now. Before the tragedy comes. What you're going to do. And it needs to be to obey and trust God. no matter what. That's what Abraham did. That's what his faith did. Let him to do. Thank you. But point number three...

46:56 It's not just about what faith does. It's about what faith sees beyond death. Not just what it does in the face of death, though that's important. It's what it sees. Beyond death, and that's point number three, just looking at the same verses again. I want you to see something in here that doesn't add up and yet I think when you see it you realize oh this is why the chapter's in here at all And this is how the chapter fits in the whole story of the Bible. So here's the question that the chapter asks. puts in front of us. Abraham is 137 years old at this point. He's going to be dead soon, and he knows it.

47:29 Thank you. And right here at the end of his life, this guy Ephraim offers him a field for free. So the question has to be, why not take it? I mean, everything we've been talking about doesn't affect the sale price, right? He could have done the next good thing by just taking the land for free, right? Why not take the offer? Why not bury your wife? Go home, not even to Haran, just there in Canaan. Just go home and save 400 shekels because that's a whole lot of money. You wind up with the same hole in the ground. Either way, right now, I've got a place to bury my wife and I'm going to be dead soon. So who cares if there's a deed on record?

48:03 Who cares? For this life, I've got it figured out if I just take care. The gift. But Abraham insists on buying it. He insists on weighing out the money to the cent in front of all the people so that it's official. And that's the question. Why does this old dying man care whether the title to this little bit of land is legally bulletproof? He's literally never, ever, ever going to have to stand in a courtroom to defend it. Well, there's only one answer that works.

48:33 He's not buying it for himself. He's looking beyond Sarah's death. He's looking beyond his own death. I mean, look at verses 17 to 20. I don't know if you noticed it when we were reading it a few minutes ago. But it reads very much like a legal contract. It's all about places and just to the east of this and just to the west of that. And that happened and this was a contract. It reads like a deed. To land. That's how it reads. And that's what it... That's what it is. You see all the detail there. There's the field, the cave, all the trees. Lest anybody was wondering about that.

49:08 Throughout the whole area. And it's all made over or given over to Abraham in the presence of the Hittites for a price. So you got all the formal stuff, boundaries, witnesses. And they're all there, right? The whole town at the city gate... is there. Why? Well, that's the whole point of the chapter. A gift can be taken back again. A gift has no legal anchor, but a purchase does. And it can't be taken back. Abraham's being stubborn about the deed. He's being stubborn about the deal. Because he wants the deed to still be good. Not just tomorrow, but in four centuries.

49:50 He's thinking beyond. Death. And the reason he's doing that is because he's believing God's promises. I mean, think back. Chapter 12, verse 7. You don't have to turn there. But the very first thing that God says to him after he crosses into Canaan is this, to your offspring I will give this land. Not to you, to your offspring I will give this land. Chapter 13, the next one. God tells him to... to your offspring.

50:24 Chapter 15. After the covenant's made. To your offspring I give this land. From the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates. You hear what that's doing? You hear what that's doing? God, even in those promises, is pointing Abraham beyond the boundaries of his own life. It's not to you, Abraham. It's to those who come after you every single time. Not once does God say, Abraham, you're going to live to see this. Not once. Every one of those promises reaches out way past Abraham to his children and his grandchildren and his grandchildren's grandchildren.

51:01 So when he stands there in that... Gate. of that city, counting out those 400 shekels of silver. He's not buying the land for himself. He's buying it in the light of promises that go way beyond the boundaries. of his life. Thank you. Thank you. Look now at verse 4. This is where we're going to end. Look now at verse 4 at what Abraham calls himself. He says, I am a sojourner. and a foreigner among you.

51:33 I'm a sojourner, a stranger. I'm a foreigner, an outsider among you. It's a profound thing to say about yourself. And it turns out that his children and his grandchildren and his grandchildren's grandchildren never forgot it. I mean, you start looking through the Bible, read the story. Centuries later, Israel does in fact own this land. God keeps his promise and gives the offspring of Abraham the land. But you know what they continue to call themselves over and over and over? Sojourners and strangers...

52:05 In this land. They own it now. It's theirs. And yet they look at their father Abraham and they realize that when he said, I'm a sojourner and a stranger, he wasn't just talking about the Hittite lands. He is talking about this whole world. I'm a sojourner. I'm a stranger. And the Israelites, David, the Psalms, all of it, they said, we are two. Thank you. And that's exactly where... The New Testament picks the whole thing up. Hebrews chapter 11. These all died in faith. These.

52:38 Not having received the things promised, but having seen them. And greeted them from afar. So brothers and sisters, that's where we are. Abraham stood in a field in Hebron and ultimately looked forward to a country he never once set foot in. but he saw it. With the eyes of faith. And with those same eyes of faith, we look forward to a better country. too. You know, it's really extraordinary.

53:10 Over the years, that cave that Abraham bought as a tomb filled up with corpses, Abraham went in there, then Isaac, Ishmael, Isaac and Rebekah, Then Leah, then Jacob, all of them went in there. And as the story keeps going on over hundreds and hundreds of years, people, even when they're off in other lands in Egypt, they say, take me back to Canaan. Put me, put my bones in that cave that Abraham bought in faith. Put me. there. It's a strange way for the story to go on because if you're honest about it, it looks like the whole thing failed.

53:44 Abraham died owning exactly one field in a country that he was supposed to own entirely. And the only thing in that field was his dead wife. And then the centuries started passing by and the only thing that came out of that field were more dead bodies. So was Abraham just wrong? Was he just stupid? Well, no, he wasn't. And the reason is a phrase, I've already mentioned it several times. This morning, It's that the promise ultimately was made to Abraham's Now, if you have a question, You know the first meaning of that, right? That means your children, your grandchildren, your grandchildren's grandchildren. But do you know Paul, the apostle, looks at that story and he realizes something about that phrase. Right?

54:32 Every single day. Time. That God promises it's going to go to Abraham's... Offspring, it's in the... singular it's not to your offsprings in the plural that that's not really how the word works in English but it does in Hebrew You can have a plural of offspring, and it's not plural. Plural. It's. singular The promise ultimately was to Jesus. the offspring of Abraham, and all those who would be united too.

55:05 him. So, So here's the question. that I asked you at the beginning, what kind of person pours their life? into something they know they'll never see finished. What kind of person does that? What kind of person puts their trust in promises... that they know are a long way off, even beyond death. I'll tell you, it's someone who knows who the architect of the entire plan is. And knows that he always finishes what he starts. now think for just a second Before we close.

55:41 about what all of that does. when you're standing at a graveside. When you're standing in a cemetery under the little tent... that they put up and you're staring down into that hole in the ground. Think about it. Think about what this does. When death comes, and I promise you, unless Jesus comes back, it will come for every single one of us. When death comes, the natural thing, the very human thing, is to mourn the way the world mourns. That's the natural thing, to mourn like people who have just watched... Everything they love be taken away from them and know that there's no way to get it back. That's what's natural.

56:16 But if it's true... That the promises of God are not exhausted in this lifetime? then friends, death isn't the moment. when a Christian's faith finally collapses. Thank you. It's the moment when a Christian's faith is on display more clearly than at any other moment in his life. You see that? The cemetery, the gravesite... When we bury our brothers and sisters, that ought to be the place where we demonstrate faith most.

56:52 not least. This old philosopher who once said that... Despair. is exactly to have lost faith. The eternal. Despair is to have lost life. the eternal. And I think that's right. And if you put the weight of your life on anything that's not eternal, if you put it on money, your family, your work, any of that, then you've built this fatal vulnerability into your life so that when those earthly things are taken away, you will collapse into despair.

57:24 It's not just a matter of being more courageous or being stronger than the person next to you. It's just the way it is. When the foundation of your life is taken out from under you, all that is left is despair. Abraham had a foundation that was immovable. Because he was trusting in the promises of God. Friends, death is going to take everything you have. It just will. Unless Jesus comes back, it's going to take everything. It's going to take your health one day. It's going to take your money. It's going to take your strength. It's going to take the people that you love the most. And one day, it's going to take you.

58:02 Thank you. But if you're a Christian, it can't touch one single thing that God has promised you. No one. Look, if you're here and you've never come to Christ in faith, then that promise that I just gave is not for you yet. But it can be this morning, If you'll just come to him in faith and say, Jesus, I can't save myself. I don't know what to do in the face of death. But I know you conquered it and you conquered it. For me. I'm trusting you.

58:33 So forgive me of my sins and take me away. through it. Christian, for you... live in light of these promises. Even when death comes, live in light of these promises. I said it a couple of weeks ago, Christians aren't optimists. We weep when there's cause to weep. And then we get on with the business of living life when there's life to be lived. That's what we were created to do. But no matter what life throws at you, whether it's joy or sorrow, whether it's life or death, whether it's the grave...

59:09 None of us as Christians ever forget where our citizenship is. Our citizenship is not here. We are sojourners and strangers. Our citizenship is here. is in heaven. You're going to stand before graveside again someday. And when you do, go ahead and weep. Weep because death is the last enemy. But then... Get up. like Abraham. And go on living life like a person who knows exactly.

59:40 how this story ends. Let's pray. Thank you. Thank you. Our Lord, we thank you and we... Praise you and honor you for... who you are, for the fact that you are the conqueror, of death. Our God, we ask that you would Help us to remember these things. and help us always to live. in the light of them. We pray it in Jesus' name. Amen. Well, friends, we...