The Most Unlikely Place

We're continuing our series in Genesis 23.

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Genesis 23.

Give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.

The Hittites answered Abraham,

Hear us, my lord, you are prince of God 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.

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 the cave of Malchpia, 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, and Ephron 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.

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 Ephron in the hearing of the people of the land,

But if you will, hear me.

I give the price of the field.

Accept it from me that I may bury my dead there.

Ephron 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.

Abraham listened to Ephron,

and Abraham weighed out for Ephron 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 and Malchpia,

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 Malchpia,

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 for burying place by the Hittites.

Let's pray.

Lord, we thank you for your word.

May it speak to us this morning,

and may you give us your spirit

to show us Jesus.

May we trust in you

because of your word

and the testimony that it gives to your son,

that it gives to you.

We ask this in Christ's name.

Amen.

It's not about the nail.

It's not about the nail.

I'm not sure if you've ever seen this video

where this phrase is repeated over and over again.

It made its round on the internet a couple years ago.

I think it might have even been a TV commercial,

but it's not about the nail.

There's a woman that's sitting on the couch,

and she's clearly agitated.

She's uncomfortable.

She's discussing her pain.

She's discussing the effects

that something is having on her,

and she is in trouble.

And then the camera pans over to her boyfriend,

and he's gesticulating.

He's waving his hands,

and he's beside himself.

He's so angry.

He starts to talk,

and then he stops.

And then as the camera continues to rotate,

you see this woman,

his girlfriend,

has a nail directly implanted in her forehead.

And the man never gets the chance

to address the nail.

The woman is describing her headaches,

her pain,

but it's not about the nail.

The video,

I don't think it's produced for this purpose.

If it is,

it's genius.

Psychologists and marriage therapists,

and even pastors,

use this video to talk about

the differences between men and women.

But I'm not here to talk about that this morning,

how helpful or unhelpful

that video might be in that arena.

But sometimes in life,

we might see something that's so obvious,

a story like this,

so obvious,

but it's not about what we first think.

On the surface,

there's an obvious problem here,

but there's a lot more going on.

This morning,

it's not about the burial plot.

It's not that at all.

It's not about the death of Sarah.

It's so much more than that.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

I get it.

It's not about the nail.

But what about the nail?

After all,

Sarah's death and burial

is what it talks about most

in this chapter.

In fact,

there's very little reference to God.

Apart from his speaking,

there's very little reference to Abraham.

But it's not about the burial plot.

It's not about Sarah's death.

Or her faithfulness.

It seems cut and dry,

but this morning,

we're reminded through this story

of God's faithfulness

to his covenant promises.

Now, sometimes when we say that,

that's a lot of Christian mumbo-jumbo.

And we throw that out at a lot of things.

But what I mean narrowly this morning

is God is going to do

what he said he's going to do.

That's what this story is about.

And that's something that we all struggle with

if we're honest.

We struggle thinking about,

is God really hearing me when I pray?

God, do you really care about me?

Do you really care about my marriage?

When you said you would never leave or forsake me,

did you really mean it?

We've all thought those things,

if not this morning,

but definitely this week,

or definitely in this life.

And yet we're left to navigate this world

where we don't feel his presence.

And that's what brings those questions about.

I'm here,

and I desperately want to be married.

And I'm here alone.

Or I'm so lonely

because my wife has gone,

or my husband has gone.

Or you promised to bless me

and take care of me,

and it doesn't seem like it.

In fact, it seems like a struggle

where I will never get out of this spot.

I read the Bible,

and yet my kids have not come to faith,

and they've walked away from you,

and everything that I tried to do for them.

My husband or wife

is not the person that I want them to be,

not the person that you have called them to be.

And I don't know what to do with that.

Or if I'm honest,

I'm honest about myself.

I say that I'm a Christian,

and I don't pray.

I barely follow you,

if I'm honest.

How are you blessing that, Lord?

Those are all the questions

that swirl about in our minds,

and sometimes they even come out of our mouths.

Those are the same kind of questions

that the followers of God have always had.

And yet God has promised

to do what He said He was going to do.

We have that question.

Abraham has that question.

We know that Sarah had that question.

God, are you going to do

what you said you were going to do?

They laughed because they thought,

surely it can't happen.

We can't have a child.

We can't have a home.

They thought it would never come,

and that is where we find ourselves this morning.

The promise of a child has come to fruition.

But what about the promise of the land?

This morning, it's not about the nail.

It's not about Sarah's death.

It's about God being faithful to His promises.

Even when it seems like all is lost,

God is still faithful.

When time has run out,

when there's not an answer,

God is still faithful to His word.

This morning, the story has three kind of sections.

One, Sarah dies.

The second is the negotiation

for Sarah's burial plot.

And the third is the significance of all of this.

It's like, what does it mean in Sarah's actual burial?

First, let's turn our attention

to Sarah's death this morning.

If you have your Bibles, your bulletin,

let's look back at verse one.

If you remember, before we get there,

we stepped away from Romans momentarily.

And we did so that we could zero in

on the life of Abraham

because there's so much in Romans

that's about Abraham,

which seems kind of odd, right?

It's this ancient figure,

and we're talking about faith and justification

and all these big categories of sin and righteousness.

And yet here we are with Abraham.

Not so righteous

if we really think about Abraham and Sarah's life.

Think about all that Sarah has endured.

And here is the chapter that we get.

All that she's endured,

even at the hands of Abraham.

Or as another has put it,

she is a woman in Genesis of heroic proportions

who endured a hard life

trapped by her husband's stupidity.

I think if we're honest,

that is a really good description of Abraham.

And so when we think about righteous Abraham,

we have to remember,

Abraham, he's kind of a dummy.

And yet,

there's so much in common with Abraham and us.

If you remember,

the last time we talked about Sarah

was at the beginning of chapter 21.

And even there,

she was silent.

And here,

she's the only wife of a patriarch

who we know how old she was

because she's that significant.

And time is spent on Sarah

because she's that important.

Not just in the life of Abraham

to correct all of his stupidity,

but in the life of Israel.

And our clue is in verse 1

where it tells us how old she is.

She's the only patriarch's wife

that's named with age.

Verse 2,

and she dies not where?

Not in the peaceful confines of her home,

but in a foreign land,

in Canaan.

That's our first clue

that something's up.

Hebron,

which is the name of the city

that we know it as today,

and even in Abraham's time,

there's some interplay.

Kirith Arba

is the other name of that city.

Hebron is the Jewish name,

which we'll return to momentarily.

Abraham's response to all this,

of course,

he's sad.

And it's captured in verses 3 and following.

He weeps,

he mourns,

and all those things that accompany it.

We know very little, though,

about what he actually does,

but we can assume

it looks like something like this.

Him messing with his hair,

ripping his clothes,

cutting his beard,

scattering dust,

fasting,

all the normal things.

Abraham is undone

because he has lost his wife.

But there's a bigger problem at play.

He has nowhere to bury his wife.

He has no land.

He has no home.

If you remember,

Abraham was the guy

that was called out of his home

to go into this new land,

to follow God,

and everything would be okay.

Except for,

we have a big problem.

His wife's just died,

and he has nowhere to bury her.

What are you going to do, Lord?

What are you going to do, Abraham?

Look at verse 4 with me.

What does he do?

He says,

I am a sojourner and foreigner among you.

Give me property among you

for a burying place

that I might bury my dead

out of my sight.

He goes to the Hittites

and asks them,

I have nowhere to bury my wife.

In fact,

I have no rights to land.

I can't do anything.

I have no place,

no home.

What am I going to do?

I can't take her

to the local cemetery

because I'm not even

from this land.

Abraham has no rights.

He's a foreigner.

Now often that thought,

the problem is lost on us

in modern society.

I won't ask for a show of hands,

but how many of us

grew up in Colorado Springs?

Not that many.

Colorado, not that many.

How many people live

on the land

on which they were born?

I'm guessing

there's even fewer.

Maybe one or two.

Even if that's the case,

as we move away

from this idea

that we are locked

into our land,

that the land

is where our home is,

as we move about,

as we take different jobs

than our parents

or grandparents did,

we lose our connection

to that land.

We lose sight

of the fact

that we are tied

to land.

We're more mobile.

We're more city-like.

We work in factories,

or maybe not factories,

but we provide services

to people.

We're not tied

to the land.

And that's all

well and good.

But when we come

to a passage like this,

there can be a disconnect.

And we think about,

why is there such importance

on the land?

Abraham,

why do you care

so much about the land?

It seems like

an ancient idea.

It's not as ancient

as you think.

When I was a kid,

I would hear this story

about this Presbyterian

in the Carolinas.

And it's a pretty famous story.

And this man

had gone off to war.

And he had gone

for many, many years.

And he'd been

a prisoner of war.

And when he came home,

and he was released

after many years,

he was coming home.

And as he was crossing

the border,

he ordered the carriage

to stop.

And when he did,

he got down,

and he knelt

on his knees,

and he kissed

the land.

Not just because

he liked dirt

in his mouth

or churred rock

or asphalt

in our day,

but because

he was connected

to the land.

And he thought

he would never

see it again.

The problem of land

is not as ancient

as we think.

But it

compels us

when we have

a right understanding

of how land

forms us

and shapes us

to yell out,

South Carolina,

my mother.

We might never

do that,

but we do things

that are similar

if you think about it.

Maybe you've gone

off to college.

I had a friend

in college

that grew up

on a farm

in South Carolina.

And he took

a mason jar

and he took land

from the farm

and he put it

on his desk

in his dorm room.

So he brought

the farm

with him.

We might not

do that,

but we might

take dirt

or sand

from the beach

and put it

in a glass jar

to remember

things that have

happened.

Or we might

put dirt

in a Ziploc baggie

and put it

in our rucksack

and take it

around the world.

No family

graveyard

back on the farm

to bury

his wife.

Abraham

is a man

without a home.

He has nothing.

He's a sojourner,

a foreigner,

a pilgrim,

and Christian,

oh yeah,

by the way,

you are no different

than he is.

You're marching

on

and yet

this world

is not your home.

This world

is not our home.

In fact,

we're going

to a land,

to a place

that has been

prepared for us

that's greater

than anything

on this earth.

John Bunyan

in Pilgrim's Progress

talks about

the allegory

of the Christian life

and there's a character

in there

named Mr. Valiant

and when he's

introduced to the reader,

Mr. Valiant

says this,

I'm a pilgrim

and I'm going

to the celestial city.

Not to the land

of this world,

but the land

that is to come

and there's a tension

as a Christian.

If we're missing

that tension,

then there's a problem.

The tension is

we live in this world

but we're going

to a land

that is not

right here.

We have to remember

that

and if there's

no tension

in that,

then there's

a big problem

because we might

love the things

of this world,

our family,

our friends,

our bank accounts,

the ease

that we have

in this life,

the joys

that we have

in this life

and yet we're

called to love

where we're going

more than this world.

Christian,

Abraham was a pilgrim

and so are you.

Remember that.

Abraham,

the sojourner,

has made the ask

though to the Hittites,

give me land

to bury my wife

for I'm a pilgrim.

Now let's turn

our attention

to the negotiations

for that land.

The line of argument

here can be

a little difficult

to follow

and it takes up

most of the chapter

but we're going

to spend some time

trying to understand

what's going on.

Why is Abraham

trying so hard

to get this land?

Look at verses

five and six

with me as I read.

The Hittites

answered Abraham's request

and they said this,

Hear us my lord,

you are a prince

of God among us.

Bear your dead

in the choicest

of our tombs.

None of us

will withhold

from you

his tomb

to hinder you

from burying your dead.

Seems really nice.

The Hittites,

they're good guys.

They want to help

a guy out in need.

They recognize

what Abraham

has done to them.

They seem like

gracious businessmen.

Hey, you're in distress.

Let me help you out.

They say take

the nicest tomb

that is,

the nicest tomb

that you can find.

But really,

are they that kind?

Are they trying

to help him out?

They are

and they're not.

They want to help him out

because they see him

as an okay guy,

but they don't want

something to happen.

They don't want Abraham

to own one square inch

of land in Canaan.

Nothing.

If he buries Sarah,

he might come and visit,

but he has no claim,

no rightful inheritance,

and the landless pilgrim

now becomes

a rightful citizen.

You see the problem there.

If they give him the land,

if he buys it,

then he will have a right

to land in Canaan.

Okay, round two starts.

Abraham begins

his second round

with this.

Not just an acknowledgement

of their kindness to him,

but really a match

in their flattery.

He bows before them

and he says

that he might bury Sarah

in their land,

but then Abraham

asks specifically

for this one piece of land

from Ephron.

Look at verse eight.

He asks Ephron

for the cave of Malchpia

in verse nine,

which he owns

and is at the end

of his field.

He wants that cave

at the end of the field,

and the fascinating part

about this is

that we know

where that cave is

to this day.

It's in Hebron,

and you can go visit it,

except there's a building

built over it,

but we know

where that is.

And Ephron,

who is actually sitting

with all the Hittites,

answers him

where all the other people

could hear.

Verse 10 tells us

that they were sitting

at the gate of the city.

If you remember back

to what we've read

so often in Genesis,

Abraham and Lot

interact with all the leaders

of the city

at the gates.

And he's sitting

and he says,

how about this?

What about if I do this instead?

Verse 11.

No, my Lord, hear me.

I give you the field.

I want to give it to you instead.

I'll give you the cave too.

And when I do that,

I give it to you

to bury your dead.

And he did all this

in front of all these people.

The text keeps repeating

this over and over.

Everyone can hear.

Everyone is around.

And then to the final round

in verse 12.

Abraham bowed down once again

and says to them,

before the people of the land,

he said to Ephron

in the hearing

of the people of the land,

but if you will hear me,

I give the price of the field.

Accept it from me

that I may bury my dead there.

Abraham doesn't take this charity

that's offered to him.

He says,

I want to pay for it.

And what does Ephron respond with?

Jump down to verse 15,

or 14 and 15.

He answers Abraham like this,

my Lord, listen to me,

a piece of land

worth 400 shekels of silver.

What is that between you and me?

Bury your dead.

But Abraham doesn't take

the offer of kindness.

Instead, he keeps negotiating.

A price has been named now.

And be careful here.

We might think

in the American conception

of bartering

that he's starting

with naming his price

and they're going to keep going.

I don't know if that's

what's going on here.

Ephron saying,

it's worth this price.

And Abraham,

it is that important to Abraham

to have a burial plot.

He doesn't negotiate with her

or with him

for Sarah's burial place.

He says,

basically, I'll have it.

He names the price

and Abraham agrees to pay it.

And then he's measured out.

But that doesn't really answer

the question of

why is Ephron selling this land?

It seems kind of weird.

Like, why so much detail about this?

Ephron offers the land

for every reason

that we do things

in modern American life.

We try to avoid taxes, after all.

If I give him the land,

then I don't have to pay taxes

if I've already given him the cave.

If I sell it to him,

I don't have to pay taxes on the land.

Abraham will pay taxes on the land.

Of course, that's better for me.

Nobody loves paying taxes.

And Abraham says,

you have yourself a deal.

The real question is,

why doesn't Abraham

take the generosity?

If they're offering

to give it to him for free,

why doesn't he take it?

It's because there's no such thing

as free lunch.

They might offer him the land,

but they're going to get it back one day.

If he takes the land

and he hasn't paid for it,

then they can have it back one day.

It would essentially be on loan to him.

So he wants to have it as his own.

And all along the way,

we've had these curious hints

of people that hear

and the presence of these people

or even the trees.

Listen.

The hearing of the people

in verse 13.

The hearing of the Hittites

in verse 10.

Verse 16.

The hearing,

the hearing again and again.

It's this deal has been struck

and it's absolutely certain

because all these people

have heard this deal.

It's like they spit in their hands

and shook on it.

It's a certain thing.

There's no question.

There's no going back.

Abraham is a full-fledged owner

of a piece of Canaan.

And that's significant.

Abraham now has a place

to bury his dead.

The scene in chapter 23

shifts from these negotiations

to the actual burial of Sarah.

Look with me at verse 19.

After this,

Abraham buried his wife

in the cave of the field

of Malchpia,

east of Marmurim.

That is Hebron,

in the land of Canaan.

And the field

and the cave that is in it

were made over to Abraham

as property,

as a burying place

for the Hittites.

Abraham has a resting place

for his wife Sarah.

But not just for her,

but for him,

his child,

his grandchildren,

as we'll be reminded.

And as he buries her,

we see this curious repetition

of this theme

that now,

in verse 20,

the field and cave

that were in it

belonged to Abraham.

He owns a piece of Canaan.

It's been ratified

by the Hittites.

It's not given to him,

but he owns it.

Sarah is not really

the focus of this chapter.

But Abraham having a piece

of land in Canaan

is the point.

Yes, Abraham loved her.

He mourned for her.

He was sad.

He lost her.

But it's not about Sarah.

It's about the land.

It's a fact that Genesis

returns to again and again.

Chapter 25,

chapter 49,

chapter 50.

They read something like this.

They rehash everything

and say,

his sons,

Abraham's family,

his descendants

were buried

in the cave of Malchia

in the field of Ephron,

the son of Zoar,

the Hittite.

The field that Abraham

bought from the Hittites.

Abraham was buried there.

Sarah was buried there

again and again.

The significance

of this passage

is that Abraham

now owns

a piece of land

in fulfillment

of God's covenant promise.

God said

he would give them Canaan

and now

God's people

have a part of it.

Remember Lot?

Remember Abimelech?

Remember Isaac?

Isaac.

All those things

were centered on

the business

that God was doing

in the lives

of his people.

And even before that,

remember what he had said

to them.

I will establish

my covenant

between me

and you

and your offspring

after you.

And I

will

throughout the generations

bring an everlasting

covenant

to be your God,

to be,

bring you offspring

after you.

And I will give it

to you

and you

and your offspring

after the land

of your sojournings,

all that land

of Canaan

for an everlasting

possession

and I will be

their God.

This promise

that has

this simple

fulfillment

in the life

of Abraham

in weird circumstances

where he goes

and buys

a cave

and then a field

to avoid taxes

is the fulfillment

of what God

had promised

to do.

He now

owns

a piece

of Canaan.

Not in the way

that Abraham

thought

or not in the way

that Sarah

thought

but God

has moved

and fulfilled

his promises.

If you think about that,

that's the life

of Sarah.

Sarah never thought

she would have

children.

Sarah never thought

that she would have

a nation

out of her

as numerous

as the sands

on the seashore.

She never thought

any of that would happen.

She never thought

that she would have land.

But the end

of that promise

in Genesis 17

that I will be

their God,

that God will be

with them,

that was the thing

that she was

to hold fast to,

to cling tightly to.

That's what God

promised to do.

That's the North Star

as we navigate

this life.

That God

will be there.

That he will be

your God.

I will be

your God.

When we feel

like he's distant

or he doesn't hear us,

I will be

your God.

When we feel

like that he

doesn't answer

our prayer,

I will be

your God.

When we struggle

through if children

are walking away

from the Lord

or a husband

or a wife

isn't as they should be

or they've left us,

I will be

your God.

God is faithful

to all those promises

despite what we can see,

despite if we have

a home or not.

I will be

your God.

There's one

nagging problem

in this text

that we haven't dealt with.

The promise about land

might have fulfillment

in Abraham's

bartering

and getting a good deal

on a burial plot.

However,

he doesn't own

all of Canaan,

does he?

He owns a small

slice of it.

The promise

about land

was for all of it,

all of Canaan.

But God

is not done yet.

At the end

of the life

of Sarah,

God has work

yet to do.

At the end

of the life

of Abraham,

the promise

is that

is not finished.

God

has work

to do.

The promise

of descendants,

the promise

of an everlasting

covenant,

and even here

with all

of the land

of Canaan

is not

yet finished.

It's fulfilled

partly

in buying

a burial plot.

But one day,

all of that

land of Canaan

will belong

to Abraham's

descendants.

It points forward

to a day

when that land

will all be theirs.

But it's not

really about

that land.

It's about

the heavenly land

to which

all those people

that follow Christ

are marching

towards.

And even now,

we're sojourners

and foreigners

in this land.

But we are longing

for that day

when we will rest

in that land.

Not on a burial

plot,

but in the land

fully and finally.

And our ticket

is punched.

Our

certain hope

that we have

is bought

and secured

by the blood

of Christ.

That promise

that was made

all the way back

in all those

pages before

is Jesus.

Jesus.

And that land

is the hope.

That land

is really heaven.

So it matters

not

whether we walk

and we don't see

the effects

or don't feel

his presence,

but the sure

certain hope

that we have

in Christ

as we march

on to that

celestial city,

to the land

that we were

promised.

And all of it,

not in part,

but all of it.

Christian,

you are not

made for this world.

You are a sojourner

and you are a foreigner

in this land.

May we be

reminded

of that.

May we have

relief

in this life

from our sin.

May we

escape

punishment

from that

as we dwell

in the land

for all eternity.

Will you come

to him

even now?

Let's pray.

Lord,

we thank you

for the reminder

that we have

this morning

that we march

on to a certain

hope,

a sure hope,

that we march

on to a land

not in part

but in whole.

And Father,

may we look

back

to a person

like Sarah

and think

of her sure

and present

hope

in your promises,

in your fulfillment

of those promises.

And may we

lift up

our praise

to you

that you are

covenant-keeping,

a promise-fulfilling God.

We ask this

in Jesus' name.

Amen.