Genesis 23

King Solomon said, “A good name is better than precious ointment; and the day of death, than the day of one’s birth’’ (Eccl. 7:1). He did not say that death is better than birth, for, after all, we must be born before we can die.

Solomon’s point was that the name given you at birth is like fragrant ointment, and you must keep it that way until you die. When you received your name at birth, nobody knew what you would make out of it, but at death, that name is either fragrant or putrid. If it is fragrant at death, then people can rejoice, for after death, nothing can change it. So, for a person with a good name, the day of death is better than the day of birth.

The names of Abraham and Sarah were fragrant in life and in death and are still fragrant today. In these chapters, we meet Abraham and Sarah at the end of life’s road, and we learn from them what it means to die in faith.

Sarah had been a good wife to Abraham and a good mother to Isaac. Yes, she had her faults, as we all do, but God called her a princess (17:15) and listed her with the heroes and heroines of faith (Heb. 11:11). The apostle Peter named her as a good example for Christian wives to follow (1 Peter 3:1–6), and Paul used her to illustrate the grace of God in the life of the believer (Gal. 4:21–31).

Abraham’s tears (vv. 1–2). How often in my pastoral ministry I have heard well-meaning but ignorant people say to grieving friends or relatives, “Now, don’t cry!’’ That is very poor counsel, for God made us with the ability to weep, and He expects us to cry. Even Jesus wept (John 11:35). Grieving is one of God’s gifts to help heal broken hearts when people we love are taken from us in death. Paul did not tell the Thessalonian Christians not to weep; he cautioned them not to sorrow “as others who have no hope’’ (1 Thess. 4:13–18). The grief of a believer should be different from that of an unbeliever.

Abraham loved his wife, and her death was a painful experience for him. He showed his love and his grief by his weeping. These are the first recorded tears in the Bible, and tears will not end until God wipes them away in glory (Rev. 21:4). Even though he was a man of faith, Abraham did not feel that his tears were an evidence of unbelief.

Sarah died in faith (Heb. 11:11, 13), so Abraham knew that she was in the Lord’s care. In the Old Testament, very little was revealed about the afterlife, but God’s people knew that God would receive them when they died (Ps. 73:24).

The late Vance Havner had a wife named Sarah. Shortly after her untimely death, I was with Dr. Havner at the Moody Bible Institute, and I shared my condolences with him.

“I’m sorry to hear you lost your wife,’’ I said to him when we met in the dining room.

He smiled and replied, “Son, when you know where something is, you haven’t lost it.’’

For the believer, to be “absent from the body’’ means to be “present with the Lord’’ (Phil. 1:21–23; 2 Cor. 5:1–8); so Christians do not approach death with fear. “Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord … that they may rest from their labors; and their works do follow them’’ (Rev. 14:13).

The death of the wicked is vividly described in Job 18, and what a fearful picture it is! When the wicked die, it is like putting out a light (vv. 5–6), trapping an animal or a bird (vv. 7–10), catching a criminal (vv. 11–14), or uprooting a tree (vv. 15–21). What a difference it makes when you know Jesus Christ as your Savior and as “the resurrection and the life’’ (John 11:25–26; 2 Tim. 1:10).

Abraham’s testimony (vv. 3–6). We cannot mourn over our dead forever; there comes a time when we must accept what has happened, face life, and fulfill our obligations to both the living and the dead. Because he was not a citizen of the land (Heb. 11:13), Abraham had to request a place to bury his wife. The truth was that Abraham owned the whole land. God had given it to him, but there was no way he could convince his neighbors of that.

Like Abraham, God’s people today are “pilgrims and strangers’’ in this present world (1 Peter 1:1; 2:11). We live in “tents’’ (2 Cor. 5:1–8) which one day will be taken down when we move to glory. When Paul wrote “the time of my departure is at hand’’ (2 Tim. 4:6), he used a military word that meant “to take down a tent and move on.’’ Our present body is temporary, but one day we will receive a glorified body like the body that Jesus Christ now has in heaven (Phil. 3:20–21; 1 John 3:1–3).

The men of the land called Abraham “a mighty prince’’ (Gen. 23:6), which in the Hebrew is “a prince with God.’’ He had a good testimony among them, and they respected him. Even though this world is not our home, we must be careful as pilgrims and strangers to have a good witness to those who are outside the faith (1 Thess. 4:12; Col. 4:5; 1 Peter 2:11ff.). These Hittites did not worship Abraham’s God, but they respected Abraham and his faith. In fact, they offered him the use of one of their own tombs (Gen. 23:6), but Abraham refused.

It is a wonderful thing in a time of sorrow when the child of God has a strong witness to the lost. There is a natural sorrow that everyone expects us to manifest, but there is also a supernatural grace that God gives so that we might have joy in the midst of sorrow. The unsaved can tell the difference, and this gives us opportunity for sharing the good news of the gospel.

Abraham’s tact (vv. 7–16). In the East in that day, most business transactions were carried on at the city gate (v. 10) with the people as witnesses (v. 7). Arriving at a final price for a piece of property usually involved a great deal of bargaining and deferential politeness that sometimes covered up greed and intrigue. But Abraham was open and honest in his request: He wanted to buy the cave of Machpelah from Ephron, who was in the crowd at the time.

Following the custom of the East, Ephron offered to give Abraham not only the cave but the whole field in which the cave was located. Of course, this was only a clever maneuver on his part, for he had no intentions of giving away a valuable piece of property, especially to a man as wealthy as Abraham. But Ephron’s reply gave Abraham two pieces of information: Ephron was willing to sell, but he wanted to sell the whole field and not just the cave.

Ephron had Abraham in a corner, and he knew it. Sarah had to be buried soon, and Ephron had the only piece of property that met Abraham’s needs. So, Abraham agreed to buy both the cave and the field even before Ephron named the price. That is really living by faith! Ephron’s price was far too much, but Abraham paid it and claimed the property for himself.

In Acts 7:15–16, Stephen seems to contradict the Genesis record by saying that Abraham bought the property from Hamor and it was located in Shechem rather than Hebron (Gen. 23:19). But surely two different burial places are in view here. It is likely that Abraham bought a second burial plot from Hamor in Shechem and that Jacob had to buy it back years later (33:18–19). Since Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob moved about quite a bit, it would be difficult for the residents of the land to keep track of them and their family real estate.

In our business dealings with the people of the world, we must be careful to maintain honesty and integrity and to put our witness for the Lord ahead of monetary gain. Abraham knew that Ephron had him trapped and that it was foolish to haggle over the price, as much as Easterners love to do it.

Abraham’s tomb (vv. 17–20). The key phrase in the chapter, used seven times, is “bury my [the, thy] dead.’’ Even though Sarah was gone, Abraham showed respect for her body and wanted to give it a proper burial. This is the pattern for God’s people throughout the Scriptures. Neither the Old Testament Jews nor the New Testament Christians cremated their dead. Rather, they washed the body, wrapped it in clean cloth with spices, and placed it in the ground or in a tomb. While there may be some situations when cremation is the better way to dispose of the body, for the most part, Christians prefer burial. This is the way our Lord’s body was handled after His death (Matt. 27:57–61), and Paul seems to teach burial in 1 Corinthians 15:35–46.

When Abraham purchased the cave of Machpelah for a tomb, he was making a statement of faith to all who were there. He did not take Sarah back to their former home in Ur but buried her in the land God had given him and his descendants. He did not ignore the body but gave it a proper burial in view of the promised resurrection. When God saves us, He saves the whole person, not just “the soul.’’ The body has a future, and burial bears witness to our faith in the return of Christ and the resurrection of the body.

It must be pointed out, however, that resurrection is not “reconstruction.’’ God will not reassemble the dust of the body and restore the body to its previous state. God promises us a new body! In 1 Corinthians 15:35–38, Paul makes it clear that there is continuity but not identity between the old body and the new body.

He illustrated this miracle with the planting of a seed. The seed dies and decays, but from it comes a beautiful flower or some grain. There is continuity but not identity: The same seed does not come out of the ground, but what came out came from the seed that was planted. Christian burial bears witness that we believe in a future resurrection.

When you get to the end of Genesis, you find that Abraham’s tomb is quite full. Sarah was buried there, and then Abraham, Isaac, Rebekah, and Leah (Gen. 49:29–31); and then Jacob joined them (50:13). Genesis ends with a full tomb, but the four gospels end with an empty tomb! Jesus has conquered death and taken away its sting (1 Cor. 15:55–58). Because of His victory, we need not fear death or the grave.

Abraham owned the whole land, but the only piece of property that was legally his was a tomb. If the Lord Jesus does not return to take us to heaven, the only piece of property each of us will own in this world will be a plot in the cemetery! We will take nothing with us; we will leave it all behind (1 Tim. 6:7). But, if we are investing in things eternal, we can send it ahead (Matt. 6:19–34). If we live by faith, then we can die by faith, and when you die by faith, you have a wonderful future.

In November 1858, missionary John Paton landed in the New Hebrides to establish a ministry among the people. On February 12, 1859, his wife gave birth to a son, and on March 3, his wife died. Seventeen days later, the baby died. “But for Jesus and the fellowship He gave me there,’’ said Paton, “I must have gone mad and died beside that lonely grave.’’

But we do not sorrow as those who have no hope! We have been born again “to a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead’’ (1 Peter 1: nkjv), and we are “looking for that blessed hope, and the glorious appearing of the great God and our Savior Jesus Christ’’ (Titus 2:13).