| Subject: Genesis 23 vss 1-4 Post #120 |
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Hillbilly
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Date Posted: 19:43:50 11/19/09 Thu
Genesis 23:1-4 And Sarah was an hundred and seven and twenty years old: these were the years of the life of Sarah. 2 And Sarah died in Kirjatharba; the same is Hebron in the land of Canaan: and Abraham came to mourn for Sarah, and to weep for her. 3 And Abraham stood up from before his dead, and spake unto the sons of Heth, saying, 4 I am a stranger and a sojourner with you: give me a possession of a buryingplace with you, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.
We are not told how old Sarah was when she and Abraham married. It would not be unreasonable to assume she was a young lady of her teens or very early twenties. We should remember how favorably she was looked upon for her beauty even as a woman in her seventies so she would have been much sought after as a young woman. If here age was such at marriage then Abraham enjoyed her company for a hundred years or more. You don't find Abraham tiring of her nor chasing after another during their marriage. With the exception of the incident with Hagar which was instigated by Sarah (Sarai at the time) Abraham had known no other woman in their century of marriage.
It had been a good and adventuresome life starting in Ur of the Chaldees and ending in Hebron a few miles south of where Jerusalem would one day stand. Sarah was blessed to have conversed with God and was miraculously blessed in her old age with a son whom was named "Laughter" by God.. Sarah reached the time we must all come to and laid aside here vessel of clay released her soul back to God who had given it.
For Abraham the century had been short. His soul mate had outstripped him and gone on in the distance to wait a few more years for Abraham to join her. One can only surmise the emptiness that Abraham felt with Sarah gone. His mourning for her was real and deep. Tears flowed freely and neighbors gathered around to pay their respects and also to mourn with Abraham. But even as all things in this life there arrived the time to go on with life and put away the past. Abraham stood up from before the body of his wife and asked the children of Heth for a burying place in the land which in reality belonged to them. Abraham had no possession in the land although God had promised him the whole of the land that was set before his eyes. The first parcel of land in the "Promised Land" that Abraham would possess would be a plot of land in which to bury his loved one.
No where in scripture do we find Abraham questioning God as to why he had not received what God had promised him. Sarah and Abraham had journeyed together with the expectation of realizing their land of dreams but now Abraham was forced to request the land "that I may bury my dead out of my sight".
No greater eulogy and honor could have been given this couple who were so beloved by God than that which was written of them in the Book of Hebrews:
Hebrews 11:8-16 By faith Abraham, when he was called to go out into a place which he should after receive for an inheritance, obeyed; and he went out, not knowing whither he went. 9 By faith he sojourned in the land of promise, as in a strange country, dwelling in tabernacles with Isaac and Jacob, the heirs with him of the same promise: 10 For he looked for a city which hath foundations, whose builder and maker is God. 11 Through faith also Sara herself received strength to conceive seed, and was delivered of a child when she was past age, because she judged him faithful who had promised. 12 Therefore sprang there even of one, and him as good as dead, so many as the stars of the sky in multitude, and as the sand which is by the sea shore innumerable. 13 These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off, and were persuaded of them, and embraced them, and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth. 14 For they that say such things declare plainly that they seek a country. 15 And truly, if they had been mindful of that country from whence they came out, they might have had opportunity to have returned. 16 But now they desire a better country, that is, an heavenly: wherefore God is not ashamed to be called their God: for he hath prepared for them a city.
One wonders whether Abraham and Sarah's journey might have been on Dottie Rambo's mind when she penned the words to her song "Too Much to Gain to Lose". Verse one and the Chorus go like this:
Too many miles behind me
Too many trials are through
Too many tears help me to remember
There's too much to gain to lose
Too many sunsets lie behind the mountains
Too many rivers my feet have walked through
Too many treasures are waiting over yonder
There's too much to gain to lose
I hope we can all share in an Amen to that!
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