The Grave of Sarah
We have come to the end of the Abrahamic story. The bookends are clear: God made the original promise in Genesis 12:1-3 and then reiterated it to Abraham and Isaac in Genesis 22:15-18. “Because you have obeyed Me, I now pass on the promise to your son, Isaac.” The story of Abraham and of Isaac begins with three chapters.
The death of Isaac’s mother - Genesis 23
The finding of Isaac’s wife - Genesis 24
The death of Isaac’s father - Genesis 25
The Death and Mourning of Sarah (1-9)
After a long season in the land of the Philistines, Abraham moved once again to Hebron, the Oaks of Mamre, and there Sarah died at the age of 127. After Abraham had mourned her death, he needed to bury her quickly. He had earlier purchased a burial spot at Shechem (Acts 7:16), but it seems to have been too great a distance away, so he wanted a grave closer by (1-2). Abraham went to the Hittites, realizing a gravesite was not a right nor a demand he could make, and asked to buy the property from them. It was the Amorites who had earlier owned or ruled this region but had been subsequently conquered by the Hittites.
The Hittites viewed Abraham as not only a blessing to their community but also as a prince among them and not someone with whom to cross swords, so they offered to sell him the best of their grave-worthy properties. As Walter Brueggemann said in his book, Genesis, God’s blessing and power upon Abraham turned him into a prince; the “landless sojourner had become one to be treated as a ‘fellow citizen.’”Abraham eventually entered into negotiations with Ephron for the purchase of the cave of Machpelah, at the end of one of his fields (3-7). Abraham offered full price for the cave and wanted the deal to be made in public and surrounded by witnesses (8-9).
The Negotiation with Ephron (10-18)
Ephron did not want to sell just the cave; he wanted to get rid of the whole field. So, at the gate of the city, Ephron began to haggle with Abraham over the price (10). When Ephron was saying, “I give you the field,” he was not saying he wished to give it to Abraham for nothing, but this was a nice way of saying, “I want to give you the whole field for the right price.” It would be like a car salesman saying, “I want to put you in the seat of this brand new Porsche.” Abraham agreed to buy the whole field (11-13).
Here is the important part of the story: Ephron asked for 400 shekels of silver for the land. All of this haggling seems so generous, but behind the graciousness and decorum lived greed. The amount of 400 shekels would have been an outrageous price.
Abraham, without countering an offer, weighed out the price and bought the field (14-16). Right there for everyone to see was Abraham, who thought no price too high to pay for a park and associated cemetery for his wife. He paid the price without complaint. Abraham made the deal public so no one could accuse him of being crafty or shrewd (17-18).
The Burial of Sarah (19-20)
Abraham had been promised the land of Canaan over 60 years before his wife died, and yet Abraham did not even own a piece of property to bury his wife. Abraham had to buy a field from a shifty, greed-obsessed Hittite, in a moment of grief, to have an adequate resting place for his beloved Sarah (19-20). So important was the event of having no property that a chapter is given to explaining the purchase of Sarah’s gravesite. We find here the faith of Abraham more deeply explained. After Sarah’s death, Abraham believed on. Owning no property, Abraham purchased a piece of property and turned it into a sacred burial memorial so future generations would come to see where the patriarchs (Genesis 50:13) were buried and be reminded that they would own it all. Without question, Abraham envisioned future generations conquering this land and visiting this site to witness the grave of the man who first received the word from God.
Yahweh the Savior
Psalm 21 is also a “Royal Psalm.” Psalm 20 is a Psalm prepared to be sung during the sacrifice, as an intercession for an upcoming battle. Psalm 21 was written as a Psalm of thanks for victories already granted in battle.
Like Psalm 20, this Psalm consists of two verses with a concluding chorus of praise:
Thanksgiving for past victory (1-7)
Expectation for future victory (8-12)
Praise for Yahweh's strength in victory (13)
Purpose: To show us how to pray when God has given us victory so we will remind ourselves that past victory comes from the Lord, as will future victories.