This chapter marks the end of the first patriarchal generation, at least on Sarah’s side. She had lived 127 years, the last 37 or so having received and reared the child of the promise. Hers was not an easy life, and is worth taking a moment to consider. Her death was also not a simple narrative, as we find in this chapter the first time a body is buried and the first mention of human tears as Abraham mourns his wife: this is a practice we should learn from. From here on, the  practice of burying the dead becomes very important through both Old and New Testaments; again a practice we should learn from. This takes place within the context of Abraham negotiating with the people in the midst of whom he is sojourning, a negotiation that seems to take on the somewhat amusing likeness of a dinner bill that acquaintances are half-heartedly arguing on who would pay it, all the while the smartest person probably took his/her leave to use the bathroom before the bill arrived. Yet more importantly, the higher context we find this story in is that of the Lord’s faithfulness to his covenant as we see it in Sarah’s life of faith; the honoring of her body; and the firstfruit of the promised land.

Sarah: A Life of Faith

This chapter offers us the opportunity to ponder the life that Sarah lived. Every promise made to Abraham was by extension made to her; and so was the covenant. In fact, she was essential to the fulfilment since the son of the promise was to be the physical offspring of both Abraham and Sarah, through whom the line would be traced to Christ, the offspring of Abraham, the hope of all nations. When Abraham was commanded to get up, pack, leave his country and go to the land of Canaan, Sarah obeyed as well (12:1-5). She journeyed with him to the land of Canaan, leaving her kin behind in Haran. She submitted to Abraham. She waited for him while he went to war in Chapter 14. She had to endure constant travel and a lack of a permanent home, living in tents. She endured her husband’s lack of protection when she was in Pharaoh’s house (12:10-20) or among Abimelech’s harem (20:2). She waited for the promise to come about, and had to go through the pangs of childbirth at 91 (21:1-2). She even had to endure seeing the son of the promise, her son, her only son, Isaac, being taken by his father up a mountain, possibly to not ever see him again (Ch.22). Sarah’s 127 years are a study in patience and waiting on the Lord. Yes, some of her waiting was not very righteous, since she tried to bring about God’s plan by her cunning (Ch.16); she did not treat Hagar well; she laughed – maybe in a scornful unbelieving way – when she heard the 3 men tell Abraham he would have a child in one year, earning the rebuke of the Lord (18:12-13). And I find the fact that our Bibles record all this to be even more evidence of its truth. She is not painted as the most virtuous woman to have ever lived, nor as a modern-day heroine who does no wrong. No! She is Sarah, a woman, daughter of Adam and Eve, a sinner, a jar of clay, a broken vessel, on whom the grace of God dawned, and she spent 127 years learning patience, growing in trust, and being sanctified, before being taken up in glory. She is the matriarch, the mother of all who believe.

That’s why our New Testament looks at her with favor. In 1 Peter 3, the apostle calls wives to be subject to their own husbands, and he gives Sarah’s obedience to Abraham as a role model for Christian women to follow. Peter calls believers her children; she is of the holy women of old who hoped in God, and is indeed the mother of those who believe, the matriarch through whom the promise was made possible, a model of faith and patience. She is the virtuous woman of Proverbs 31, whose husband’s heart trusts in her, who is not afraid of what is to come, who laughs at the time to come, not scornfully, but having learned holiness, she laughs at all that may come trustingly in him who is faithful to keep his promise and his covenant. That’s why Hebrews 11:11 rewards her with a mention in this great chapter, commending her for accepting the promise by faith, thus receiving power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised. God is not ashamed to be called her God. Nor is he yours, sisters in Christ, as you exercise patience in waiting on the Lord; as you are sanctified for his name; as you confess and repent from your sins; as you pray for your children and nurture them in the way of the Lord; as you serve this body; as you submit to your own husbands who themselves must be held accountable for leading you kindly, loving you selflessly, protecting you wholeheartedly, serving you generously, uniting with you by the power of him who is able to keep you blameless and to give you strength to honor the vows made before him.

When I read the story of Sarah, and for that matter Abraham, David, Paul and Peter, I am reminded that people like us actually have hope! Who among us has not sinned? Who has not been impatient? Has not laughed at some of the promises of God? But there’s forgiveness and hope in Christ! And like Sarah and the holy women of old did, we can live the days of our sojourning here learning faithful patience and obedience, trusting him who is faithful, laughing at what may come, knowing that when the day comes for us to depart, we die in hope of the better heavenly country, of the city with foundations prepared for us by God himself, who is faithful to sanctify us in this life, to keep the promise, to raise us in bodily and spiritual perfection, and to bring us to the city of God, our eternal inheritance. 

The Honoring of the Body

Since Genesis is a book of first happenings, there’s a few things that should catch our attention in this chapter. V.2 points to the first instance of someone crying in the Bible, as Abraham mourns and weeps over his beloved Sarah. There is goodness in grieving and mourning the death of a loved one. It is a pattern that becomes very familiar throughout the Old Testament and the New Testament, with days set aside for this purpose and even rituals for the process. It is a pattern that in some ways continues today in the Middle East among the Abrahamic religions, where a certain number of days is set aside for grief and mourning for the deceased, with observances focusing on limiting signs of happiness or practices of entertainment. Time is given to ponder the meaning of death and to grieve the lostness of the deceased.

How much more should this be a practice for believers in Christ who see death as an enemy – a defeated enemy, but an enemy nonetheless. How much more are we to show the world the importance of honoring our dead, grieving them, sitting in mourning, but as Paul reminds the Thessalonian church, we do so not without hope. He does not tell them not to grieve, for grieve they should. But he tells them to do it unlike the world: not without hope (1 Thess 4:13).

Living in the West has made me realize how much the avoidance of sorrow, mourning, grieving, sadness – or maybe simply the avoidance of being unhappy – is a professional matter. People will do anything they can to avoid such uncomfortable situations at all costs. Even more, a world that believes everything is futile and does not consider the afterlife, insists on telling us that the deceased has surely gone to a better place – if not believing it, surely to end the conversation that could elicit emotions of grief. They make the point so poignant that we rarely now have bodies at what used to be called funerals, and now is very often called a celebration of life or a memorial service.

I want us today to ponder a few things we find in this chapter, such as the first instance of burial mentioned in the Bible. In addition to proper grieving and mourning of those who die in the faith, the other very important aspect we find is how much the people of God insisted on burying their dead. Unlike many of the people around them, they understood the primacy of the human body, and made sure to honor the dead, going to great lengths to bury the body in the ground, and that usually within 24 hours. After all, the 23^rd chapter of the whole Bible is a story of the effort put by Abraham to bury his wife. We know this is a very important practice throughout the Old Testament, from the patriarchs, to Moses, to the kings of Israel, the prophets, the priests, and all the people. The way the Israelites honored their dead was by going great lengths to honor the human body by burying it, whether in the ground, or in tombs hewn inside the rocky countryside with boulders covering the openings.

On the other hand, desecrating the deceased body had very serious consequences. In Judges 19 we have the story of a Levite whose unfaithful concubine goes away, but he pursues her to bring her back. On the way home, they spend the night in the city square of Gibeah where we find a story very similar to the 2 angels coming to Lot in Sodom and Gomorrah. The concubine is taken and abused all night, and dies in the morning. Her husband cuts her body into pieces and sends them to the corners of Israel. The whole nation is so appalled by this story that it unites and goes to war against the Benjamites, nearly wiping them all off. The desecration of the body was what pointed the nation to the evils that were being done by the wicked men of Gibeah and Benjamin. Later in 1 Samuel 31, we find the account of when the philistines killed Saul and his sons, mutilated them, and hung their bodies to be seen. We read that valiant men from Jabesh Gilead traveled all night into enemy territory to retrieve the bodies. We are told they burned the bodies because they had been mutilated and desecrated, then buried the bones. And I believe this is the only instance cremation is mentioned among the people of Israel, and that was only done because the bodies had been desecrated. But cremation was not looked on favorably in the Old Testament. The nations surrounding Israel were known for passing their people, even their children, through fire. The Hittites [not the same ones Abraham was living among in this chapter] were likely the most famous in terms of practicing cremation. The process of burning in the Old Testament was either a sacrificial part of worship, or a desecration of what is being burned. In fact, in Amos 2:1, we have a prophecy of judgment on Moab for having burned the king of Edom. We also know the importance of honoring the dead in the New Testament, as we see it done to Lazarus, John the Baptist, Stephen and others, but also particularly at Calvary as Christ’s body was put to rest before sundown on that good Friday.

For us today, I know this might be a bit of a controversial subject. You see, cremation is not practiced in the Middle East by any of the Abrahamic religions. In fact, it is illegal in many countries. The only allowances are typically given for people from other eastern religions, who happen to see the human body as a trap imprisoning the soul from which it must be released, and that through burning. And I think many today, especially in the West, have not had the same outlook on the importance of the human body and its burial as many of the people of faith who preceded us saw fit. It was of such importance that it became known as “Christian Burial.” I know there are many ways today to dispose of a dead body – and just think of the word being used: dispose, and how it seems to be void from the concept of honoring the body, rather pointing to it as something to get rid of, instead of a sacred thing to honor. We hear of people choosing ways other than burial often under the precept of saving money or helping nature or lack of burial plots or another well intended argument. Add to it the extreme expenses of the whole process. Hear me out: I cannot draw a clear line from Scripture and say that cremation is sinful or morally wrong. But I still think there’s something unique and missional about laying the human body to rest in the ground with the hope of resurrection of the body and the life everlasting that Jesus Christ has promised and that this same body that is currently suffering, waning, and even perishing, can be laid to rest as a seedling being planted to die one day only to resurrect later into a flourishing tree, since our bodies will one day be raised again incorruptible, glorified, redeemed with splendor, glory, and honor to be reinhabited by glorified souls that will reinhabit a new heaven and a new earth where Christ, who is risen bodily from the dead will make his dwelling place again among his people who will see him face-to-face. Just think about it this way as I invite you to consider – or maybe reconsider – how you view the body, alive or dead, and the process of burial: we are living in the kingdom of our God that is already here, though not fully manifest. But as we die and we are buried on this earth, we can be buried as people of the kingdom only to rise again in the fully consummated kingdom of our God and of his saints: planted now in the ground; raised again full of life to live eternally!

And I know that the Lord can raise any human body deceased in any form, whether drowned, or burned, or exploded, or not even found on this side of eternity; but I also know that the way we treat the human body speaks a lot to how we understand the new kingdom that has already come, and the new reality that has already started, in hope that the ways we live our lives, die our deaths, and care for the deceased by reclaiming the practice of Christian Burial, can be a missional manifestation to the world that we desire a right stewardship of these temples of the Holy Spirit that God has chosen to make his Spirit dwell in, to be the firsfruit of those who have fallen asleep, and for Christ in us to be the hope of glory.

The Firstfruit of the Promised Land

Abraham went to great lengths to find a burial spot to honor the body of his beloved. The situation in most of this chapter, at first glance, seems almost comical. Have you ever been sitting with some friends having dinner at a restaurant, and a time arrives after the dishes have been cleared to pay the bill. Then comes the halfhearted argument of: “let me get it; no, let me get it.” And so on and so forth; the conversation seems to be going back-and-forth without either party really wanting to pay the bill, but merely exercising some manners publicly. Or you could do the smarter thing, known as the bathroom trick, and go to use the bathroom while the plates are being cleared, and come back after the bill has been taken care of. You’re probably getting at what I’m trying to say. Sometimes, the offer of a gift is halfhearted and so fake that it is almost comical. 

This is what we see here between Abraham and Ephron who clearly does not want to give his land for free, but is trying to exercise some manners in public. The whole process, after all, is taking place in the town square, where most such business happened, in the sight of many eyes and the hearing of many ears (v.10). Abraham had been sojourning as a stranger in this land for roughly 62 years, having been commanded by God at age 75 to leave Haran and move to Canaan. His fame was now locally known to the point that he was referred to as a prince of God. But he was still living in tents, and not owning any part of the promised land. Follow with me to see how the promise begins being fulfilled.

Abraham asked to purchase a burial place for Sarah. The Hittites offered it to him for free, but he did not want to accept. After all, he would not have control of the burial site later on if it does not legally belong to him. He wanted outright ownership. He desired Ephron’s cave of Machpelah, and Ephron fakes wanting to give it to him as a gift, but in fact does 2 things that are not very kind: first, he tells Abraham to take the whole field, in which way Ephron would be freed from responsibility for its care, and making Abraham the one who must be responsible for all the work from now on. He is not giving him a gift: he is burdening him with the care of the whole field. Second, while faking wanting to gift it, he backhandedly states what his price is. And the price is exorbitant! 400 shekels of silver is a lot of money for a field. He is taking advantage of Abraham. To give us an idea, Jeremiah buys a field in Jer 32 for 17 shekels at a time where inflation was very high during the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem. So you can see how steep 400 shekels sound here. But by faith, Abraham wanted to bury Sarah in the land of Canaan, a land where he was still a sojourner, but a land that was promised to him and to his offspring. By faith, trusting the promise of God to inherit the land, he considered the price, though high, to be little compared to the promise to be fulfilled, and thus showing in practice his belief that it would be. And even though he believed the land will be given to him, he refused to accept the fake gift of Ephron like he refused to accept the backhanded gift of the king of Sodom in ch.14. He trusted that the Lord would give him the entire land and he waited for the promise to be fulfilled, for God himself to grant him the land as a gift, a fulfilment of the long-awaited promise. 

Just as the sacrifices in the Old Testament can be considered a downpayment, or a post-dated check, for the ultimate sacrifice of Jesus Christ, so can we consider what Abraham did here to be a downpayment for a promise that will be fully fulfilled in the fullness of time. Burying his wife in the land of Canaan was a foretaste of the reality that the whole land shall be received. This was an act of faith and trust in the Lord. And it is an act of such importance that the later patriarchs imitated in wanting to be returned to the land and be buried with their people, including Joseph, who asked for his bones to be brought out of Egypt to the land of Canaan to be put to rest there, like seedlings planted in the ground in hope of the promise of rising again to full life. Let it not be lost on us what v.17 mentions that this piece of the promised land takes the shape of a garden, with field and trees, reminding us of the garden that was in Eden, and the garden that will be again in the new Jerusalem with the tree of life in its midst.

Think with me how sobering it is to realize that the only piece of land Abraham acquired in his entire life spanning 175 years, effectively a title deed for a piece of the promised land, was a grave for his wife. And I think if we look below the surface, we will see how this is a tremendous step of faith for him to pay such a high price for a burial place knowing that the God who has promised will be faithful to his covenant and will deliver on his promise, not only the land, but the nations as an inheritance to his own son. And this act of faith from Abraham is a very important milestone in the story of God redeeming people from all nations by his Son for his Son as an inheritance. See how the promise is materializing in this Genesis story? In Ch.21, Abraham planted a tree. Here in Ch.23, he acquired a garden. Later on, the people will have a land. And we with all believers will have an eternal city and inherit the whole world!

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Brothers and sisters: Like the faithful who have gone before us, who have trusted the promises and waited in patience, we must also wait on the Lord, trusting he will fulfill his promises. And we must also count the cost of following him by faith, knowing that what we lay down for his kingdom he will reward according to his riches. His faithfulness in unfazed by our death; the death of man does not nullify the promises of God. His covenant does not perish when people do. He is faithful to fulfill his promise, keep the covenant, and raise again to eternal life those who have died in the Lord, who are laid to rest on the hope of resurrection, to receive life eternal in the kingdom of our God and of his saints.

FOR FURTHER CONSIDERATION

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/cremation-burial-choice/

https://www.desiringgod.org/interviews/is-cremation-okay-if-i-give-my-body-to-science

https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/video/russell-moore-burial-vs-cremation/